The Formation of Christianity

By Richard Govier

Was Jesus a racist? Jesus did say, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 10:5-6 RSV). The Bible does teach a divine election that has come through the descendants of Abraham. But this divine election was designed to bring a "blessing" to the nations and not the exaltation of a single nation over another. What we must determine here is whether Jesus, Himself, weighed in on the side of the law, or whether He regarded Himself the fulfillment of the law. Or do we see a reboot?

Richard O. Govier (1928-2018) was a Protestant pastor and missionary and travelled the world in that capacity. He planted a number of churches as well as training pastors who served in Brazil, Chile, Argentina and across the United States.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Govier
• Release date: Jul 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463276211

Richard Govier

Richard O. Govier (1928-2018) was a Protestant pastor and missionary and travelled the world in that capacity. He planted a number of churches as well as training pastors who served in Brazil, Chile, Argentina and across the United States.After his marriage to his lifetime sweetheart, Christine Ann Golfis, at the Bethesda Missionary College in Portland, Oregon, he attended extension classes at Pierce College and the Portland State college. Touched by the Latter Rain revival that began in the Northwest, the call of God rested continually on their hearts and they were forever seeking means of preaching the Gospel to their generation. They bought a small trailer and began an evangelistic trek across the United States, preaching in small churches that were open to the work and moving of the Holy Spirit. They criss-crossed the United States from Los Angeles to New York and finally settled down in Los Angeles where they both got jobs and attended a church in Long Beach, California. While serving in that church their son, Jeffrey Lee, was born on November 4, 1963.God had spoken through prophetic words that they would be going to a land whose language they would not understand. Going through a dry period in their lives, Richard loaded up a small tent and made a trip to Mount Palomar, to wait on God. After a week of prayer and fasting, the Holy Spirit spoke to his heart that it was time to fulfill the call to a foreign land. Richard, Christine, and Jeff, set out for Brazil. They had no financial support for this until the night they boarded the ship. God sent a local Christian businessman who committed himself to their support for two years, just enough time to attend language school.It was while attending the Brazilian language school that a missionary visited and introduced Richard to one of Brazil's most notable guitar players, who had recently converted to Christianity. Richard played with him on the banjo and the two began a ministry together that took them to Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Richard taught pastors in afternoon meetings, while accompanying his Brazilian friend in large city-wide evangelistic campaigns in the evenings.After serving for ten years in South America, Richard and Christine returned to the United States, primarily to get Jeff into an English-speaking school. Richard pastored churches in York, Pennsylvania, and later in Brooksville, New Jersey. The family eventually moved to Florida where Richard went to work for Piper Aircraft and Page Avjet.Richard loved studying the word of God and, in his retirement years, wrote over thirty books about the unfolding revelations of God in human history. His son, Jeff, published these books one year after his father passed away.

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THE FORMATION OF CHRISTIANITY

Timelines and Bloodlines

Richard O. Govier

Copyright © 2019 by Jeff Govier

Bible quotations unless otherwise identified are taken from

the King James Version with emendations by the author.

Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible®,

Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995

by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked RSV are taken from The Holy Bible : Revised Standard Version

Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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After reading this book and finding it of value to you, please consider sending a small donation for the the costs of advertising my father's work. Send all donations either by Paypal account name [e-mail] or by mail to:

Jeff Govier, 5511 Lorraine St., Lakeland, FL 33810.

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Divine Election

Four Hundred Years of Bondage

The Giving of the Law

The Temple Era

The Era of Jesus Christ

The Mission of the Twelve Apostles

The Modern Era

About the Author

Introduction

Ever since the creation of the State of Israel by the Zionist Movement in 1948 there has been a revival of certain ideas that had emerged during the founding of the Christian Church. These ideas, in the main, were being propagated by the Ebionite Movement and the Nazarene Movement of the 1st Century. Both of these movements had a common belief in Jesus as the Messiah, differing little from the Messianic Jewish movement of today. The only difference between the two movements was the Ebionite's believed that Jesus was only a righteous man, not the Son of God, while the Nazarene Movement believed that Jesus was the Son of God. The Apostle James, and brother of Jesus, were clearly of this persuasion and became the first bishop of the church of Jerusalem.

But both movements saw themselves as an extension, or a branch of Judaism, therefore subject to the Law of Moses. Both movements held that there was one standard for the Jew, and another for the Gentile, thereby implying that the Jew had privileges with God that no other peoples of the earth had.

Was Jesus in accord with this idea? In other words, was Jesus a racist? Jesus did say, after calling the Twelve, Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:5-6 RSV).

The Bible does teach a divine election that has come through the descendants of Abraham. But this divine election was designed to bring a blessing to the nations and not the exaltation of a single nation over another. Such a concept as the latter has brought a curse and not a blessing to the nations. Nationalism (which is really strong feelings about one's own race or country) has led to Imperialism, and Imperialism leads to Militarism.

First of all, we must flat-out recognize God's sovereignty over His creation. Who can say to the potter, why have you made me thus? God is the one that produces life and He fashions it according to His own purpose. Observe, for instance, the thousands of forms of plant and animal life on this planet. Was this just by accident, or did God design it that way? If God designed it that way, then is it not also possible that He has also chosen a certain branch of the Semitic family of nations to develop into a higher order of moral understanding because of the divine law given to them at Sinai? One cannot study the Old Testament scriptures without seeing a progressive order, an evolution of a higher order of man that will eventually come forth in God's Image.

But it has been the nature of mutant forms of life that in their beginning they were progressing, and then later adapted themselves to the environment around them and died. They no longer serve the creative purpose of God and are left behind as a mere forerunners and not a living reality. I therefore view with disdain attempts to build altars to the past. The Nazarene and Ebionite heresy of the 1st Century was nothing more than an attempt to recapture the glory of the past and reestablish Jews as a chosen race. Even the Apostle James was not entirely free from this tendency.

Only the Apostle Paul was willing to break new ground and declare Christianity as a new beginning. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and bestows his riches upon all who call upon him. For, every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:12-13). In Paul's gospel, differences of race, class, or gender were no longer an option, for all were one in Christ. He was therefore stigmatized by some as an apostate Jew, and by others as not being Jewish at all, while others disputed the claim by Paul that he had seen Jesus in a vision on his way to Damascus. Such accusations are pointless in the light of what Paul suffered in his service to Christ (he had once been a zealous defender of the Jewish faith).

What we must determine here is whether Jesus, Himself, weighed in on the side of the law, or whether He regarded Himself the fulfillment of the law. Or do we see a reboot? He was, indeed, a new beginning, adding credence to the teaching of the Apostle Paul. If Paul was an apostate Jew, as some claimed he was, then why did Jesus appear to him in a vision commissioning him to preach the gospel? If God had in mind the continuation of the legal system of the law, then He already had plenty of candidates in the Jews of the Jerusalem church. It was to the credit of James that he saw the Nazarene Movement, of which he was a part, as the raising up again of the Tabernacle of David, and not the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle of Moses (Acts 15:13-14). The Tabernacle of David allowed for the free access of all Israel to the Ark of God, while the Tabernacle of Moses allowed access only through the mediation of a priest. James had apparently gone far enough to see the mediating sacrifice of Jesus as completing the old order of animal sacrifices, but he was still not willing to accept the Gentile on an equal footing with the Jew.

It was the Apostle Paul who destroyed the partition wall (which is one of the features of Herod's Temple) between Jew and Gentile and saw the Gentile on an equal footing with the Jew in his relationship to God. We have no objective here to minimize what part Israel has played in the purpose of God. Neither do we have any intention of minimizing what has been written in the laws of Moses. When Paul asked the question, Then what advantage has the Jew? he answered his own question by saying, Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews are entrusted with the oracles of God (Romans 3:1-2 RSV). The one single factor that made Israel different from other people is that to them were given the oracles of God. The Law of Moses is an oracle of God. So are the pronouncements of the prophets. Jews have preserved, through the ages, the holy scriptures that are a light to every man, both Jew and Gentile.

We owe to these Old Covenant people (not necessarily their race) gratitude for the preservation of the scriptures. It was not just the Hebrews that left Egypt to establish a new nation based on the law of Moses, but it was also the mixed multitude that went with them (Exodus 12:37). If race were the key issue here, then how do you account for this mixed multitude that doubtless intermarried with the Hebrews? God was undoubtedly interested in the preservation of the purity of the law, which was based on the concept of monotheism, and not upon a purity of race, otherwise He would have forbid this mixing of the Hebrews with other races from the very beginning. But the multitude that left Egypt with the Hebrews must have included proselytes to the God of Abraham serving the same God as the Hebrews.

It is our objective to show that the covenant made to Abraham was never intended to be the property of one race, or one culture, but rather through the descendants of Abraham, a seed would come that would be a blessing to all nations. When that descendant of Abraham appeared, He made a New Covenant to all people regardless of race. A return to the narrow idea based on racial descendants is not only an illusion that never existed, but is pure heresy. It is our objective to show that the Abraham clan became a mixture of race from the very beginning. The idea of separation from the surrounding tribes was meant to preserve Monotheism and not necessarily a purity of race. Otherwise the patriarchs would have been in error in having children by their concubines. The attempt by the early patriarchs to marry back into their own kin was meant to preserve their heritage and the idea of One God. But the intermarriage between the races that occurred with the sons of Jacob thoroughly mixed the gene pool of the House of Jacob before they ever went into Egypt. If God had not taken His elect people into Egypt to suffer humiliation at the hands of foreigners, perhaps Monotheism would never have survived and the promise made to Abraham would never have been fulfilled.

CHAPTER I

DIVINE ELECTION

According to the Bible there was an important divine election of Noah when God chose him as the only survivor of the Flood. That selection was apparently due to Noah's faithfulness to God (Genesis 6:8). Was Noah's faithfulness responsible for his selection or was God's election responsible for Noah's faithfulness? The Bible does say that God rewards those who seek him (Hebrews 11:6) but on the other hand it says it depends not upon man's will or exertion, but upon God's mercy (Romans 9:16). Predestination has always been a controversial subject for the Church, but when all is said and done, God, in His foreknowledge, knows those who are His even before they are born.

The prophecy that Noah gave to his three sons was inspired by God, and the selection of Shem as the bearer of God's blessing to the human race was according to God's foreknowledge (Genesis 9:26). It was through Shem's descendants that Abraham came and though Shem's descendants produced a multitude, it was only through one man that God's blessing to the nations continued. All of Shem's descendants (the Elamites, the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the Lydians, and Arameans) apparently succumbed to the idolatrous practices of Nimrod who dominated the plains of Shinar. If there were any pockets left of the original belief in the God of Noah, then perhaps it was in the House of Noah, himself, who survived the Flood by 350 years. The Book of Jasher tells us all that generation was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and they thus made every man his god, but they forsook the Lord who had created them. And then it says: And there was not a man found in those days in the whole earth, who knew the Lord (for they served each man his own god) except Noah and his household, and all those who were under his counsel knew the Lord in those days (Jasher 9:9-10).

After the prophecy of Noah given to his sons, there is little in scripture about his remaining history. Yet Noah lived on and must have maintained a community of believers who still believed in the One God Jehovah. Though the other sons of Noah moved on with their lives, Shem apparently stayed on with his father Noah until he died, for we read in verse 5 that Abram had to flee from the idolatry of his own family and take refuge in the house of Noah and of Shem. It says that Abram stayed in Noah's house for 39 years and Noah and his son Shem taught him (verse 6).

A. Abraham

Abraham was not just a random choice of God. The Word of God had come down from Enoch to Noah, and then from Noah to Shem, and then to Abraham. So Divine Election had something to do with the hearing of the Word of God, not just simple heredity. Something in Abram's nature caused him to question his father's religion. That questioning resulted in Abram finding the true God. Was this just a coincidence, or did God have something to do with it? The Bible says: Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee; and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3). This shows that Abram had not only found God, but the prophetic mantle that had rested on his ancestors now rested on him.

1. Divine Election Requires Responsibility

The mantle of the Holy Spirit falling on Abram required separation from his kindred and all that he had known in the past. Obedience to the Word of God became the key issue in Abram's life. Abram was quick to obey, and that is why God chose him as the key player in His Divine Plan. Being introduced to the Word of God is not enough. The main thing is obedience. When God asked Abram to get out from among his kindred and go to another land, he obeyed. When God asked him to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice, he obeyed. So Abraham's obedience played a major role in his election.

2. Shem - The Melchizedek of Salem

As for Shem, father of the Semitic Race, we hear no more about him until he appears again in the land of the Canaanites. Jewish targums agree that it was Shem who appeared as Melchizedek, Priest and King of Salem and to whom Abraham paid tithe (Genesis 14:20). If Shem had migrated to Canaan sometime after Noah's death, then he must have taken a multitude of his followers with him for he was called the King of Salem (verse 18) and at the same time Priest of the most high God. The Book of Jasher also confirms that the Melchizedek of Salem was, in fact, Shem who he calls Adonizedek instead of Melchizedek as in the Bible (Jasher 16:11-12). There is a strong possibility that Shem had preceded Abraham to Canaan and had already established himself in Salem (Jerusalem). So Jerusalem has long been considered a holy spot long before David conquered the stronghold of the Jebusites on Mount Zion and called it The City of David.

Prophetically, however, Shem was marking the spot on earth where the Savior of the world was to suffer and die for the sins of the world. In that sense that spot on earth is sacred for it is the spot where Jesus died and rose again.

B. The Abraham Promise Through Isaac

The Word of the Lord given to Abraham is spelled out for us in Genesis 12. God promises to bless Abram and make of his descendants a great nation. God not only promises to bless Abram, but to make of him a blessing. Then the Lord adds, in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed (Genesis 12:3).

From the very beginning the promise made to Abraham was not necessarily a national movement designed to bless just the descendants of Abraham. Instead, Abraham and his descendants would be the vehicle through which that blessing would come to the nations of the world. This promise to Abraham was fulfilled in the coming of the Son of God (the seed) for it was through Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, that this blessing came (see His genealogy in Matthew 1). The Apostle Paul makes it clear in his writings that it was not seeds as of many, but as of one (Galatians 3:16), indicating that it was not the natural descendants of Abraham that were counted as the blessing, but one eternal seed which was Christ. Yet the religious Jews of that time prided themselves in being descendants of Abraham as though their natural lineage made them heirs of God. In their opinion Eternal Salvation rested on race, and not grace.

1. Abram and the Promise of an Heir

After Melchizedek came forth with bread and wine to refresh Abram and his servants, the Bible says, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward (Genesis 15:1). These words of encouragement from God were all well and good, but Abram was concerned about how these promises could come to pass seeing that Sarai his wife was barren. So Abram answered the Lord and said: Lord God, what will thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?

Eliezer was a Hebrew. But Abram suggested to God that Eliezer be his heir. So the Word of the Lord came to Abram saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir (verse 4). Then God brought Abram out under the starry night and said to him if thou be able to number them… so shall thy seed be (verse 5). God talked to Abram about something that looked impossible. Not only was Sarai his wife barren, but both of them were well up in years, well past the age of having children. But Abram believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness (verse 6).

This was Paul's argument to the Jews: If God declared Abram righteous on the basis of him believing the Word of the Lord, then believing God is the key to justification before God, and not the works of the law and circumcision. He pointed out that Abram had received this justification before he received circumcision or the giving of the Law (Romans 4:10-11). This very issue was at the crux of the Ebonite-Nazarene movements of the 1st Century and was the issue that arose in the 1st Jerusalem Council of the Church. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect… As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations) before him when he believed, even God, who quickened the dead, and called those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be (Romans 4:14, 17, 18).

Abram's faith had to come to grips with Sarai's barrenness and their age. In other words, he had to believe in a miracle. If God had indeed spoken to him about an heir that would come from his own body, then he had to believe it if he were to continue in his relationship with God. God