Ship of the West

I have a car I purchased brand new about 12 years ago. It has run well the entire time I have owned it. But about 6 years or so after driving it, we began to find it difficult to turn the key and start the car. Once I was stranded in a parking lot until miraculously the key turned for me and I made it home. I took this key to a hardware store and had it reproduced. It took many tries for them to make one that worked for me. I will call these keys “the second generation”. I would not say that these keys worked that well, they all took a bit of finagling but they got us by. After a while even these keys began to fail and stranded us. So we had a third generation of keys made which were also unreliable. I finally brought the matter up with a friend of mine named Roy who is a great mechanic. I had figured that something had gone wrong with the ignition thingy (the place where you insert your key) on the car. I thought for sure that the device had gotten worn out over the years and asked Roy to help.

First he went down to get a new part to put it in, but before he tore my car apart, he recommended something I had not thought of; why not go down to the dealer and have them make the original key! Well I had not even thought that such a thing was possible but I was happy to follow his recommendation. The car dealer required me to come with my driver’s license and the unique car identification (the VIN). They wrote down the numbers and located a special code. A few moments later could hear them making the keys in the back. I paid a nominal price for the keys (much cheaper than replacing what I perceived to be broken hardware in the car) and went out to the car to try them out. I found that the key fit perfectly and turned the car on as if the car was brand new! You can see my keys in the picture. The original key is so worn down that it hardly resembles the profile of the key made from the dealer.

So what is the lesson to be learned from this experience? The Kingdom of Heaven is much like my car. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. We (the Church) are as the key designed to fit perfectly into the Kingdom. It was the Father’s intent that through the interaction between the Church on Earth and Kingdom of Heaven, the Gospel could be proclaimed to all nations. But now the Kingdom has become difficult for the Church to start. Some have foolishly perceived that the fault lies with the Laws within the Kingdom. They have taught us that parts of the Kingdom are defective and that they need to be removed. Others find fault with the key (the church). They are frustrated by it! They have been stranded by it many times and are disgusted! Yet before tossing it (the church) away, they do just as I had done with my worn out keys and they make a replicas of it. But later they find that the new keys (churches) work no better than the one they replaced. Have you ever wondered why so many churches do not work?

So what must the Church do then to get His Kingdom back on the road for all nations to witness? The simple answer: Do the same thing I did with my car. Go back to the original manual that possesses original codes. Reform the Church based upon these original codes and the Church will find compatibility with His Kingdom. It was said in the book of Jude “Contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” (Jude 1:3) So when was that faith entrusted to the Saints? Was in during the early Advent era of the 1840’s? Was it during the era of the protestant reformation in the 1500’s? How about the era of the Christian church of the 1st century? Unfortunately none of these periods of reform and change produced a Church we could call the perfect key.

The faith Jude was recommending to his readers was entrusted to the Saints 3500 years ago at Mount Sinai. The faith was reconfirmed just before Israel crossed the Jordan and was maintained for one generation in the Promised Land. It was a faith so powerful that Joshua said "Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left…hold fast to YHWH your God, as you have until now. “YHWH has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you.” (Joshua 23:6-9) It was a faith that was never to be forgotten and in fact every seven years a new key was to be made. In other words, Israel was and still is commanded to gather every seven years to remember and restore their minds to the ancient faith that was once for all entrusted to them.

"At the end of every seven years, in the year for canceling debts, during the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before YHWH your God at the place he will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing. Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the aliens living in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear YHWH your God and follow carefully all the words of this law. Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear YHWH your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess." (Deuteronomy 31:10-13)