Victim’s Rights
and Impartiality of the Law (my title)
Original Title: “Background
to a soon-coming prayer campaign, Part 7”
By Dr. Stephen Jones of God’s Kingdom Ministries
Apr 06, 2017
On September 11, 2012, a group of us were led to make a
trip north to Bemidji, MN to begin the work of rebuilding the wall of (New)
Jerusalem. This came a year after we had been involved in Operation Jericho
(September 11-17, 2011), where we prayed to throw down the dividing walls of
the church.
As we drove north, the Lord revealed that there were two
stones (laws) that needed to be placed in the wall, because the walls of a city
are its boundaries, protecting the city. Hence, the walls represent their laws
(moral boundaries), which protect a city from evil or destructive people. The
two stones, or laws, were: (1) the law of victims rights, and (2) the law of
impartiality.
We prayed to lay the first stone at Bemidji, and the
second stone was laid on November 29, 2012 at a conference in Dallas, TX.
The Bemidji stone was laid on September 12, 2012, just 52
days after July 22 (7/22), which was a type of the 8th day of
Tabernacles (7/22 on the Hebrew calendar).
The Dallas stone was laid on November 29, 2012, just 52
days after October 8, which was the actual 8th day of
Tabernacles that year.
In both cases, this involved a 52-day cycle, because this
is the biblical pattern in Nehemiah 6:15,
15 So the wall was
completed on the twenty-fifth of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.
These two law-stones are keys to the entire wall of the
New Jerusalem. The law of victims rights gives all victims not only the right
to obtain justice, but also the right to extend mercy and grace. It is a law of
grace. The law of impartial judgment applies the law of God to all people
equally, without regard to their nationality, genealogy, gender, or religion.
Even the devil himself gets equal justice before the law, as we have seen so
often.
Grace in the
Law
The wisdom of the law has been hidden from the church for
many centuries. The church long ago adopted the Jewish view that the law was
devoid of grace and that law and grace were mutually exclusive principles. The
difference is that the Jews simply chose law over grace, while the church
rejected the law in favor of grace.
Both were incorrect. The law of Jubilee is the law of
grace, because it limits the power of sin (debt) and gives grace in the end,
even if a man has not yet worked off his full debt. The law of victims rights
is the right of a victim to forgive debt to whatever extent he wishes. If he is
led by the Spirit, he will know whether or not to hold a sinner accountable, as
well as how long to hold him accountable. If the victim is filled with the love
of God, he or she will ask: what is best for the sinner? As we all know when
disciplining our children, sometimes it is best for them to be held accountable
so that they learn righteousness. Other times it is best for them to forgive
and show mercy.
Yet centuries ago, Christians were taught that the law
was unmerciful, rigid, and unloving. They rejected it because it seemed so
unlike Jesus. The problem, however, was not in the law, but in our ignorance
and misapplication of the law. The justice of the law was seen as a duty,
rather than as a right. While it is true that applying the justice of the law
is a duty to the judge, it is a right to the victim. The judge
has no choice but to apply the law with impartial judgment. Once his duty has
been fulfilled, however, the victim has every right to forgive.
The misunderstanding in the church needed correction. For
this reason, in 2012 we were led to go to Bemidji and begin the spiritual work
of placing this key law into the walls of the New Jerusalem as part of the
rebuilding of the wall. While we were on the road, God revealed the law of
victim’s rights for the first time, enabling us to do this work.
Impartiality in
the Law
The next “stone” to be placed was the law of impartial
judgment, based on Exodus 23:2, 3, 6,
2 You shall not
follow the masses in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to
turn aside after a multitude in order to pervert justice; 3 nor
shall you be partial to a poor man in his dispute… 6 You
shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his
dispute.
The popular Jewish interpretation of this defines
“brother” as a fellow Jew, allowing them to pervert justice to all others. They
ignore God’s instructions in Numbers 15:15, 16,
15 As for the
assembly [kahal, “church”], there shall be one statute for you
and for the alien who sojourns with you, a perpetual statute throughout your
generations; as you are, so shall the alien be before the Lord. 16
There is to be one law and one ordinance for you and for the alien who sojourns
with you.
In other words, the Jewish idea that Jews are to follow
the whole law, while “gentiles” are limited to the so-called “Noahide laws” is
entirely bogus.
There is only one law for all who are part of the Kingdom
of God. The laws of God apply equally and impartially to all men, regardless of
their ethnicity. In fact, God’s law commands Israelites to love the aliens as
themselves. God often reminds Israel to remember how they felt when the
Egyptians treated them partially. Leviticus 19:33, 34 says,
33 When a
foreigner resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 34
The foreigner who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and
you shall love him as yourself; for you were aliens in the land of Egypt;
I am the Lord your God.
Again, God commands in Deuteronomy 10:18, 19,
18 He executes
justice for the orphan, and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving
him food and clothing. 19 So show your love for the alien, for you
were aliens in the land of Egypt.
The idea that God loves Jews and Israelites more than
gentiles is just rubbish. It has no place in a Christian community, any more
than in a Jewish community. It is a clear violation of the law and the mind of
God. Being “chosen” does not mean that God loves a chosen one more than one who
is not chosen. Neither is it right to treat men partially. All are held to the
same standard of measure according to the nature and character of God—as seen
in Jesus Christ.
Partiality in
History
The church as an institution (for the blind) stopped
teaching the law quite early. At first, it was because they rejected the Jewish
interpretation of the law—that is, the traditions of men (Matthew 15:8, 9). The
problem, however, was not the law itself, but men’s carnal understanding of the
law. But instead of correcting the misguided understanding of the law, as Jesus
did in His “Sermon on the Mount,” the church rejected the law itself. They did
not even believe Jesus’ own words in Matthew 5:17, 18, 19, where He warned
believers of rejecting the law.
For this reason, in more recent centuries, when the Age
of Exploration began in the late 1400’s, the “Christians” sailed to unknown
lands and treated others as “savages.” The term allowed them to treat others
partially, to say the least. They did not come to set men free, as Christ
commanded, but to steal their wealth and labor. They did not eradicate black
slavery, but legalized it and then defended their right to kidnap men from
Africa and ship them as slaves to other counties.
Kidnapping calls for the death penalty. Buying a slave
calls for the death penalty as well. Exodus 21:16 says,
16 And he who
kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall
surely be put to death.
In America, the native population usually was treated
very badly as well. It was not until the mid-1800’s that the Supreme Court
finally ruled that Indians were “men.” It came after a law suit in Nebraska.
Prior to that time, treaties were drawn up by fraud, because the Indians did
not realize that the term “men” did not apply to them and that the language of
legalism allowed the US government to violate treaties at will. They did not
know that the language of law is not the same as the popular language. Legal
definitions of words are different from their street usage.
Many Christians disagreed with US government policy, but
most were unaware of hidden reason for these oppressive policies. The
non-believers, along with the multitude of believers who were ignorant of the
law of impartial justice, were caught up in following the multitude to do evil.
Having an Old Covenant mindset, “Christian society” as a whole simply overran
the Indian people and blamed them when they fought back.
“Joe started it when he hit me back.”
There were Christian voices that objected, thankfully,
but their voices were drowned out in the din of lawless behavior that refused
to love one’s neighbor as one’s self. I believe it was for this reason God put
America into slavery to the Babylonian beast system a century ago. We needed a
sharp reminder of what slavery is.
Finally, the Israelis have done the same with the
Palestinian people that Americans did with the Indians. By coming to steal land
for their own benefit, they blamed the Palestinians for fighting back. It is
true that sometimes land was purchased, but it is equally true that most of the
land was stolen by violence or confiscated by unlawful means (according to
God’s law).
To their credit, many Jews objected, even as many
Christians had objected to the US government’s mistreatment of the Indians and
African slaves. Men like Robert Friedman, who wrote Zealots for Zion,
and Norman Finkelstein, who wrote Beyond Chutzpah, exposed the horrific
treatment of the Palestinians at the hands of the Zionists. Some Jewish leaders
in the early 1900’s were even killed by Zionists for their moral stand against
Zionist crimes.
Yet Christian Zionists supported these terrorists and
murderers, because they believed that the Jews were “chosen,” and that being
chosen meant privileged to treat others without love. The Palestinians
were blamed for not leaving their land. When children were killed for throwing
stones, Christians indignantly sided with the Israelis in their tanks.
In other words, Christians in America have not yet
learned the law of impartiality, even though James 2:9 reminds us,
9 But if you show
partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
The Kingdom of God will not be established by
lawlessness. Lawlessness is the stuff that worldly walls are made of. Laws
establishing partiality are stones in the walls of the Old Jerusalem, not the
New. That is one reason why God has “cast out the bondwoman and her son”
(Galatians 4:30), which is the Old Jerusalem and its followers. The Israeli
state has flawed foundations, for it was not built upon the foundation of Jesus
Christ. If we embrace the bondwoman as our spiritual mother, we are then her
sons who are to be cast out with her.
For that matter, the same can be said about the Saul
church. Saul’s reign has ended, for he was disqualified in favor of a man after
God’s own heart. Virtually all believers identify themselves with David, rather
than with Saul, but God searches the heart. If we act like Saul, we have no
right to think that we are of David’s company.
The Kingdom of God is not a Jewish state, nor even
an Israelite state. It is not based on ethnicity, but upon allegiance to
one King—Jesus Christ. We are one in Him, and there is but one law that must be
written in every heart in order to conform to His image. He is our righteous
standard, regardless of how that standard is expressed through various colors
of culture.
Our prayer campaign on April 9, then, will be based in
large part on the law of impartial justice. We will ask God to investigate this
matter and then give equal justice to all.
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