Revelation 12:13-17 says that when the dragon saw he had been cast to earth, he persecuted the woman (true Israel) who gave birth to the male child (Yeshua). The woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place. There she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. In Revelation and the End Times, we show that this symbolizes how true Israel flees from the church (i.e., replacement theology).
Hitgalut (Revelation) 12:13-17
13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child.
14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.
15 So the serpent spewed water [unclean doctrines] out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.
16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of Elohim and have the testimony of Yeshua Messiah.
The dragon is Satan, and the waters represent a flood of replacement theologies designed to deceive even the very elect. These replacement theologies include Catholic, Protestant, and independent Christianity, and Messianic Israel. These four teach a false version of Torah designed to seduce the woman, and lull her to sleep. In the Christian churches this is done by telling her “the Torah was nailed to the cross,” while in Messianic Israel this is done by teaching that we do not need to obey all of the Torah commandments.
In Nazarene Israel, we saw how the Ephraimites were scattered into the nations for disobeying Yahweh’s Torah. Once in the nations, the Ephraimites adopted pagan and Wiccan (witchcraft) worship forms. Seven hundred years later, Yahweh sent His Son Yeshua to begin a generations-long process of calling the lost Ephraimites out their captivity in the nations, but this redemption would take place over thousands of years. It is also an invisible spiritual process that is opposed by Satan and his agents in every way imaginable. Satan’s job is to provide as many stumbling blocks and false resting points as he can, so as to cause even the very elect to stop short of full 100% Torah obedience.
In Nazarene Israel we explain how Catholicism was created to unify Roman Emperor Constantine’s empire. He took the Christian variation of the original Nazarene Israelite faith and merged it with Mithraic sun worship. The result was a new faith organized around sun-worship rites and rituals, which resembles the original Nazarene Israelite faith. The reason we know it is not a good faith to practice is that it tells us we do not need to keep all of Yahweh’s Torah (which is the bridal covenant). Without keeping the whole bridal covenant, we will not be taken as His bride.
However, even though Catholicism was created as a satanic deception, Yahweh still used it to do much good. People are creatures of habit, and they do not like change (even for the better). However, the militant Roman emperors forced their subjects to practice the Catholic faith, or be put to death. Yahweh allowed this because sadly, this is what was needed to get the Ephraimites to refocus on Yeshua.
Paganism manifests in all manner of male, female, and child forms. While a full discussion of this is beyond the scope of this article, what we need to understand here is that demons come in both male and female forms. When the Ephraimites went off into paganism, they became familiar with both male and female forms of demonism. However, since sun worship is a masculine form, and since Catholicism is basically sun worship in disguise, the Catholic faith happily suppressed Wicca, and all other feminine demonic forms, including the Jezebel (basically feminist) spirit. While the Catholics carried out this suppression in brutal ways, Yahweh allowed this suppression to take place, because the Israelite faith has always been patriarchal in nature.
Wilderness | Nazarenes | Messianic Israel |
Levitical | Melchizedekian | Merchant vendors |
Organized | Organized | Disorganized |
Patriarchal | Patriarchal | Matriarchal circles |
Leadership | Leadership | “Whatever” |
Accountability | Accountability | Anarchy |
United nation | United nation | No nation |
Shepherd led | Shepherd led | Sheep led |
Mission focus | Mission focus | Fellowship focus |
Yahweh loves both men and women equally, and we are told to love our wives so much that we willingly lay down our lives for them, just as Messiah did for us.
Ephesim (Ephesians) 5:25-29
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Messiah also loved the assembly and gave Himself for her,
26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious assembly, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be set apart and without blemish.
28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.
29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Adon does the assembly.
However, while men are supposed to lay down their lives for their wives, Yahweh also wants us to form a patriarchy, because it establishes the right relationship. It puts things in the right order, so that the mission can be fulfilled.
While women are relationship oriented, men are goal oriented. Society is formed about relationships, but there has to be a purpose. Elohim tells us that our purpose is the Great Commission, and unless the men lead, while we form lots of very satisfying relationships, we never accomplish His mission.
As we explain in Fulfilling the Great Commission, the reason the Levitical order had to step down at the time of Yeshua’s sacrifice and the Melchizedekian order had to step up was that it was time for Israel to take the worship of Yeshua beyond a physical temple, and the borders of one single nation. The next phase in the redemption of mankind was to take the message of Yeshua worldwide, and form one single unified spiritual Melchizedekian empire. This kind of international unity can only take place when the people form a patriarchy, and rally behind Yahweh’s anointed leader.
The Catholics were able to form a worldwide spiritual order precisely because they were patriarchal. Their patriarchy allowed them to unify as one single family, under one single patriarch. But then, as we explain in Nazarene Israel and elsewhere, when the prophesied time, times and half a time (1,260 years) of the bride’s captivity were over, Yahweh’s people began to realize that the papacy also fulfilled all of the characteristics of the anti-messiah (a false messiah). Not wanting to worship a false messiah, the Protestants broke away from the Catholic Church, and began to study Scripture for themselves. They also began to seek a relationship with Yeshua (instead of with their priest). However, while the learning and studying was highly beneficial, there was an equally-negative downside, which was that the Protestants began to reject the idea of patriarchy itself. This began an extremely negative trend toward fragmentation and division in the body.
For convenience sake, we will reprint the same table from above.
After the Catholics came to dominate Europe, they suppressed the feminine forms of demon worship (such as Wicca, and the Jezebel spirit), while allowing other masculine forms of demonism to express themselves inside their faith. This helped re-establish a sense of unified patriarchy within the Catholic world. However, when the Protestants broke away from the Catholics, there was no longer just one single patriarchy—now there were many additional smaller patriarchies. This is as if the flood of false doctrines that spewed from the dragon’s mouth broke up from being one solid stream (Catholicism) into several smaller (but still relatively large) streams, symbolic of the mainline Protestant churches.
It was good that the Protestants began to seek out a purer form of doctrine, except that one of the points of doctrine that Scripture requires is that all Israel be united. Even in the wilderness, Israel was not 600,000 individual men on foot, or even twelve separate tribes. Rather, Israel was supposed to be united as one single patriarchal nation, properly ordered and organized into units of 10’s, 50’s, 100’s, and 1,000’s, as well as 12 tribes. We explain this in more detail in Fulfilling the Great Commission.
After a few generations of Protestants had grown up accustomed to the idea that it was not necessary for the body of Messiah to be united, we began to see separate churches, led by pastors who believed they were not accountable to any form of Melchizedekian order. Then, a few generations after that, believers began to figure they did not need any Melchizedekian leadership at all. The Sunday Christian version of this is known as the House Church movement, and the Sabbath and feasts movement is called Messianic Israel home fellowships.
Ever since the Protestant Reformation, the trend has been one of increasing in knowledge, but decreasing patriarchal organization (and the unity it brings). House churches and Messianic home fellowships make use of a matriarchal style. This allows for strong relationships, but the group size never grows—and like the Wiccans, they feel no need for any kind of patriarchal mission (such as the Great Commission).
It is not that sitting in a circle automatically makes one a witch. However, with the rejection of patriarchy, the Messianics have reverted to the Wiccan organizational style. Both parties reject any patriarchal structure or leadership. Both parties prefer a matriarchal structure without ties to any larger worldwide governing body. Neither party has a sense of mission beyond praying, fellowshipping, and establishing community. It is all about fellowshipping with their circle of friends, rather than taking the message to those outside their circle.
In Fulfilling the Great Commission we saw that the reason Yeshua wants us to unify, organize, appoint leadership, and perform His Great Commission is that He wants us to take His Good News to those who have never heard of Him. He asks us to make sacrifices, to establish the Melchizedekian priesthood worldwide. Even though Yeshua asks us to do this, the Messianics show no interest in performing the Great Commission. Ironically, they claim to have Yeshua’s Spirit—but how can they have Yeshua’s Spirit, if it does not lead them to want to do what Yeshua wants?
When one asks the Messianics why they don’t want to do what Yeshua asks, they will give reasons why they believe the Great Commission does not apply to them. This is the same kind of denial Sunday Christians manifest when presented with Scripture verses that tell us to keep the Sabbath (and not Sunday). Both parties tell us why they do not believe these passages apply to them.
While the Messianics understand the need to keep the Sabbath, they cannot see the need to unify, organize, appoint leadership, and fulfill the Great Commission. Some of them even believe they are superior to the Christians, because they have traded patriarchy on the wrong days for matriarchy on the right days—and yet both of these are bad. Both of them represent satanic replacement theologies. Both of them are part of Satan’s flood, designed to sweep the bride away into false worship.
If we turn the above chart into a line diagram, we can see how Messianic Israel is just the latest in a series of satanic replacement theologies.
Here is the same picture, rotated 90 degrees. Instead of Yeshua being the root, the root is the satanic papacy, while the fruits of the tree are all replacement theology.
In previous articles we showed how Messianic Israel is a transitional faith. The Messianics call themselves Israelites, and they claim to keep the Torah. However, they behave a lot more like the Wiccans.
Wilderness | Nazarenes | Messianic Israel |
Levitical | Melchizedekian | Merchant vendors |
Organized | Organized | Disorganized |
Patriarchal | Patriarchal | Matriarchal circles |
Leadership | Leadership | “Whatever” |
Accountability | Accountability | Anarchy |
United nation | United nation | No nation |
Shepherd led | Shepherd led | Sheep led |
Mission focus | Mission focus | Fellowship focus |
The Messianics reject any part of the Torah requiring patriarchal orientation, or mission fulfillment. Rather than focusing on doing what Yeshua asks, their focus is all about fellowship. If they are His bride at all, they are a very selfish, immature bride. Their “worship” is all about them.
Since the Messianics are still effectively in the church, and since they have rejected patriarchy, we should expect to see numerous female demons in Messianic Israel—and we do see this. Numerous commentators have remarked on how prevalent the Jezebel spirit is in Messianic circles. For that reason, if we had to say which church of Revelation the Messianics are most closely associated with, we might choose Thyatira.
While Thyatira is devoted and displays good works, she nonetheless commits “sexual immorality” with Jezebel (verse 20). Because this is a vision, the sexual immorality is probably spiritual sexual immorality (i.e., idolatry, which is mixed worship). Mixed worship is an apt description of matriarchal Messianism.
Hitgalut (Revelation) 2:18-23
18 “And to the messenger of the assembly in Thyatira write, ‘These things says the Son of Elohim, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass:
19 “I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first.
20 Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.
21 And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.
22 Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.
23 I will kill her children with death, and all the assemblies shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.”’”
Verse 22 says that those who commit adultery (mixed worship) with Jezebel will suffer great tribulation. In verse 23, Yeshua says He will kill Jezebel’s children with death. This is a serious warning. The Messianics may believe they deserve a great reward for having rejected patriarchy on the wrong feast days in favor of matriarchy on the right feast days, but let us be realistic here—what kind of reward can we expect for failing to carry out Yeshua’s Great Commission, organizing like witches, and saying we keep Yahweh’s Torah, when in fact we only pick and choose which parts of His Torah we want to keep?
It is very difficult for believers to come out of the church system into the transitional Messianic faith, only to realize that Messianic Israel is still part of the church. We have left family and friends (spiritually, if not physically), to discover that we have only just begun a never-ending journey of spiritual growth. However, if that is the reality, would we rather know the truth, or would we rather be lulled to sleep by the serpent, only to wake up on Judgment Day to discover (too late) that we failed to come all the way out of the church?
Sometimes people ask what they should do if they belong to a Messianic home group, and there is no Nazarene Israel fellowship nearby? There are three things to do. One is to learn more about what Yeshua wants, so we can understand His will for us. Another is to pray, and ask Yahweh to lead us into His perfect will. And then we need to listen for His voice telling us what to do—for it is only by following His voice that we can be in alignment with His perfect will.
For those desiring to know more about the patriarchal Melchizedekian order that Yeshua wants us to build for Him, please see Fulfilling the Great Commission.