The purpose of this article is to address a number of concerns raised by an article entitled, “Doctrines of Demons,” by Rick Joyner, Robin McMillan, and Matt Peterson (hereafter collectively called “Joyner”).

Numerous friends and supporters have asked for our opinion about this article, which can be found at www.MorningStarMinistries.org

We agree with several of Joyner’s points and disagree with others. Nonetheless, we believe the letter can be used by the Father to help bring balance back into the Body of Messiah on a few key points.

All About the Messiah

Joyner’s article largely deals with legalism, Torah observance, and with some people who believe they are part of the “lost tribes” of Israel. He sums up his critique by saying, “Basically it is ‘all about Jesus.’ We must reject anything which tries to eclipse Him as the only One who is the Way, the Truth, and our Life.”

We agree that it is all about Christ Jesus, or Messiah Yeshua.

Yeshua Himself said, “I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself" (John 12:32). While this verse speaks of Messiah Yeshua being lifted up on the cross/tree, it also is true that, if we lift up anything above Him, if in our hearts we revere something or someone else above Him, we will not be drawn to Him, but will instead be drawn away.

Yeshua is all, and in all. Our true identity is found in Him and not in any doctrines of men or of demons.

“There are many false doctrines sweeping through the church today,” Joyner writes, then he complains that they are being used to “deceive thousands.”

This is true. It also is true that many of these ideas are rooted in the same deceptions that were used to seduce the First Century church, and that they make their inroads through very subtle and seemingly innocent ways. However, as anyone who has read anything about church history knows, other deceptions crept into the church in later years, and we do not want to be entrapped by those errors either.

The church has a sad history of being anti-Semitic and anti-Law. We strongly stand against that. We love our Jewish brothers and we love the Law of our Messiah.

Joyner’s letter is written with a traditional church view of the Law, meaning the Law has been entirely eliminated.

While all must agree that we can no longer fulfill the Mosaic law with its requirements for sacrifices, we are now definitely under the “Law of Messiah” (1 Cor 9:21).

We will later address the issue of how that Law is defined, but for now note that Joyner writes, “The Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim 4:1). He confesses that he missed it, saying, “Because these doctrines are so blatantly contrary to Scripture, we did not think that they had a chance to succeed in the church. We were wrong, and have been shocked as we have seen some of the most seemingly solid, faithful believers carried away with these deceptions. Most quickly become isolated and then are deceived to the point of even denying the cross and return to various forms of legalism for righteousness and even the Law of Moses, just as the Scripture above warns we would see in the last days.”

Errant Doctrines of Concern

We too have seen a rise in latter-day deceptions and have repeatedly warned about them. For example we recently reproduced an article from the Jerusalem Report Magazine entitled, “The Other Side of Evangelism.” This article from a Jewish magazine tells of more than two hundred thousand converts to Judaism. They write that many are denying Jesus and joining the Jewish faith, and they believe the trend has much to do with the efforts of Messianic Judaism.

(See the Messianic Israel Herald Magazine, “Ephraim and Judah - Israel Revealed,” V 3, I 1:

This trend concerns us greatly. We feel it is part of a latter-day apostasy that Paul warned of, for we are now seeing many fall away from believing in redemption through the Messiah and converting to Judaism (2 Th 2:3).

The Problem of Not Understanding

Joyner is concerned that Believers are being led away from the church by false doctrines.

It is true that some are leaving the church, and the exodus will not stop until she addresses the true source of the problem.

The problem is that the Church at large does not understand about all Israel. They do not realize that the Father now wants to make the two branches of Israel one in His hand (Eze 37:15-28). They are therefore suffering from a flow of defectors.

Jewish Law”

Joyner sees the problem differently. He puts much emphasis on Believers being freed from the dietary laws of Moses. He writes, “One doctrine that is seeking to make inroads into the church requires Christians to eat in accordance with the Jewish law, which declares that if one does not do so they are not only in disobedience to God, but are opening themselves up to demons. Some even go so far as to say that those who do not comply with these dietary laws cannot be healed by the Lord, and are even in jeopardy of losing their salvation.”

We recognize that there are some troublesome excesses in the Messianic movement, but Joyner’s analysis itself contains some errors. His misnomer is actually one of the problems that must be uprooted if we are to move on.

• Truth: We are not categorically saved or healed based on what we eat or do not eat. But not all edible things are good for us.
• Error: It is inaccurate to call the Father’s instructions to His people, “Jewish law.” We believe that this attitude is part of what is causing the problem now before us.

The roots of our faith are not “Jewish.” To be precise, our roots are “Israelite.” Judah was a son of Jacob/Israel. Jacob had twelve sons, one of whom was called “Judah,” from his name comes the diminutive “Jew.” The roots of our Scriptural faith are first Abrahamic, or Hebraic, then Israelite. After that comes brother Judah and the faith fostered by those of Judaism.

After Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, comes the twelve tribes, then their division into two houses: Ephraim/Israel and Judah. Overlooking this simple truth is wounding the church. It is causing her to miss the Father’s divine plan for “both the houses of Israel (Isa 8:14; John 2:19-22).

Why the Exodus from the Church?

Joyner speaks against the anti-Christian sentiments of many who have left the church. We too have spoken against this mean-spirited attitude and have even experienced division in our own camp over it.

But why the exodus? What are they upset about and where are they going?

With the rise of the Messianic movement, many Christians began to see that there was something more to their faith than the fundamental truths of repentance from dead works, faith toward God, instruction about washings (baptisms), laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. They wanted to press on, even as they are encouraged to do in Hebrews 6:1-3.

These people began to see the beauty of Shabbat, the joy of the feasts of Israel, and the benefits that come from properly honoring the Father’s commandments.

The Messianic movement taught these things while most of the church denied them.

Hungry Believers began to search for the truth in these matters. However, most sources of information on the topic are Jewish, and as everyone knows, “the victors write history.” It is Judah who has tried to honor the Sabbath, feasts, and principles of Torah. They are the ones who have tended to these things, thus Messianic understanding in these areas tends to be very “Jewish” in nature.

To bring more balance to these areas, we suggest that more non-Jewish Believers, or “Ephraimites,‘ as we have chosen to call them, should likewise address these issues, just as we have done in the book Israel’s Feasts and their Fullness.

Flawed Theories

Adding to the difficulty is the fact that many people have come up with various flawed theories to try to explain “Jews and Gentiles.”

• The church has replaced Israel
• The church and Israel are separate entities
• The church is Spiritual Israel and the Jewish people are physical Israel

  Each of these errant ideas are fatally flawed.

• Our God is not through with the Jew. He did not replace her with the church. He says He will possess Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. He loves Judah and so should we (Zec 2:12; 1 Ki 11:13; Rom 11:28). But we also must realize that the Holy One has not discarded the church...
• The church is not separate from Israel. She is brought nigh to the commonwealth of Israel and shares citizenship in that called out nation (Eph 2:11-22). Apart from Israel the church has no covenant. Messiah Yeshua made His promised New Covenant with the sons of Israel sitting around His Passover table (Jer 31:31-33; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25; 2 Cor 3:6; Heb 8:8; 8:13; 9:15; 12:24).

  One joins that covenant people or one has no New Covenant.

• Although it is true that in Israel some are thought to be more “spiritual” than others, we cannot rightly divide Israel along physical and spiritual lines. All Israel is called to worship the Father in “spirit and truth,” and every Believer is a physical being (John 4:23). Everyone descends from someone. Many are now beginning to realize that they might well descend from the faithful Jewish Believers of the Early Church, or perhaps that they are the child of a Jewish person who long ago hid in the church to escape persecution, or that they just might be one of those promised myriads often called the “lost tribes.” (Lost Tribes: see Hosea 1-2.)

The Fullness of the Gentiles—The Melo HaGoyim

Those of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, also known as “Ephraim,” were destined to become a ”melo hagoyim,” a “fullness of the Gentile Nations” (Gen 48:19; Rom 11:25). They were to become great in number because that is the essence of the Father’s promise to Abraham. He swore that He would greatly multiply Abraham’s physical seed, and that they would be as myriads for number. Abraham considered his old body, as well as the body of his aged wife, yet he believed the Holy One would keep that promise (Gen 15:1-6; 17:1-6; Rom 4:19-22).

While others who are not related to Abraham certainly may be added to these promised numbers, we must not lose sight of the fact that Abraham was to father myriads of physical children who would share his faith in the Holy One. They would know salvation through faith in the Only Begotten Son, the Sacrificed Lamb of God.

This same promise of multiplication of their descendants was passed from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob and then to the son of Joseph—it was passed to Ephraim (see Gen 26:3-4; 24:60; 28:3-4; 48:19; 1 Chr 5:1-2; 16:16-17; Heb 11:9,39-40; Eze 37:15-28).

Though the people of Ephraim were scattered among every nation, tribe, and tongue, though they were punished, and for a season would be “not a people,“ the day would come when their punishment would come to an end (Hosea 1-2; 8:8; Amos 9:9; Eze 4:3,6. See also Restoring Israel’s Kingdom by Angus Wootten).

Although He would scatter them, the Father also made a promise to them: “Yet the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered; and in the place where it is said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ it will be said to them, ‘You are the sons of the living God’” (Hosea 1:10; see Romans 9:26).

Those once lost Israelites are now known as the “sons of the Living God. ” They are “Ephraimites,” if you will. The Body of Messiah is most likely comprised principally of these non-Jewish Believers.

The Truth Is Out

Too many people now have some understanding of the basic truth about the two houses of Israel for anyone to stop its growth. Our job now is to see that the truth is properly cultivated.

Denying the validity of the eternal truths of Torah will not stop the growth of the Messianic movement. Claiming that the Torah, the feasts, and Shabbat are “Jewish,” or that they have been done away with, will only cost the church more members, more defection.

The Word tells us that the Law of Messiah is to be written on our hearts (Jer 31:31-33; Heb 8:8-12; 10:16; Mat 5:17; John 10:30).

Those who are hungry for the truth will seek for it, and the wicked shepherds will herd them into bondage—if we allow it to happen!

It is Time for Revival... It is Time for a True Renaissance

Again, many are leaving the church, and to stem the tide she must reexamine, even repent of, some of her doctrines.

Such repentance will surely bring the revival for which so many Believers have prayed. It will bring a renaissance.

Renaissance speaks of enthusiastic and vigorous activity distinguished by a revival of interest in the past. A true renaissance is about rebirth, about an imaginative response to broader horizons. It is characterized by freshness, zest, productivity, and renewal of life.

Multiplied thousands of Believers in Messiah Yeshua, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, are now experiencing a renaissance. Their faith is being renewed. They are being stirred. They are seeing “Israel” in a new light. Believers around the world are finally seeing the truth about both the houses of Israel. They are seeing Judah and Ephraim.

The God of Israel is once more doing a new thing in the earth, and we do not want to be found working against His mighty hand. Instead, we want to be a people who work toward the full restoration of the whole house of Israel.

Mistakes are Found in Every Movement

Legalism is truly a doctrine of demons and we stand against it. In this point we agree with Joyner:

“There can be no compromise with the one essential truth—any doctrine that attempts to displace the cross of Jesus as the atonement for sin and the only source of righteousness, is a heresy of the most dangerous kind. As the Scripture warns, this can actually sever us from Christ.”

We also agree that some in the Messianic movement seem to be ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seek instead to establish their own.

They also seek converts so they can put them in bondage to themselves, so they will feel lifted up (Rom 10:3-4; Gal 4:17).

But self-serving excesses are found in every movement, including the Faith movement, the Charismatic movement, and the Prophecy movement, among others.

Misguided people are found in all faiths. We must not deny truth because of the aberrant behavior of some.

We Cannot Keep the Whole Law

Joyner points out that if one is guilty of not keeping a single commandment, they are guilty of breaking the whole Law (Gal 5:3). And that “modern Judaizers blatantly pick and choose the parts of the Law that they think should be kept today and disregard the rest.” As Joyner says, “deception is deceptive.” We agree.

As to keeping the Law, some interesting questions are posed in Joyner’s paper:

“If we adhered to the Law of Moses today how many of us would have had to kill our own children? Indeed, if our parents had held to this Law, how many of us would be here now...? How many...would never have made it through the [punishment for] adultery? How...could anyone escape the kind of judgment the Law brings when the simple act of picking up sticks on the Sabbath resulted in death by stoning?”

Again, we agree. If we truly followed the Law we would all be dead men.

Apart from the grace and mercy of Messiah Yeshua we would all be dead in our trespasses, for the wages of sin is death. That is why Paul says we were “made to die to the Law through the body of Messiah, so that we might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God” (Rom 6:23; 7:4).

We must approach the laws of Torah as if we were dead. We are people who have already been tried, found guilty, and put to death for our infractions.

That is the bad news.

The good news is that in the Messiah we are raised in the newness of life. Based on our faith in Messiah Yeshua we live again. We choose to serve with all our hearts the One who found us guilty in the first place, yet gives us the gift of eternal life!

Newness of Life, Law, and Love

We are called to serve in the newness of life. As born-again Believers, we are called to walk in the wisdom of Torah, because the essence of the New Covenant is that the Father will write His law of love on our hearts (Jer 31:31-33; Heb 8:10; 10:16).

If we look to the Law for our salvation, we are deceived. If we try to keep the Law to establish our righteousness, we must keep the whole Law, we must return to the Mosaic system of sacrifice, and we cannot do that. The Father allowed the Temple to be destroyed after His Son paid the price for us (1 Pet 1:18-19).

We cannot offer animal sacrifices as the Law demands.

Moreover, we must not errantly put confidence in our flesh, in our ability to supposedly “keep the Law.” Instead, we must glory in the Messiah and walk by His Spirit (Phil 3:3; Rom 8:1-4).

We are to walk as our Messiah walked, we are to emulate Him.

However, Yeshua kept every commandment. He even said of the Law: “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill” (Mat 5:17).

Yeshua came to satisfy the sacrificial requirements of the Law for the faithful, and He satisfied them once and for all (Rom 6:10; Heb 7:27; 9:12; 10:10;1 Pet 3:18; Jude 1:3).

Wisdom and the Law

Even though Yeshua satisfied the sacrificial requirements, that act did not annul or abolish the wisdom found in Torah. Wisdom continues to be wisdom. The Father said of His Book of Instructions, “Keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples” (Deu 4:6). He told us to “keep every commandment...so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land” (Deu 11:8).

We want to be wise. We want to be strong. And we look to the Torah for wisdom.

We are told that Yeshua came to fulfill, to fully preach, to perfect, the Law (see “fulfill,” Strong’s # G4134).

To know how to honor Torah—we look to Yeshua. He kept the law, yet He is the epitome of mercy.

When asked about the Law, Yeshua said it could be summed up in one word: Love (Mat 22:36-40). Love is the foundation of God’s Law, because He is love (1 John 4:8).

The Law and Wrong Motives

• We cannot gain eternal life by keeping the Law of Moses. We are made righteous through faith in the Blood of Messiah Yeshua. In Him we gain life eternal.
• The Father does not want us to be obedient because we feel it is "mandated."

  He is not looking for puppets or robots. He wants all obedience to be born from a heart of love for Him. He wants us to love Him and His ways. He wants us to choose Him.

• The Father’s laws better our lives. However, we must realize that His children can be in various stages of learning about His ways. And we must not try to force on others the truths being revealed to us. Different people realize different things at different times.
• We must never be condescending toward those who do not yet see what we see. Yeshua did not treat us that way. Yet He surely knows far more than we do.

  He comes in mercy.
  He lifts us up.
  He nurtures us.
  And we must do the same.

• It is the job of the Holy Spirit to convict people of sin. We must walk in what we know to be truth, and at the same time show lovingkindness to others. That is the example our Messiah set for us and we must follow it.

For The Record

So that everyone might know where we stand on certain issues, we would like to reaffirm and declare the following:

• We do not embrace man-made laws or errant interpretations of Torah. These cause people to stumble. However, we do choose to honor Torah’s wisdom (Deut 4:5-6; 11:8-9; 1 Ki 2:3; Psa 119:1-6; Lev 18:5; Eze 20:11; Matt 19:17; 5:17-18; 5:20-24; 22:36-40; 23:13; 10:25-28; 16:17; 11:52.)
• We do not believe in being mean-spirited to those who do not yet see what we see. We are to be merciful. James 2:13: For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
• We believe that anyone on the face of the earth could possibly be a descendant of Abraham. However, that does not mean that we think they should be forced to follow the Mosaic Law. Joyner complains about “a devastating new form of slavery for African Americans. He defines it as “aberrant teachings” put forth in an attempt “to Judaize African Americans by making them think that they are members of the lost tribes of Israel.” We believe that Judaizing anyone is a form of slavery, whether African American or otherwise. But we do believe that many African people could be of Israel.
• We address the issue of genetic descent from Abraham in the book, Who is Israel? We show that physical descent is basically an unprovable point for Jew and non-Jew alike.
• We do not believe that anyone has to be a descendant of Abraham in order to have salvation in Messiah Yeshua. We make these points clear in a free Brochure titled We Declare These Truths to be Self-Evident.
• For the record, we do not agree with the teaching called “British Israelism.”
• We believe the lost tribes can be found in every nation (Hos 8:8; Amos 9:9). Joyner says of this idea, “Actually, the arguments are quite compelling, and there probably is some truth to it. In fact, it is not unlikely that all races now have some ancestors from these lost tribes.” We agree. Scattered Israelites can be found everywhere.
• Joyner further charges that some in this movement have launched an all out attack against the name of “Jesus,” claiming that its origins are pagan. We believe the Messiah’s given Hebrew name is Yeshua, but we do not speak against the name of Jesus. Most of us were saved in that name, including all of the authors of this letter. We furthermore reject the idea of demanding that Believers use the Sacred Name when referring to the Father (the title we prefer). However, we do realize that His Name is not “God.” That is a title, not a Name. His true Name is comprised of four Hebrew letters that roughly correspond to the English letters, YHVH, and it should not be translated as “Lord” or “God.”
• Joyner’s basic point is correct: there are some who lack a true understanding of who they are in Messiah and are abusing this new understanding about all Israel. But again, there have been excesses and abuses in every movement, yet we do not discard every truth brought forth by those various moves.
• Most importantly, we have received countless testimonies from those who feel their lives have been changed for the better by having an understanding of the whole house of Israel added to their foundational belief in Messiah Yeshua. The positive testimonies by far surpass any possible negatives.

In Summation

Joyner concludes: “The antidote to these poisons... [is to] fortify the basic doctrines of the faith that many are drifting from.”

We agree and disagree.

We must cling tightly to the hem of the garment of our Messiah and never let go. But we must also be mature enough to realize that we do not yet fully understand all that our Father has written in His Holy Word: Genesis to Revelation.

We believe Joyner is right to condemn the excesses of some who have gotten a glimpse of the truth about Torah and its wisdom, or about “the two families which YHVH chose” (Jer 33:24). However, we do not agree with all of Joyner’s conclusions about Torah. We instead believe much of the problem has to do with the wrong conclusions many have drawn about the place of Torah in the lives of Believers, and about the identity of the people of Israel.

Joyner threatens to “name names” if things do not change. But that will not fix the problem. It will only make more people aware of these issues, and dishearten them when they see even more division among those whom they look to for counsel.

We think there is a better way.

We would like to have all of the excesses of the movements that have gone before us eliminated, and to have all of the truths of these movements added to the Messianic movement,

After all, that is how it will be in the restored Kingdom of Israel.

Let us prepare our hearts for that Messianic Age.

Shalom in Yeshua,
The Messianic Israel Alliance

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