God makes it clear in the verse above what it will take for Israel to be forgiven and to become the vessel that He has called her to be. Very simply, she must put away her idols.
It is easy for us, as the body of Messiah, to declare what Israel must do to remove her idols. However, since we, like Israel, are a chosen vessel of God, would not this verse also apply to us? Is there iniquity and/or sin that we must repent from? Have we kept the way of the Lord for the past two thousand years? Better yet, if Paul or Peter walked into a church today, would they feel at home, or would they find it rather strange? In Revelation 19.7, John records the voice of a great multitude saying, "His bride has made herself ready". Note that it says the bride made herself ready. It does not say that the Lord made her ready or that God prepared the bride for His Son. What does the bride have to do to make herself ready ?
Jesus established the Church during His earthly ministry. The book of Acts gives the history of the early Church after Jesus' ascension into heaven. Other insights can be found in some of the writings of the apostles. Let us look at some of the things that the early Church did.
- They kept the Sabbath (Acts 13.14; 15.21; 16.13).
- They worshiped in the Temple (Acts 2.46; 3.1).
- They celebrated the Lord's festivals (Acts 20.6, 16).
- They honored and observed the Torah (Romans 7.12; 7.22; 1 Corinthians 9.8)
Does this look like the Church of today? What is it that we must do to repent from our sins in order to become the vessel God has called us to be?
Because of the sin of Solomon (1 Kings 11.9-10), God appointed Jeroboam as king over ten tribes of Israel (1 Kings 11.29-38). Jeroboam believed that, if the people of the Northern Kingdom went down to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem, they would return to following Rehoboam king of Judah (1 Kings 12.27) and he would lose his kingdom. He did not have the faith to believe that God could keep His promise; therefore he devised methods to keep the people from going to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. The sin of Jeroboam is recorded in 1 Kings 12.25-33. First, Jeroboam made two golden calves and declared them to be the gods that brought Israel up out of Egypt. He then built altars of sacrifice on high places and made priests from among all the people. God had only called the Levites to be ministers before Him (Numbers 18.1-7). Finally, Jeroboam instituted different feasts than the ones commanded by God through Moses(Leviticus 23).
Just as the kings that followed him, the Church has committed the sins of Jeroboam. In fact, it has followed almost exactly in his footsteps.
Just as Jeroboam created a false god with the golden calves, the Church created a false god with the "holy trinity," declaring God to be "three co-equal persons". When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, He declared His name to be "I Will Be What I Will Be." By this name, God declared that He cannot be defined. God is the Creator of all things in the heavens and on the earth. He has no beginning, and He has no end. Every man will be judged by God and give an account of the deeds done in his life. God will bring the entire universe back under His dominion. This does not sound like One whom we can define. The Church has attempted to define God by creating the "holy trinity." No where in Scripture is it revealed that the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are "co-equal." God does have a triune nature, just as we are body, soul, and spirit. Yet we cannot define Him as is attempted by the doctrine of the "holy trinity." The "holy trinity" is a false god.
In each church today is a place (a physical location, usually a table in front of the podium) which is called the "altar." It is treated as if it were the sacrificial altar before the Temple. Some even consider it to be a "holy place." Pagans place altars on various high places, but God stated that His altar will be in one place only — the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. God had declared to Israel that they would sacrifice only in the place where He chose to establish His name (Deuteronomy 12.11). That place is the Temple Mount (1 Kings 9.3; 2 Chronicles 3.1). This is not a casual matter. We see today the intensifying battle for the Temple Mount. It would not be so if this place were not holy to the Lord. God has said that this [the Temple Mount] "is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever" (Ezekiel 43.7).
As the Church became dominated by Gentile believers, it brought in and celebrated pagan festivals. Instead of celebrating the Lord's festivals (Leviticus 23), the Church "claimed" pagan festivals, such as Christmas and Easter. You do not need to make a detailed study to find the origins of these festivals. They are well documented in most encyclopedias. While the Church has derived most Christian "festivals" or "holidays" from pagan ones, the Lord states that the only festivals we should be celebrating are the Sabbath, Pesach (Passover), the Feast of Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Shavuot (Pentecost), Trumpets, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles). These are not Jewish festivals; they are "The Lord's appointed times" (Leviticus 23.2, 37, 44).
God had Moses make a bronze serpent for the people in the wilderness. The sons of Israel were to look upon it for healing when the fiery serpents bit them (Numbers 21.8-9). They eventually worshiped the bronze serpent and burned incense to it. Because of this, Hezekiah finally destroyed it (2 Kings 18.4). In the Church today, the cross has become somewhat of a bronze serpent. Many in the Church worship the object of the crucifixion itself — the cross — while forgetting the Lord who was crucified upon it. By itself, the cross is nothing but a wooden pole. The Canaanites worshiped a wooden pole — the symbol of the pagan god Asherah . In this way, when the cross becomes the object of worship, it is like the Asherah pole.
We must remove any idols in the Church so that God may forgive the Church and so that the bride can make herself ready. The Church does not have the power to "claim" pagan festivals for its own. It must understand its relationship to the chosen people of God — the nation of Israel. We are to be Messiah — the anointed vessel in the midst of Israel — "a servant to the circumcision . . . to confirm the promises given to the fathers" (Romans 15.8).
We must also throw off the traditions of the past and grasp onto the truth of the Scriptures. "To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn [light]" (Isaiah 8.20). "So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth" (Hosea 6.3).