However, there are none without error, and that certainly includes those of us at the ecumenical examiner. The point must be made, and the reader must understand, that nothing on this site, or any other site should be blindly accepted, no matter how appealing it may seem at first glance. The same is certainly true of whatever one might hear from the pulpiteers of the institutional churches. We should test every teaching and doctrine against scripture and verify the truth and veracity of every assertion through our own personal study. The Holy Scriptures should always be the guide and standard by which we measure the interpretations and assertions of others. Inspired scripture is God's word, His teachings, held out to humanity, that we might learn to develop a relationship with our Creator.
Learn personally, to distinguish between truth and falsehood in the teachings of others. Learn to separate the wheat from the tares. The words of scripture are always the final authority. It's your salvation at stake, and it depends on your own effort. You will find that along with personal study, you will gradually develop a personal relationship with the Father and His Messiah. You don't need a middleman. We at the ecumenical examiner are simply trying to lend some clumsy assistance by encouraging a fresh way of looking at things.
A little about what we believe at the
christian way daily news, and the ecumenical examiner
The End Times, or the End of the Age, began when the Messiah was crucified, a couple thousand years ago. It's been a long time by human reckoning, but this passage of time is a drop in the bucket to an eternal God. Even so, these times will come to a conclusion, and that promised conclusion is drawing very near. You can sense it and see it through the quickening of the signs we've been given. The increase of senseless violence, and the absence of justice. We see it in the heartbreaking spectacle we call the daily news. Even non-Christians are increasingly getting the sense that some sort of enormous change is getting ready to come upon the world of mankind.
Seek the truth through continuing education. The truth that is in God's Word. The truth that is Yeshua the Messiah. Make yourself spiritually prepared for whatever the future is bringing, and may God bless your studies.
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After telling the parable about the complaining widow and the unrighteous judge (Luke 18), the Lord articulated a rhetorical question, almost in an off-hand manner: "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" This question is troubling on several levels. Looking into the future He seems to know something about our contemporary times, that we don't recognize right in front of our faces. That the flourishing of the faith, the seed that he planted would stand the test of time but face great challenges and failures along the way.
When he comes, he will find a great deal of something that is done in his name. Something that apparently passes as faith to the puny, beleaguered mind of the contemporary human where we tend to seek the easy path.
In reality the Christian faith was hijacked by a class of professional clergy a long time ago, with their ambitious desire to be recognized as uniquely qualified to speak for God. The hand of the Evil One plays largely into this structural change within the church.
The hijackers went on to reshape the Christian community into something the Messiah may not recognize when He returns. Where faith is defined as an impoverished assemblage of perfunctory rites and rituals based on doctrine and traditions drawn from a ludicrous entanglement of Judeo-Christian teachings (which curiously has included a pointedly hostile posture towards its foundational Jewish roots), Greek philosophy, and Greco-Roman paganism. An entanglement that began in earnest with the First Council of Nicaea (325 AD), though in fact, the first seeds of confusion were being subtly sown even during the Apostolic period.
As the early Christian community of faith was transformed into the Nicene religion, the mother church chose to force-feed false teachings to the congregations under the guise of profound ecclesiastical insight, which none were allowed to question. What we see now, is the congregation of Yeshua being compelled to view their faith through a false frame of reference. When the Son of Man arrives, He won't be shocked, He already knows (see - Matthew 7: 22,23).
'ecumenical' - from the Greek oikoumenikos. -----
of, or referring to the full spectrum of the Judeo-Christian community, including, but not limited to, that which is interdenominational or interreligious.
The ecumenical examiner believes the truth of biblical scripture for two primary reasons. First because of creation and the fact that life exists in a universe of space and time where it shouldn't. How could anything as unbelievably complex as a human body happen by cosmic accident? We believe anyone can see God through His creation, and anyone can know God by the things made. The brotherhood of man is understood to be altogether related, judging by the fact that so much of His law is universally imbued in every human conscience.
Secondly, we believe in the Word of God because of prophecy. Prophecy is the element of Judeo-Christian scripture, found in no other religious tradition, that proves God. Without prophecy, rational, logical men would be left to believe the unbelievable. Only a Spirit who exists beyond the constraints of time can know what will happen in the near future or the distant future. When the events predicted, play out precisely as predicted, verifiable reality demonstrates the reliability and truth of the prophetic predictions. Blind faith is then, perhaps gradually, replaced by rational judgment, and reason. We can trust God.
One goes from believing in God to knowing God. He provides prophecy as the validating confirmation that He and He alone is God, there is no other. The inventor and master of time, knowing the end from the beginning, and everything in between. Therefore, His Word, while it may not always be what one wants to hear, is true and will not fail. What we see is that God's Word is alive, His prophets are real, and His promises are true.
The ecumenical examiner is essentially a study site. We have studied the various denominations from the standpoint of doctrines, practices, tenets, creeds, and traditions. Sadly, we have found none that can stand to the Scriptures. All wander off the true path into the arms of, 'the teachings of men'. We of the ecumenical examiner are completely independent non-denominationalists of the simplest sort, and the Scriptures, Tanakh and Gospels, imperfect as they may be, are the only guidance we look to.
It started off, not because of the obvious distortions the church has gone through over time, in terms of doctrine, practice, structure, and schism, but because of the chasm that has developed between the ways of the "primitive" Judeo-Christian apostolic church and the ecumenical church of today. We started off as a research project to discover where the first missteps were taken, leading the Lord's community off the path. Where did the fork in the road first appear? That's what we wanted to know, it's the question that nags. The disconnect between what was, and what is -- that's the irritation, the pebble in the shoe for the walk of a couple thousand years.
We are told by priests, pastors and rabbis, in no uncertain terms, that the very idea of restorationism, or a return to the ways of primitive Judeo-Christian worship, is an idea so preposterous as to be laughable, yet they can't exactly say why. Is it perhaps, because the restoration of something resembling the apostolic congregation would establish a community without professional ordained clergymen, bishops, priests, pastors or rabbis? Without the assortment of denominations? Without grandiose church buildings, cathedrals with their soaring ceilings, each of which stand as a representation of 'God's House'. Without the fancy vestments, gold plated instruments of the alters, the rituals, ceremonies (perhaps a few of the simplest), roman collars, icons, images, doctrines and dogma, and all the other trappings that have come to define the Judeo-Christian faith of our day. The very idea is simply so harebrained as to be a ludicrous proposition. In the context of Judeo-Christianity they will tell us, we should never speak of this again.
The commitment of the ecumenical examiner is to provide a different frame of reference for the Judeo-Christian believer, other than the dissatisfying, and perhaps confusing, experience provided by the institutional churches, where we believe the blind are leading the blind.
The original Christian community, as a branch of Judaism, was called "The Way." (John 14:6 - Acts 9:2 - Acts 19:9) It was quite simply, a way of life, a community focused on the development of a relationship with Yahweh, the Father, the Creator of all things, and based on the teachings of the Messiah, Yeshua, the anointed of God, who was Himself grounded in the Mosaic Law. Yeshua had little respect for the rabbinical system, which had hijacked the Torah teachings, and turned Judaism into something that removed any sense of a personal relationship with God and replaced it with the burdensome laws of men.
Then came His sacrifice, once for all time, provided for the remission of sins and which opened a path to salvation. This act put an end to the need of the Temple priesthood or sacrificial offerings. Yeshua fulfilled everything that the Temple stood for. We are told to repent, because the Kingdom of God draws near. It's coming, like a juggernaut, and we are to get spiritually ready.
This is where we focus our attention - the current state of the Judeo-Christian community, which can only be understood within the rich, and broad context of history. The good, the bad, the ugly, and yes, the really, really ugly.
also, while we might enjoy eating a cookie from time to time, especially with macadamia nuts - we never install cookies - anywhere.
And incidentally, while some have tried to log into it, we do not have a store. We have neither any merchandise to sell or the time to manage a store, but thanks for your interest.
We of the ecumenical examiner would like to express our sincere thanks and deepest appreciation to all of our readers around the world. Readership to our little website has been growing steadily over the last few years, in spite of the fact that we don't do any promotions, marketing, or advertising, and have always avoided the social media outlets. We publish by the precept, "you received free, give free," only wishing to educate, and advance the 'WAY' of Judeo-Christianity, the teachings of the Torah as well as the whole of the Tanakh, coupled inextricably with the gospel of Yeshua. We offer our warmest thanks to all of our highly enlightened readers, our brothers and sisters, acknowledging that your readership reinforces our devotion and commitment to spreading the truth of the Way to salvation which was opened by Yeshua's blessed sacrifice. May God bless your studies and may those studies draw you closer to Him as your light shines brighter.
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Friends - it's a big world filled with snares, traps, and a well disguised malicious demonic presence here and there, looking to trip you up. Remember the culture in which we live is a dangerous place for the people of God. Listen cautiously and keep on the watch. Stay safe under the care and protection of God's good graces.
We find it bewildering and peculiar to learn what isn't being taught in churches across the country concerning the foundational Jewish roots of our faith and we seek to readjust the alignment between Christians and our older brothers of Judaism which form the underpinnings of our Christian faith. The institutionalized religious organizations of Christendom have so confused the relationship between Christianity and Judaism that the bond has almost completely broken down.
WE ARE NON-DENOMINATIONALISTS OF THE SIMPLEST SORT.
LEARN SCRIPTURE, LOVE GOD, PRAY FOR HIS KINGDOM TO COME.
Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth -- to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people -- saying with a loud voice, "Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water." Revelation - 14:6,7
