Chapter VII

The Family, Brotherly Love, and the Kingdom of God

Note: This, the second to last and the last chapters of the book, The Restoration of Truth, were originally published as stand alone articles with the same titles as above. In fact, these chapters are what started The Restoration Church of God as a separate Work.

Here is the revolutionary information that has disturbed so many, because this is Truth from God long obscured, and is revealed now at the End Time when God’s Time for it has come!

Preface:

For years, the Church of God has striven to understand and come t a more perfect understanding of the Kingdom of God. We have learned that the Kingdom of God is the Government of God, and that Government is now in operation in Heaven, and that at the second coming of Christ the Kingdom of God will be established on this earth, and that the whole world will be ruled from Jerusalem by Jesus Christ as head, and with the saints acting as kings under the King of kings.

We think we have understood this aspect of the kingdom of God fairly well, because it has to do with government. However, there is another, even MORE IMPORTANT aspect to the Kingdom of God which has not been as widely discussed nor as well understood. That is the aspect of God’s Kingdom as also the FAMILY OF GOD!

There are many reasons why we do not fully comprehend this aspect of what God is doing, and I hope to explain as much as I can about this subject in this chapter. After thinking about this subject for a very long time, I have come to the conclusion that the Family aspect of the Kingdom is perhaps even more important than the Kingdom aspect. I will explain this in more detail below.

When one takes off the veil of centuries of religious and traditional deception, the picture one sees is radically different than what the modern mind might expect. I hope that this study will benefit you, and that it will help you more perfectly appreciate what God is doing in mankind.

People are hurting all around us today. Loneliness. Depression. Suicide. Broken homes. Broken lives. People feel the pain of a useless existence every hour of every day.

Religion does not give the answer. Science can produce physical pain killers, but not spiritual. We seem to flounder in an endless sea of misery. Is this how God planned for humanity to live? Would a loving God leave people stranded, permanently in the dark, with no light in sight?

Certainly not. Christ commanded that His people should be a lampstand to show His light to the whole house or nation [Mtt. 5:15] We are to be a light to the world both by our WORDS and by our DEEDS, or way of life. Christians are called to be a “peculiar” or different people. Different not only in doctrine, but different in their way of life.

The early Church showed this example to the world of a new way of life to heal the suffering. The world suffers because it does not understand God. And because it does not understand God and His way of life, which is the way of GIVE and of brotherly love, it cannot understand how to overcome its suffering. The early Church, because it applied and followed God’s way of life, grew in numbers sometimes by thousands a day. The proclamation of the Gospel by the Apostles was in great power. Miracles were performed, some of them even greater than those done by Christ Himself!

God was indeed please with His early Church. He was pleased with it because it proclaimed His Gospel of the Kingdom to the world, and because it practiced His way of life on the earth.

The Kingdom of God has two aspects. It is the kingdom, or Government of God, and it is also the Family of God. It is easy for the modern mind to understand the Government aspect of God’s Kingdom, because we have had kingdoms throughout history [these, however, have been GENTILE GOVERNMENTS, where the rulers lord it over and oppress the people; most people understand that Christ is a different sort of King, One Who was not ashamed to wash His disciple’s feet in humility, thus, God’s Kingdom or government is one of service rather than one of oppression.]. While those kingdoms have not been examples of how God’s Government works, we still know what a government is, or at least think that we do. Unfortunately, the other aspect of the Kingdom, the FAMILY part, is grossly misunderstood.

Let me explain. We live in an industrial society. Industrial society tore down the earlier, ore Godly model of the family, which was the EXTENDED FAMILY of the agrarian lifestyle, and replaced it with the flawed, truncated model of the nuclear family. To put it simply, the nuclear family is a family separated from its roots and branches, being only a small part of the tree to which it belongs. As such, it is doomed to death or failure as a model.

Unfortunately, since this flawed model is what we automatically think of when the word “family” is used, that is what comes to mind rather than what God has in mind when He talks abut the family. Thus, while God is talking in His Word abut the whole tree, we are thinking of a small twig, or piece of wood separated from its roots and dying. It is impossible, then, under these circumstances, for the modern mind to come to understand God’s meaning when He speaks of the family and His Family without a supernatural opening of the mind, since the mind has to transfer its understanding from one frame of reference to a completely different one.

Taking this further, if one does not understand what God means by His Family by understanding His frame of reference in that area, one also can’t properly understand what God means by “brotherly love” either. If the world understood and applied God’s way of brotherly love, all strife would cease along with the problems strife brings.

If the Church of God, then, fails to understand what brotherly love is and how it is to be applied in a Christian life because it also does not understand God’s Family and how God intends us to live, then it is impossible for the Church of Brotherly Love, or the Philadelphia Church prophesied to come just before the end of this age to arise (even if one doesn’t subscribe to the theory of Church Eras, which is a debatable doctrine, one cannot argue against the idea that Christian should treat all as brothers and sisters).

When one is deceived, one does not know they are deceived, yet they suffer the curses of deception none the less. God’s Laws apply in life whether one knows them or not. When the concept of our Christian Family, and its role in our lives as God intended is truly understood and applied, then, the Church of Brotherly love will appear. Because it truly understands God’s way of life as did the first era of the church, it will develop the same spiritual power and proclaim the Gospel with the same force as that first Church did. In this respect, the Church will also be like the first era, or the Ephesian Church.

The first era of God’s Church let this precious understanding slip from its grasp. The world corrupted it, and the power was gone. Only when God’s people are living in the family relationship God intends can they have the full measure of God’s Spirit manifested in their lives. I believe we stand on the threshold of an era of Brotherly love greater than the first. This era will proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom in such power by both word and deed that the modern world, just as the ancient, will be shaken to its very foundations.

It will be a short but powerful Work. The great impact of the Gospel will have the same effect on the governments of this world and its people as it did then. Firth they will try to ignore it, but as it grows, perhaps by thousands a day, they will become frightened, fearing for their prestige and power and wealth as they did anciently. For they will know that if even 10% of the people throw off the chains that bind them in misery the system of oppression will be in danger of collapse. Persecution and suppression will follow, and then the Tribulation. After this, Christ will return to establish His Kingdom and Family permanently on this earth.

It is beyond the scope of this chapter to discuss all of the implications a proper understanding of God’s Family and brotherly love have, but these shall be covered in other articles later on. This chapter will serve, then, as the new beginning. The ripping of the veil from the eyes of those who are willing to see the light of God. It will not be easy, but with prayer, meditation, and the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, it can come. If you are reading this article, it may well be your first step towards a new, fuller, richer life in Jesus Christ.

Let us begin, then, to understand the truth that has been hidden for almost two thousand years.

Just What Does the Bible Mean by Family?

This may, on the face of it, sound like an absurd question, but is it? Most of us think that we know the answer to this question right away. A family, to the modern, Western mind consists of a father, a mother, and their children. Anything beyond this basic family unit, the nuclear family, is called the extended family. Western society concentrates on its creation, the nuclear family, while ignoring the deeper meanings and family structures revealed by history and the Bible.

The nuclear family is a creation of the industrial revolution. It is a relatively modern phenomena. The traditional family structure is that of the extended family, where the grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, unless, and children all live in close proximity to each other if not in the same house. Traditionally, the younger women went out to work on the farm or the family business with their husbands, or they had their own tasks. The children were often left with the grandparents, or one aunt who looked after the children from several families. When the children reached the right age, they then went out to work alongside their parents, or in some aspect of the family business under the supervision of another relative, or family servant in wealthier families. The idea of the husband, wife, and kids living in isolation away format he rest of the extended family was something almost unheard of. Thus, the problems and issues confronted by the nuclear family are problems and issues relatively new in human experience.

It’s a terrible mistake for the Church to draw any great analogies from a study of this nuclear family, since it is not a Biblical or traditional model. In fact, many of the so called problems experienced in a nuclear family context simply CANNOT EXIST in the proper extended family based society. For example, it is ludicrous to assert that a woman should not work outside the home based on the habits of 1950’s America. This was a period of time unique in human history when the nation was so obscenely rich that one family member working a short 40 hour week was able to provide a comfortable lifestyle for the family. This has never before happened in human experience and never will again. As time goes on, this is becoming a distant, fading memory, as both spouses now work and don’t even earn as much in real spending power as one did back then.

It is, therefore, a pitiful sight to see Christian men struggle against the natural order of things in human society in an attempt to wind the clock back to the golden age of American wealth. The fact of human experience throughout history, and the fact of the God created order of things of the woman as the help meet for the man demonstrates that the woman’s place is indeed to work and to help support her family. The greatest example of this is the Proverbs 31 woman, who, contrary to the shallow analysis heretofore presented by some to try and justify the stance that the woman should remain solely at home taking care of the children and the home while the man goes out and produces the income, appears to have provided much towards the total support of her family.

A return to the extended family model would solve in one stroke most of society’s present day ills. Child care facilities could close down as grandparents and other family members took their place. Social Security and other retirement schemes would be replaced by the family supporting its older members as in the past -- in fact, the Bible tells parents to LAY UP, or SAVE for their children, so that they can have a better life, and also so that aged parents would not have to be a financial burden on anyone.

Finally, a study of the extended family adds additional insight into the soon coming Kingdom of God, and gives added meaning to Christ’s statement that those who forsake mother or father or brother or sister, etc., for His sake, shall be provided many more family members in the Church. A brief but logical extrapolation from this statement increases our understanding of the intended structure for the Church community. The person who forsook his or her physical family because of the Gospel, and thus became a member of Christ’s Body or Church, would also be forsaking the only physical security an individual had in the world. The world has not traditionally been a world of individuals, but of large Families. This is another point that the individualistic present day American society has hidden from view.

With no physical security, the individual faced a hostile world alone, with little chance for survival. The Church of God, as the Body and Family of God, thus took the place of the extended family in a Christian’s life, providing not only spiritual needs but also the physical. This fact makes the scripture in Acts plain that says that “the disciples had all things in common.” Most have attempted to explain this away saying that God does not advocate a communal system, offering very little evidence from the Bible for their position. They forget that the extended family IS basically A COMMUNAL SYSTEM BUILT AROUND FAMILIES. Instead of taking the declaration of MEN concerning the Word of God, we should, rather, take the Word of God as revealed in Scripture, as it is given for our instruction, reproof, and correction. Only the Bible shows how we Christians are to live in this dark and decadent age.

Isn’t it conceivable that a new Christian extended family created out of individually called out Christians would seem somewhat like a communal society to the individualistic modern American mind once correctly understood and applied? And also remember that our lives today are ruled by gigantic multi-national corporations. Such a system does not fit into their plans, and therefore does not fit into the plans of this world’s ever more tyrannical and dictatorial government. Individuals can be easy to control. Large extended families with their accumulated wealth and creating jobs for their own members is a decentralization of power to the family group, which nation states and oligarchic corporations perceive as a threat. Thus, I feel it is no coincidence that government storm troopers were sent into Christian communities like Waco and Jonestown, with cover stories that these people committed suicide. The facts have come out about Waco, showing it was really a government hatchet job against innocent, law abiding people. We will probably never know about Jonestown, but I have a feeling it was the same type of thing.

Yes, anyone who dares go against the agenda of the New World Order and their ilk stands a very good chance of possible death by foul play. However, someday these arrogant Nazis will realize that there is a God in Heaven and that He is much stronger than they are!

American society is infused with the individualistic “John Wayne syndrome” -- the vision of the rugged, individual man carving out a life for himself in a hostile world against all odds. Somehow, but, with great difficulty, this macho man realizes that he needs a woman in this life, and so, grudgingly, he settles down and starts his own family, which is a fiercely independent unit all to itself in t he middle of an endless prairie.

This was not the ancient mode of living, when man was closer to the time of creation and perhaps understood the value of having more family around than just the immediate wife and children. Modern Christians grasp at the passage in Genesis that says a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife and they shall became one flesh. Perhaps the man did leave his father and mother’s immediate house, but history shows he didn’t go very far down the road. And, history also teaches us that the grandparents and other extended family members played a vital role in the life of this new unit.

With this background, then, let us really read and STUDY what the Word of God PLAINLY SHOWS the environment of the early church to be. “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and good, and divided them among all, as anyone had need” [Acts 2:44-5, New King James throughout, unless otherwise noted].

It has been objected by some that this is an isolated scripture, and so can’t be an example of how we as Christians should conduct our lives. If this were so, then there would be no further mention of this subject in he Bible, because, when something is important, God repeats it. Well, unfortunately for those who would ridicule the ideas presented here, the Bible DOES REPEAT THIS EXAMPLE! Let’s continue, then, into this study that no one has dared touch on before.

“Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all [could this be God’s reward for becoming ONE FAMILY as He commands us to become, and could this be a reason for the current LACK OF POWER displayed in the Church of God today, as well as our LACK OF LOVE AND CONCERN FOR EACH OTHER, as brethren should have, one for another?]. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked [the Biblical record shows that there were some who took advantage of this attitude of brotherly love, sharing and caring, because Paul had to say at a later time in history that “he who will not work will not eat” ]; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostle’s feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.”

I would like you to imagine that you were one of these early Christians. because the Church was new, and because the Church was pleasing God greatly at this time by proclaiming the Gospel boldly and knitting together as one family as His purpose was, massive numbers of people were being added to the church “daily.”

Remember, people of this time came from a different culture than our American culture. They understood the value of the extended family. It was their security and livelihood. It provided the social frame of reference, as well as the source of income, or employment, in most cases. People were not used to acting as individuals, but as families. And the patriarch of the family made the final decisions for the family.

In this kind of culture, making a break along religious lines to follow a new faith was running the risk of not only becoming a social outcast, but also of becoming destitute, or, worse yet, dying of starvation through loss of livelihood or occupation, since it was derived through the family farm, business or trade.

As a new Christian, then, you would be asked to turn your back on your old world, life, and livelihood. But Christ had promised much better for the new Christian in HIS FAMILY! Thus, the early Christians had great motivation, upon entering this new, divinely ordained family, to embrace that family wholeheartedly as God wanted. Thus, while there was no explicit command to do so, you would want to cut your ties to your old life (which included extend family and possessions), and embrace the NEW LIFE AND NEW FAMILY IN HE CHURCH.

The early Christians thus sold what they had owned before, the reminder of the worldly past, and contributed the proceeds unselfishly towards building their NEW FAMILY. No command of God was necessary to motivate the first Christians to voluntarily follow Christ’s instructions to share what they had with their new family, the Church, and thus to help it achieve its goals and purposes for being!

And so, while it can be argued that there is no explicit command in the Bible telling these people t do what they did, the teachings of Christ along without he background of the people in their natural families left no other alternative but to contribute to their new family’s success as they had contributed to their old family’s.

when this spirit of trust, sharing, and giving was violated by Ananias and Sapphira in chapter 5, God executed the death penalty for their selfish, lying attitude. They wanted to pose as giving members of the family like the rest, but still keep back part for themselves. They were thus guilty of lying to God’s ministers and people, and of breaking the sacred trust their new family members vested in them. God thought this offense was bad enough to make an example of them in the most profound way -- otherwise, the unit of the new family would have been undermined from t he beginning.

Because of the American mindset, and a paranoia about anything that smacked of hated communism, the plain facts as stated in scripture have been ignored by the Church and society, much to our detriment. Trying to superimpose a faulty model of the family generated by industrial society onto our understanding of God’s Family has hidden the facts from us, and denied us the blessings God would have us derive EVEN IN THIS LIFE through living as His “peculiar people” now. [Read Luke 14:26-33 in this connection, then read Mtt. 19:29]

The way of living the God would have Christian experience has been ignored, and has been replaced by a meaningless slogan Of “We are family” in one branch of God’s Church [this was written in 1992, so I don’t know what the current catch phrase with them is today]. This slogan has been mouthed endlessly without understanding it true and deep meaning.

Wherever the Church is spoken of in the New Testament the idea of this great new family to replace the physical family of Christians is mentioned.

If we took these examples and brought them to our modern society, we would indeed have a Philadelphia Church of brotherly love. If all of the Church members in each city sold their individual homes and relocated to a planned community all built at the same time, then Christian fellowship would be enhanced. The community could afford to hire teachers for its own schools to educate the children in a Christian way. There would also be many occasions for people to participate in fellowship with one another, so that primary fellowship would not have to be with the world. The atmosphere extant in the Book of Acts would be replicated right here and now. I also believe that the power and the blessings (as well as the persecutions) experienced by the early church would happen again. God would be greatly pleased that some people in the last days understand again what He intends for us to do with our lives both now and for eternity. True values would once again come sharply into focus.

The community could engage in business activities depending on the skills and talents of the community. Thus, by being self employed, the members of the community would not have the problems and persecution present in the outside world, and the profits from the business could support the community and enhance the income of the entire Church. All of this could thus be accomplished without the individual’s having to take pay cuts in any say, and the Gospel message could be proclaimed to the world once more in power. Finally, those individuals whose skills were too specialized to be used by the businesses of the community could be still employed on the outside.

In this way a true Christian community could be developed with all of the benefits and attributes of a gigantic extended family. Schools and colleges could sprout up across the entire world without being a burden on moneys used to preach the Gospel, and we would indeed them be the Church of Brotherly Love.

I have discussed in this brief chapter the way that the early Christian Church lived and worked. I have shown that modern society blinds us from truths that were plain to people living in the different culture of the New Testament. There is a crying need in society today for something more out of life. Life has little meaning for most today. Everyone is a stranger to everyone else. The nuclear family has proven to be a failure with the test of time. Society will not learn the true values of brotherly love before it is too late. Prophecy shows us that. However, Christians are expected by their God to come to a clearer understanding of His way of life with each passing year, and then to apply it in their lives.

The choice, as it was in the early Church, is obvious. Doing that which would please God most by becoming His Family today is what He would like us all to do. The Christians of the early Church understood, and acted promptly. They didn’t have to be forced or commanded to act. The beauty of a new way of life was all they needed to put God’s Word and Way into practice in their lives through action. God never forces us to do His will, He simply asks. God is calling each and every one of us to a higher calling and understudying of His way of life than ever before. The way is open. Those who answer the call can become part of the greatest Work in the history of mankind. The final Work before the terrible Tribulation will be done by a church that understands and applies brotherly, Godly, love. This Church of Philadelphia (which means brotherly love) will stand as a beacon of hope to the nations of mankind. In a way, this will also be the church of Ephesus, because it is returning to its early, pure, roots.

The nations are darkened by centuries of lies and human tradition.

People are hurting.

We have the healing answer.

I believe thousands will respond to the healing and the love of God just as they did in the first phase of God’s Work.

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