Template:Twelve Tribes

His Church vs. The Twelve Tribes

What is the difference between the Church established by Christ and the 12 Tribes concept?

The kingdom was taken away from the Pharisees for a number of reasons and appointed to the 12 Apostles by Jesus the Christ, as he said he would do. At that point the Church became the government of God and those who rejected Jesus as the highest son of David and righteous king of peace became the lost sheep.

Those who had been the lost sheep but received Christ as their king became the people or nation of God, and those who would be grafted into the ways of God became a part of that peculiar people.

We are often asked how do we differ from groups like the 12 tribes who claim they are seeking the ways of righteousness according to the teachings of Jesus the Christ, originally called in the Hebrew Yahshua the Messiah.

At the Twelve Tribes [TT] website, they have some on one of their pages [1]

Questions and Answers

TT Q: Does everyone have his own job?

• • TT A: We do not have independent sources of income. As followers of Yahshua we are the Commonwealth of Israel,29 that is, a body of people with one government and a shared economy. We work together as crews and teams and, like the first believers in Jerusalem, remain devoted to fellowship even as we earn income.30 The income we earn is not our own individual means of support but is voluntarily shared to meet whatever the pressing needs of the local community happen to be. Our goal in working together in the businesses we operate is to seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice. Seeing to it that all have their needs met is a basic part of that justice being expressed.

• • HHC A: Only the Ordained Ministers who gather in orders which are just congregations of ministers in one accord have no personal income. This was the plan of Christ for His Church and even Moses and Abraham did similarly, as explained in detail in the books The Free Church Report and Thy Kingdom Comes.

• • As the appointed minister of Christ's government or Church, the ordained ministers "hold all things in common" to serve the people so that we may facilitate the returning of every man to his family and to his possessions.

• • The "nature and extant" of the work of the members of an Order to support itself is not considered "trade or business". But the purpose of the Orders are to serve the people so that they may remain free in His kingdom, serving Him in voluntary charity.

• • While the Members of Orders have chosen the life of service to God by serving the people, it is their desire and mission that the people in free congregations serve God by serving each other in a voluntary system of faith, hope, and charity as free souls under God only which is love.

TT Q: Where does all the money go?

• • TT A: Most of our shared earnings go to pay for property taxes, food, electricity, phone, car insurance, clothing, and health care. Since we are a commonwealth of tribes comprising a nation, we also willingly contribute toward the development of new communities that are not yet self-supporting. As a people we choose to live frugally, and none of us, including our leaders, have property or wealth which we do not voluntarily share.

• • HHC A: In the kingdom of God, every man, whether a private individual part of a congregation (free assembly) or their ministers [licensed or commissioned [missionaries]), are entitled to the sweat of their own brow unless they contract that endowed right or a portion of it away to others.

• • The earnings of ordained ministers belongs to the Order they are members of. It is only they who hold all things in common. One of their missions in preaching the kingdom is to be a living altar so that no man has to contract away those rights to his labor that God originally endowed all men with. It is their constant prayer that all men live frugally, charitably, bound by love expressed in the daily ministration of charity to the needy of their society.

• • The ordained ministers of the Church are titular leaders of "one form of government" that does not "exercise authority one over the other" but operate by the "perfect law of liberty" tending daily to "the weightier matters" in righteousness.

TT Q: Do your people collect welfare?

• • TT A: No. We do not believe we should take money that the government raises by taxing our neighbors to support us in our voluntary lifestyle. That money is for destitute people who have no means of support and no way to get that means. We believe that Our Father in heaven will see to it that we never lack food and clothing.

• • HHC A: Welfare is not taking from the government but from your neighbor. It is living by the sword. The governments of the world have become the benefactors of the people, but they "exercise authority one over the other" which Christ forbid his ministers to be like. People of the world are eligible to apply for those benefits may have a right to do so based on their membership. The Church is not of that world.[2]

• • It is our job to provide for the people without praying to the men who call themselves benefactors but merely take from our neighbor to provide us with welfare. That "welfare" is a "snare and a trap". We teach the difference between what some people think is religion and "Pure Religion". [3]

TT Q: Do your members collect social security benefits?

• • TT A: Yes. Social security is different from welfare. It is mandatory group insurance based on premiums paid out of a person’s earnings. Although we do not collect welfare, we think those in our midst who spent perhaps many years paying into the Social Security system are entitled to their benefits.

• • HHC A: Social Security is a system which has been around in many forms for thousands of years. In the old and new testament, Corban was a system of "sacrifice" that allowed people to take care of the need of society. It was always to be a free will offering of the people, by the people for the people, ministered by their ministers. But the Corban of the Pharisees made the word of God to none effect.[4]

• • There has always been a dividing precept of caring and loving your neighbor by freewill offerings and by forced contributions. This difference has been the division marker between the system of Babylon and the kingdom of God.[5]

• • If people take the time to examine these systems of social welfare used for caring for your neighbor, one by charity and the other by compelled offerings, they will soon see a difference between the first century Church and what other people today think is the message of Christ. The concepts of systems like Corban and what the sacrifice of the red heifer really was all about will soon open our eyes to the simplicity of the Gospel and the righteousness of God.

TT Q: Do you stockpile weapons?

• • TT A: No, we don’t even have hunting rifles or archery sets. Our Master said in Matthew 26:52, “All those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.” We have no need to defend ourselves.[6]

• • HHC A: While we preach peace and will take a blow rather than make war, be quick to forgive injury, be patient and long-suffering, there is a natural responsibility to defend those who are being unjustly abused.

• • Jesus said we should attend to the weightier matters of Law, judgment, mercy and faith. Jesus told His apostles to get a sword if they did not have one, and when Peter was too quick to use it, Jesus told him to put it away, not throw it away.

• • Anyone who will not arm himself so that he may come to the effective aid of those being abused, robbed or even killed should not be allowed to call the police either. If they do, they are hypocrites. We have a responsibility to defend all from injustice and back up those who seek to protect and serve the people. Seeking righteousness includes protecting our neighbor by reasonable means according to our ability.

• • Those who will not come to the aid of others are aiding and abetting the wicked by their sloth and cowardness. The church and the gospel of the kingdom is about setting people free, but freedom is about individual responsibility to the righteousness of God and love of neighbor, so this matter is truly left to every man and women.[7]