Template:Tens

The most predominant form of government throughout history has been based on voluntary systems composed of a Network of what was sometimes called the "tens, hundreds, and thousands". Early Israel, the Teutons, Saxons, Lumbards and many others societies all followed this pattern including the early Church.This allowed them to create a Daily ministration in order to practice Pure Religion which was the Corban of Christ which helped early Christians survive and thrive while the Imperial Cult of Rome declined.

The Tens

Keys of the Kingdom broadcast Kingdom economics Sept. 30, 2017 <mp3player width="300">http://www.hisholychurch.net/audio/170930ecotens03.mp3</mp3player>

Keys of the Kingdom radio broadcast May 21, 2011 <mp3player width="300">http://keysofthekingdom.info/KOK-110521.mp3</mp3player>

“Our king and our god! Wherefore art thou in fear by reason of a little child? There are myriad upon myriad of princes in thy realm, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens, and overseers without number. Let the pettiest of the princes go and fetch the boy and put him in prison.”

These are the words of the Counselors of the mighty provider, Nimrod, who ruled over the people as to what they should do with the child who would become Abraham.

Before Nimrod and Cain the power of the "State" was in the hands of the individual people, as it was in the days of Moses. Philo Judaeus writes of the principle of the pattern of tens forming hundreds:

"Moreover the first fruits of the tribe of Levi are given up to the priests; for they having taken tithes, offer up other tenths from them as from their own fruits, which thus comprise the number of a hundred; for the number ten is the symbol of improvement, and the number a hundred is the symbol of perfection; and he that is in the middle is always striving to reach the extremity, exerting the inborn goodness of his nature, by which he says, that the Lord of the universe has appeared to him."

Through the captains of tens, the people chose who they would follow in battling the trials of life in the world. That choice was based on personal knowledge and mutual daily consent. That voluntary network of men choosing ministers and ministers choosing ministers formed a nation of freemen in voluntary support of justice and mercy.

The Levites were also “called out” by Moses, just as Jesus called out His ekklesia, the early Church. They were the ministers of the common communion or welfare of the people of the Kingdom of God, not the strong arm of men who exercised authority. They taught The Ways of God’s kingdom and kept the people together and strong by their system of charity and hope.

These separate but complimentary activities kept the kingdom a working brotherhood in time of peace and war. They could bring men together in the face of personal robbery, disaster, and sickness or national famine, disaster, or invasion. As long as men lovingly remembered the character and precepts of God the Father first and secondly loved their neighbor as themselves, the kingdom would flourish and be fruitful under God’s precepts.

“…thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I [am] the LORD.” (Leviticus 19:18)

"Feed my sheep!"
Pastors should be like shepherds who tend to all the welfare needs of the people in a daily ministration of faith, hope, and charity, so that none of the sheep of Christ have to eat at the tables of legal charity provided by the exercising authority of the Fathers of the earth.
Before Jesus was able to provide the people with loaves and fishes in Mark 6:39 He "commanded" His disciples to "make" the people sit down in Tens. And then those groups were to organize in companies upon companies in divisions and "ranks" of "fifties and hundreds".
Christ also told His disciples not to be like the rulers and princes of the Gentiles who provided benefits by exercising authority one over the other.
Everyone who got the Baptism of Christ was "put out" by the ordinance of the Pharisees of the Jewish synagogue system which was also composed of ten families through which they provided welfare with the "Corban" of the people.
Christ appointed a kingdom to His "called out" group He called His "little flock" to be ministers or servants to the people in "free assemblies" not rulers like the "benefactors" of the "world" who "exercise authority". Every man should be led by the Holy Spirit to gather in order to love one another. The minister is supposed to be serving by making or requiring the people voluntarily organize themselves in Companies of tens, fifties and hundreds, and thousands so that people may love one another through daily ministration in the practice of Pure Religion as we see the early Church doing in history for centuries.
If all the people who say they are Christians were actually doing what Christ commanded, socialism would be obsolete and no one could be or would be exploited. Socialism is the religion you get when you refuse to do what Christ commanded and have no Pure Religion.

Jesus and the Tens

We have been told that we should not be “forsaking the assembling of ourselves together" in Hebrews 10:25. But gathering together had a real purpose in Israel and in the early Church. It was so important that Jesus literally "commanded" that the people organize themselves in in Companies of tens in "ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties" before the miracle of the loaves and fishes.

• Mark 6:38 He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes.[39] And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. [40] And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. [41] And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. [41] And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all.

We see this same pattern when the disciples were told to make the people sit down by fifties in a company.

But at Pentecost when thousands upon thousands of Jewish citizens accepted Jesus as the Christ and king this pattern of Tens would be an absolute necessity.

This voluntary gathering in by hundreds, and by fifties through groups of tens was to implement a righteous system of Corban through the hands of Jesus' disciples that would make the word of God to effect again to avoid the deeds of the Nicolaitans.

Jesus was teaching His followers what they would need to do to survive without the benefits offered by Herod and Caesar. The network this pattern created would be life and death for Christians when Rome began to fall. He warns in parable after parable about those who make excuses why they cannot come together or are Foolish virgins who get shut out.

There is no essential difference in the canons of Christ’s kingdom “at hand” and the Kingdom of God that Moses tried to teach the people. The Levites were to be the servants of the free congregations of men. Those ministers of the people belonged to God as his bondservants with no personal inheritance.

Each one served ten families, who chose them as ministers, and they were tithed in accordance to their service:

“Take [it] of them, that they may be to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; and thou shalt give them unto the Levites, to every man according to his service.” (Numbers 7:5)

The Church called out by Christ did the same as that earlier Church in the wilderness called out by Moses. They taught a Kingdom of God organized by congregation of tens, hundreds and thousands.

“And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,” (Acts 1:15)

Here, 12 Apostles and 120 families were the beginning foundation of the Christian Church. The apostles were bondservants appointed by Christ to minister to the congregation of the people. In order to discern exactly how all this worked together for good, we must explore those ancient times but it is clear that the pattern repeated itself for centuries within free societies.

Even as late as the 9th and 10th century, among the Lombard kings there was something called Deans connected to ten families. The word originated from the Latin “decanus”, which was a military term of the Romans. Decurius was also used by early writers. This included the Greek deka and dekate, meaning ten or tithe.

The term was used to described those men performing functions of the secular clergy. This term was used by what we might call ministers of the early ecclesiastical Church. That clergy was much different in their position to authority and function than those now held in what we have come to believe is the Church. They held that office which included a position in their judicial system chosen from the bottom up. Some have tried to assert that a Dean was in authority over those ten families, but the terms used to describe the office clearly establish it as a subordinate position with respect and service to the people. It was a part of their system of governance, but its leaders were titular.

Terms like decurions signified those who served ten deans. As the network of tens, fifties, and hundreds grew, there was a need for assistance like the heralds of the kings and the singers and Nethinims of the Levites who performed important functions of keeping the people and ministers informed. The chore pisco pus was an assistant to the overseer or Bishop to keep the communion between the congregation effectual. Over the centuries, this special communications officer for the government of the people was degenerated into the director of the choir.

The communion of the first-century Church was substantive, filling the true physical and spiritual needs of the people. Those who received Christ’s baptism were cast out of one system of authoritarian government of the Pharisees and entered a government of faith, hope, and charity under the perfect law of liberty. Christians depended upon the freewill charity of each other, not the entitlements of Rome or the synagogue of Satan.

“Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.” (1 Corinthians 10:21)

The Christian community was well-disciplined and organized from the bottom up by a system of charity rather than force. While the Roman system of political control was breaking down, those who followed Christ were excluded from the dainties of those civic tables. In about AD 150, Justin the Martyr, hoping to clear the misconceptions and prejudices surrounding Christianity, wrote the Emperor Antoninus Pius in defense of the Christian faith and allegiance to Christ:

“And the wealthy among us help the needy ... and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need.” (Ch. 65-67)

As we saw with ministers like Stephen, we also see the Didache stating: “Therefore, elect for yourselves bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord, men who are meek and not lovers of money, true and approved, for they also perform for you the ministry of the prophets and teachers.”

The nature of these appointments would remain the same for centuries. In the 10th century, drastic reforms were enforced to “unify the liturgy” of the Church. This authoritarian call for unity under a centralized Church had been creeping into some Church thinking from the beginning and now became a rebellion against the gospels.

But the modern Church has forgotten the ancient pattern through which the righteousness of God reigns through the heats and minds of a peculiar people.

• Jeremiah 18:15 "Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways [from] the ancient paths, to walk in paths, [in] a way not cast up;"

The Services of the Liturgy

Liturgy is defined as “a prescribed form or set of forms for public religious worship”. It is from the Greek word leitourgi and leitourgos, meaning “public service” and “public servant” respectively. Liturgy was not about singing and vestments and the smoke and mirrors of modern Christendom. It was about the public servants of the kingdom of God operating under the perfect law of liberty in true worship of God by service to the people. Liturgy was the common procedures of the public servants of God’s kingdom in congregations composed of, by, and for the people. These “reforms” were forced upon the innocent and faithful by usurping kings, who were crowned by a fornicating church, in hopes of securing their own positions of wealth and power, turning the world upside-down again.

The organize of small free assemblies networked into a system of tens, hundreds, and thousands, bound together only by a common brotherhood and love, had been the most predominant form of successful voluntary government throughout man’s history. Similar cell patterns were evident in the early days of the persecuted Church established by Christ.

The crucial ingredient to their success is the implementation of the Ten Codes of God’s Law summarized in the virtuous application of Christ’s two commandments.

Love God and His ways with all that you think and do and actively love your neighbor’s rights to his property and family, his life and liberty as much, if not more, than you love your own. The Church that comes together according to these ancient patterns and righteousness can overcome all tyrants, despots, and enemies of freedom and liberty. They can weather the greatest storms and cataclysms of history, both past or future. They can and will inherit the earth.

Law and justice, as well as national security, had been in the hands of the people who assembled themselves in voluntary militias or armies based on a pattern of tens and fifties, hundreds, and thousands. These leaders were titular in their authority and held office by mutual respect and the consensus of those they served. Every captain was chosen by the ten men he served. This was a pure republic designed by God where the people were free from things public under the perfect law of liberty.

The Tens or Tuns are not about 10 buddies getting together and helping one another...thieves and robbers do that. It is a pattern of the Kingdom of God where people give daily through a network of ministers who help people the individual groups of ten may never meet nor see nor will likely ever help them in turn. It is a body bound only by love of others who are often very distant.

The Error of Saul

Saul was chosen because he was a great man who defended justice and fought for the rights of the people. But once he was given the power of a king he was tempted by that power. At one of the first signs of trouble, he compelled a tax on the people.

There was a measured loss of liberty when the people sinned against God and asked Samuel to establish a centralized government, which now, as Benefactor to the nation, imposed taxes or “sacrifice” and appointed officers over the people. Men rejected God’s kingdom; the voice of the people elected men to make laws, rule with exercising authority, collect the contributions like a tax rather than a freewill offering and generally rule over man and his neighbor.

Once, when there was a threat of invasion and Samuel had not arrived, Saul took matters into his own hands.

“And Samuel said, What hast thou done?… I forced myself therefore [In Wycliffe’s translation we see this as, “I was compelled by need], and offered a burnt offering.” (1 Samuel 13:11)

The word “offered” here is from the Hebrew alah and can mean “withdraw… to be taken up, be brought up, be taken away… to be carried away”. It is also translated “increase, put” and “raised”. The word “and” is not in the original text. What is being said is that Saul compelled the taking of a burnt offering. A burnt offering is just something you are not getting back, as we have already seen.

Because Saul was afraid the people would not come, he compelled a sacrifice, a tax. He coveted the goods of the people and demanded they contribute. This was a clear violation of the Ten Commandments. It was a noble cause, but still a sin.

Samuel’s response to Saul was to the point and direct. He called him a fool:

“And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.” (1 Samuel 13:12-14)

When we covet our neighbor's goods through Benefactors who exercise authority we reject God and His Gospel of love, His Kingdom of Love which is the Kingdom of God.

The Higher Liberty

“And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.” (Psalms 119:45)

Jesus came to bring the kingdom of God’s liberty into every aspect of our lives. God’s precepts and character should govern us and the nations of the world. Liberty is conducive to growth and maturity. Virtue is the avenue of God’s grace. Faith is a gift that brings us into a fuller knowledge of God. A relinquishment of those rights and responsibilities, bestowed on us by the Creator, makes us poor and weak.

“The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18)

There is no more common theme in the Bible than liberty under God with charity and love for God and for our neighbor. Voluntary governments have been the rule in man’s history and not the central or even democratic authorities so common worldwide in modern administrations. It is commonly unknown that, “our modern reliance on government to make law and establish order is not the historical norm.”

We are taught and have come to believe that the history of men and government is the history of centralized authoritarian government, while the truth is that most governance has been men working together in voluntary groups, united by customs, mutual respect, and reasoned justice. Although, top-down authoritarian forms amongst the states created by men have been here since Cain killed Abel, it is, in itself, an aberration, not the creation of God.

The ruling elite, acting as the fountainhead of justice, is presently so pervasive throughout the world, that many still believe that the definition of, “The state is essentially an apparatus of compulsion and coercion. The characteristic feature of its activities is to compel people through the application or the threat of force to behave otherwise than they would like to behave”. It assumes that there can be no order without men compelling it. In truth, the power of God, written in some men’s hearts and minds, can bring order around the world.

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Matthew 11:12)

Some will argue that democracies are governments of the people, by the people, and for the people. While this could be true, if the people were without guile and greed, men can still say, “the State is in essence the result of the successes achieved by a band of brigands who superimpose themselves on small, distinct societies”.

This has always been true in democracies where “Fifty-one percent of the people take away the rights of the forty-nine”.

The prophets preached a Republic not a Democracy where people take a bite out of one another and curse their children with Covetous Practices. Paul preached The Higher Liberty under God.

The Kingdom of God is from "generation to generation" and not just from congregation to congregation. The Feasts made this possible as families united by marriage and friendship and meeting the challenges of a peculiar people who live by faith, hope, and charity through a perfect law of liberty.

The Ties that Bind

The pattern of tens, hundreds and thousands is the buddy system times ten. It is a wheel within a wheel and, like the cell groups of the French underground during World War II and the congregations of the persecuted Christians or the Germanic tribes that defeated Rome, it is merely the most practical form of free government.

"Independence begins at the bottom... It follows, therefore, that every village has to be self-sustained and capable of managing its own affairs... It will be trained and prepared to perish in the attempt to defend itself against any onslaught from without... This does not exclude dependence on and willing help from neighbors or from the world. It will be a free and voluntary play of mutual forces... In this structure composed of innumerable villages, there will be every-widening, never ascending circles. Life will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom. But it will be an oceanic circle whose center will be the individual. Therefore, the outermost circumference will not wield power to crush the inner circle but will give strength to all within and derive its own strength from it." —Mahatma Gandhi

We are not bound to the pattern. In fact it is not the pattern that binds us but the law of love. The bands that connect us are the family ties that occur outside the pattern. Certainly friendship occurs within congregations due to daily interaction, charity and fellowship. But such bonds do not a nation make.

It is the alliances that come when daughters and nieces marry sons and nephews in other congregations. This was one of the primary functions of the Feasts. These bonds of blood supersede the bonds of tens and create the truly unbreakable bands that connect us to others.

While modern governments bind the people with agreements and oaths the Kingdom of God is His Kingdom of Love which binds the people by the covenant of marriage ordained by God and it becomes in the interest of the whole nation to maintain healthy family units. This is why the kingdom is from generation to generation and not from congregation to congregation.

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The Pattern

The pattern of tens starts with ten families.

A family consists of the eldest Father of a family, his wife, unmarried sons and daughters and married sons and their wives and children.

The eldest father is an Elder.

Each family unit operating under one Elder gathers in a free assembly where if he contributes anything to the minister it is completely given up. This is a burnt offering.

While they may be a member of a free assembly when the assembly meeting ends there are no legal bonds maintaining their membership. The Congregation is not a corporation nor even an unincorporated association.

The Elders' mission and obligation is to love God and their fellow elders and those other elders all over the kingdom network.

The fulfillment of that mission and obligation of a congregation is the responsibility of every Elder and his family. By freely attending to the Weightier matters for himself and other families he secures his own liberty under God according to the Perfect law of liberty.

A congregation is not a Democracy. The majority of Elders do not elect the minister. It is by consensus. Each elder must choose the minister he wishes to connect him with the whole body of the Church. While there is no means or inclination to compel offerings by force or guilt there is usually a token head tithe of value like the Half shekel.

The elected Minister who is appointed by Ordained Ministers of the Church is a member of the congregation of fellow ministers. But like the Elder's free assembly, that congregation of ministers, is also not a corporation nor an unincorporated association. This has at least four reasons:

1. Their choice of minister is not the result of a democratic vote but a votive offering.
2. They do not own what they receive as donations but only hold it in trust as appointed ex officio ministers.
3. What the people release to their ministers is freely given as if it is a burnt offering.
4. What the minister receives is belongs to Christ who came to serve.

"Even man's service is the King's, but every man's soul is his own. Therefore I would have every soldier examine himself, and wash every mote out of his conscience"

It is a principle and policy of the prophets that each minister is acting as a single independent stone of the Altars of God. They are not hewn but seek to fit together in a cohesive group as friends. They are not members of the congregation they serve bu part of a free assembly of other ministers like themselves.

There is another classification within the the network of tens. Ordained ministers of the Church are members of their congregation but hold all things in common within that independent congregation but are joint heirs within the whole network of congregations. This is explained in more detail within the book The Free Church Report.

The Prohibition

The Kingdom of God was a voluntary Society gathered in a Network of families bound by Faith, Hope and Charity from generation to generation. You could leave anytime and volunteer anytime but were you excluded and what kept you from the fellowship of these living Altars. Understanding that the Altars and the sacrifice or Corban laid on those altars was a part of a social welfare system is essential to understanding the driving force of a voluntary system not like the systems of the world.

There are several lists which gives us things to be watchful for and avoid the people who persist in them which includes the actions listed in the Ten Commandments.

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Corinthians 6:9)

There is a constant distinction between walking in the flesh, and walking in the spirit, defined by fruits.

"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." (1 Corinthians 15:50)

In Timothy we find another long list of things that we should avoid or turn away from:

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." (2 Timothy 3:1)

We can see more reference to those works of the flesh that are signs the Spirit is not being listened to or followed in Galatians:

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (Galatians 5:19-21)

So while we must ultimately depend upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit it should be painfully obvious that those who are indulging in these ways are likely not following the Holy Spirit but are walking in the ways of the flesh despite their claims.

It is clearly not what people say but what they do that bears the greatest witness.

• "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46)

• "And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Matthew 19:17)

• "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)

Modern Application

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Melissa Valentine – The future of work could be “flash teams” while the truth is such networking systems have been around for thousands of years. Time 15:32

Stanford School of Engineering imagines that it has invented a new idea in crowdsource production through the internet in order to solve problem in complex project. Their use of a network of collaborator, computer science professionals call these crowdsourced groups “flash teams.” In the video, Valentine explains how flash teams operate and how they took ideas and made them a reality, efficiently and effectively. The truth is the template for the internet and the use of crowdsourcing to solve problems on a local, national and even international basis in real time was around over 4000 years ago.

The tens, hundreds and thousands within ancient societies was a mechanical social network structure fueled by common compassion motivated charity within a broad community that served the public and society in general. That was the Levites who were called out to serve the "tents of the congregations". That separate community called the Church in the wilderness provided the both the technical connections of a network and also the ability to create flexible and adaptable structures to deal with problems of societies.

In the case of local society breakdown including the needs of widows and orphans or the impoverished of society there was an established voluntary network of charitable practices in place to prevent neglect while fostering compassion and mercy among all the members of society.

The same network could provide both protection and remedy within society in the event of injustice through the commission of crime and fraud by immoral elements of society and evil or malicious element coming in from abroad.

Because these were national and even international networks formed out of compassion rather than covetous practices they could also create functioning systems in real time for relief in the case of catastrophic events like earthquakes, floods, droughts, disease, famine, even invasion, etc.