Eric W. King ~ TSW, "The Shepherds Way": "Messiahs and Nazoreans." ~ TSW

Ancient Antiochene

Mysteries

Part Thirty-eight

“Messiahs and Nazoreans.”

By presbyter Eric William King (September 12^th 2024)

Let us go a bit deeper in our “Ancient Antiochene Mysteries” studies. These are short little studies which contain much information. We are now at “Part Thirty-eight”. Each one builds upon the previous messages so you can become stronger in your understanding and faith – Faith in Jesus Christ. We as Christians know and accept Jesus Christ to be God incarnated, our High Priest, our Savior, and our King. Indeed, He is our Lord God. Most people do not know what the title “Christ” means, some have thought that Christ was simply Jesus’ last name.

Actually, the name Christ is a title and comes from the Greek word which means “anointed”. The Hebrew word equivalent is Mashiach or Messiah. All judges and kings, ruling God’s people in the Old Testament, were anointed, meaning chosen and ceremonially anointed with oil and water to inaugurate them for the position of a messiah. God Himself called Cyrus [Koresh] to be His messiah which was to free Israel from Babylon of old, which he did (Isaiah 45:1). Those who believe in Jesus Christ are “Christians”, little anointed ones. Through water baptism we are initiated into Christianity – we are anointed.

We become the children of God and the Family of the Messiah (Jesus Christ). The First Church is truly the God Family (Ephesians 3:14-15). The New Testament also teaches us to have (or develop) the “mind of Christ - Messiah” (Philippians 2:5-7). Jesus instructs us to “become like Him” (Matt. 10:25; Jn 13:15). This is possible because true Christians are gifted with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:14). Through the Holy Spirit the New Testament teaches that we “become partakers of the Divine Nature” (2^nd Peter 1:4). Christians are “messiahs” with a small “m”.

The New Testament teaches that Jesus will make Christians “Kings and Priests” and they will rule with Christ during the Millennial Kingdom. Many shall rule as “saviors” or “deliverers” (Obadiah 21). Jesus even promises to give some during this time “the same authority” that He had “been given by the Father”. We read some of these promises in the Apocalypse (Book of Revelation – Rev. 2:26-29; 5:10).

Our Ancient Antiochene records show that St James, the brother of our Lord, was a presbyter and Hierophant of a faction of the original Essenes. This means that they understood James to be a “messiah” but not one of the promised last Messiahs. From previous studies we’ve shown that only Jesus fulfilled the requirements to be the final Messiah figure. We have also, in previous studies, shown that the original Nazoreans broke into two groups after the ascension of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

The Ebionite faction could not fully accept the freedom of the New Covenant so they kept Mosaic Laws that Jesus Christ had fulfilled (they were the original Judiazers). Apostle Paul became the Apostle & Hierophant of the New Covenant to the Gentiles. He was an original Nazorean (Acts 24:5 & vs.14) who truly understood the impact of the New Testament and what he called “the secret of the Church (ecclesia)”. St. Paul with the rest of the living Apostles became protectors of these “secrets” (1^st Corinthians 4:1). Those Nazoreans who rejected the bulk of Jesus’ true teachings were taken over by Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8:9), and eventually by Mani whose teachings became popularly known as Manichaeism which still, to this day, exists in southern Iraq. These false teachers are what we call the “second century Nazoreans”. These are the fake “Gnostics”.

Some of these Truths are very foreign to what most modern Christians have been taught.

We are learning ancient history about God’s anointed ones while exposing the heretics.

This is most certainly true.

Eric William King (September 12^th 2024)