The
following are some of the beliefs and practices of a group of believers in
Jesus, whom they call by His Hebrew name Yahshua. This group began in
Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1973.
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They
live and work together as a family, and they hold (open) worship services every morning and
night: that they refer to as "menhas" (pronounced menhawz).
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They
do not work on the Sabbath.
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They
will not take the Lord’s Supper with anyone who is not a part of their
group. Outsiders who visit on
Saturday night will be offered to eat apart from the main group; however, on
Friday nights they have a dinner (and meeting) that is open to the public.
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They
believe that for someone to be a disciple of Christ, he or she must live in
a commune of like-minded believers.
However, when we suggested starting our own group who live as a family, they
told us that it would not work -- unless it was led by their members.
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Their
most commonly quoted Scriptures are Luke 14:33 and Acts 2:41-47 and 4:32-37.
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Some
of the Scriptures they downplay, alter and/or ignore are: Psalm 130:7; Luke
6:37; 11:11-13; 12:21, John 6:37-40; 10:14-27; Rom.
14:1-13; I Cor. 11:28; 14:36 and Col. 2:16-17.
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To
join one must first give up all of one’s earthly possessions or donate
them to the group.
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If
the Lord has called you to work in a ministry other than what they are doing
you will have to give it up and come under the authority of their
leadership. If you refuse -- or refuse to join their group -- then in
their opinion you will be damned (to Hell).
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According
to their leaders, the only way for a person to receive the Holy Spirit and be
saved is to receive a “sent one.” Since
“sent ones” are only sent out through (and by) The Twelve Tribes, this
means that before 1972 nobody could be saved since that is the year they
began to live together and share their lives with one another. They
also assert that the only way for someone to receive the Holy Spirit is by
"the laying on of hands" (by one or more of their
members). How they first got saved (and received the Spirit) is
unclear: as -- according to their own teachings -- they would have had to
have received the Spirit from someone who had it before 1973.
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They
have about 100-200 homes around the world, with about 6,000 – 7,000
members.
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Approximately
half of their members were homeless and/or destitute when they joined, and
approximately half of them were frustrated with their once (or twice) a week
church -- that would not help them when they were in need, and/or whom they
only saw "at church."
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They
also have bought into the belief that the Earth and Universe are billions
and billions of years old: and thus the (so-called) "gap" theory
--- that the Bible doesn't talk about, but according to its proponents, it
is there nonetheless: in Genesis Chapter 1:1-2: where it says that the Earth
"was formless and void, and the Spirit of the Lord was moving over the
surface of the waters" (that covered the earth). To me it
is apparent that the earth was "formless" because there was
nothing on its surface except water.
So unless there was some wind to stir things up, its surface would indeed
appear without form. Gap theorists say that "the earth
became formless" because of the former creations that (they say)
were destroyed.
Commendations:
We Highly
Commend the Twelve Tribes for giving up their earthly lives to live and work
together as a body of believers. And
in this respect they are very similar to the early Church in Jerusalem.
We commend the Twelve Tribes for taking in those who come
to them who are in need of help: Isa.
58:1-14; I John 3:14-18 also tell us to do such things, and to open up lives
(and houses) for His use.
We
commend the Twelve Tribes for not spending their time immersed in worldly
entertainment or listening to the worst things that happened in you area, or on
the other side of the world (on TV).
We
commend the Twelve Tribes for allowing those who have something to say to say it
-- even during their open (and spontaneous) services. They even allow
visitors to share as well -- although they may not say "Amen"
when they are finished speaking (?).
We
commend the Twelve Tribes for saying that they would join together and
fellowship with other Christians who begin living together and sharing their
lives together: and in this regard, it is a fact that they share their lives in
a much more intimate way than most Christians today. And for those who are wondering, about half of them are
married, and I don’t believe that there is any wife-swapping going on; but
rather that they have as high, or higher, morals than most Christians.
In fact their divorce rate is somewhere around 1% (or so they have said).
Criticisms:
We believe that I Cor. 11:28 and 14:36 are still valid.
They seem to think that they are the only ones on Earth who know and Love
the Lord, or who are using their Time, Talents, and Money to promote God’s
kingdom on Earth: seven days a week.
The
Twelve Tribes (Commonwealth) as they refer to themselves believes that any (born
again) Christian who is not a part of their group is going to Hell; however,
they also believe that non-Christians who don't believe in Jesus but try to do
good and live up to their conscience (even though they fail many times) will be
saved: and raised up to live on the earth during the Millennial Reign of
Christ. See their pamphlet "The Three Eternal Destinies of
Man." This is however, contrary to what the apostle Paul said in
Romans 3:23; 6:23; 10:4 and Eph. 2:8-9.
I
once asked (their leader) Gene, who is also called Yoneq when it was (or on what
day, time and place) that Jesus appeared to him, or to his people and told them
that they had the authority to grant whoever comes to THEM, the gift of Eternal
Life, and he replied something as follows:
"Well,
it didn't happen quite like that, but we just came to that conclusion, little by
little ..."
(i.e. on their own ... that THEY were the ONLY way to get right with God -- and
that John 14:6 is no longer correct).
We do not believe that for someone to become a part of the body of Christ he or
she must join the Twelve Tribes, or live in a commune:
See John 3:16; 6:37-40; 7:37-39; 14:6; Rom. 10:4, 9-13; I John 3:10-19;
4:1-8; 5:1-13 and the Scriptures below. This would mean that nobody
prior to 1973 -- the year that their group began -- could be saved: which is absurd. The Twelve Tribes would also have us believe that the
wording of Psalm 130:7 should be ... for with the Lord is
"abundant
condemnation" as opposed to
"abundant redemption,"
or what the Scripture actually says.
Their
beliefs in this regard are evident in an article called "There I
Stood," from their Free Paper titled: The Other
Side. On the one hand they say that God:
"will
not throw good people into the lake of fire just because they aren't
Christians. In fact ... He will judge all people according to their
deeds, whether good of evil, and all the judgments will be fair."
To back this up they list Eccl.
12:14, Rev. 20:12-15 and Prov. 16:11. In fact, more could be
added, such as Prov. 24:12 and Matt. 12:41-42 where we are told that the men
of Nineveh and the Queen of the South were righteous: even though neither of
them ever heard a word about Jesus since He wasn't born till hundreds of years
later. However, when it comes to those who have made a decision to
follow Christ, and who have humbly come to Him for salvation, and asked to be
born again of the Holy Spirit, and who seek to follow and obey Him each and
every day, the Twelve Tribes take a very different stand: to the point of
claiming that no one who lives apart from them and their group can have any
confidence, or hope of being saved.
For example, in a previous article called "Voiding the
Contract with Death" in the same publication they say that "all those who believe in Him live together and
share all things in common," and that "Neither the
gospel nor its fruit has ever changed."
To back this up
they list Acts 2:42 and quote 1 John 3:14-16 where we are told that "we
know that we have passed from death to life because we love the
brethren."
They then state that:
"those who love their
brothers in the wholehearted fashion seen in Acts 2 and 4 are the ones who
can have legitimate confidence that their first death sentence has been
annulled" because ... "in the Community of the
Redeemed" (as in a Twelve Tribes Community only) "they
can have the hope of coming into complete obedience to Messiah's words,
which is the only confidence anyone can have of never tasting death."
They list John 8:51 to support this and
state that "giving up all one's own possessions ... is only possible
in true community." They
also ignore what happened to the
first believers in Jerusalem that caused them to stop living
together: i.e. a great persecution broke out right after the stoning of
Stephen: Acts 6-8. This caused many of the believers to flee to other
nearby towns and cities and thus to spread the gospel.
In the article above they also state
"To redeem is to recover ..." and "never refers to isolated
individuals, but is always used in the context of the corporate redemption of
a people for God's own possession."
This will occur when the Lord,
Himself, comes back to claim those who are His own, and gather them to
Himself. However, there is a group of individuals known as the 144,000
who we are told "follow the
Lamb wherever He goes,"
and who are also
called His "bond servants." Rev. 7, 14. In this regard,
it seems likely that they operate individually on the earth: at least before
His return to take over. This was also the case with Jeremiah: that he
operated alone (Jer. 15:15-21). See also Col. 3:15, where we are told to
"Let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts" or be our guide -- to
know whether or not we are right with God.
The Twelve Tribes
claim of a monopoly on God’s Spirit cannot be found in Scripture: unless it is
twisted. Their claim that a true Disciple MUST join a commune is also not
found in the list of essentials of Acts 15; however, we do acknowledge that
living together has advantages.
It is also obvious that (at least) some believers in the early church had homes and
possessions: Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-37; 10:17, 22.
How else could they have SOLD them???
The issue was not that a believer could not (temporarily) “own”
something on earth, as much as it was the attitude of his or her heart. See also
Acts 16:15; I Cor. 11:22; Heb. 10:34, and Job 42:10-16.
See also Mark 3:31-35; 8:34-38; Luke 12:21; 33-34; Rom. 12:3-5; 14:7-12;
Gal. 3:26-28; I Cor. 2:10-13; 3:16-23; 4:1-5; Col.
3:1-4; 12-17; Phil. 3:8-21; I Tim. 3:3, 8; I Pet. 1:17-19.
The
Twelve Tribes assert that the Holy Spirit ONLY comes by the "laying on of
hands" --- as in ONLY their hands --- and that virtually all people who
proclaim the name of Christ have a false Spirit. If this is so then how
was it that they received the Holy Spirit? From whose hands did their
leaders receive it: IF all Christians don't have the real thing??? Note
also that ALL 120 of the first disciples got the Holy Spirit directly from God,
as opposed to by the laying on of hands.
Luke
6:37 is a warning NOT to condemn other people: especially believers, yet the
Twelve Tribes do not hesitate to do so to anyone who visits their group who
doesn't feel compelled to immediately join them -- and thus be "saved"
from this evil and perverse generation. In other words they think that
they are the ONLY ones who are capable of living a holy, sanctified, set-apart
life for God, and that they are the only ones who are truly serving Him: and
that there are only about 7,000 true believers on the planet: ie. their members
ONLY.
We
do not believe that drinking coffee is a sin: Rom. 14:1-21; Col. 2:16-17.
We
do not believe that Christians should abandon the public sector.
For example, the Twelve Tribes don’t vote, but DO pray for Godly
leaders to be elected. They also
Home School their kids, but will probably not fight to keep doing so, but will
pray for other (apostate) Christians to take up the fight.
We do not believe that the Lord only works through the
Twelve Tribes. The prophet Jeremiah
“sat alone” and was told not to take a wife, nor have kids, nor go
into a house where people were eating and drinking and having fun, but simply to
warn the people to repent: Jer. 15:15-21; 16:1-9; and 17:10-13.
We are all told to “Go” out (into the world) and seek the Lost (Matt.
28:19-20; Acts 13:2-3) and that where two are more are gathered in His name,
that the Lord is in their midst. Campus
Crusade for Christ has over 28,000 full time missionaries.
Are not all people who surrender their lives to the Lord and follow and
serve Him true Disciples of Christ?
Our land was founded by Christians and upon the principles
in God’s word. Because of this,
public schools in America used to teach about the true and living God and Jesus
in the schools.
This changed because God’s people gradually abandoned the public sector, after
Darwin’s followers began to proclaim that they were the ones who were seeking
and speaking the truth, and that the facts of “science” supported their
beliefs much better than ours.
This will only turn around WHEN we realize that the truth and the facts are on
our side, and we come out of our hideouts and take back our schools and our
government: for the Scriptures make it clear that God Created the world and
the life forms on it: including man: and science and logic are proclaiming louder
and Louder
that there MUST be a Creator behind creation’s curtain. See
also: The Twelve Tribes of Israel,
or visit one of their communities or one of their restaurants that they call
"Yellow Deli's"
One
of their web sites is www.twelvetribes.org
See also:
The Sabbath
The Lord's
Supper
Who is a True Israelite?
Three
Proofs for a Creator
Is
Something Wrong with Church?
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