Counterfeits

by Jeff Pohlman

© 25 January, 2006

Proverbs 20 : 10  Differing weights and differing measures, both of them are abominable to the Lord.  23-  Differing weights are an abomination to the Lord, and a false scale is not good.

(New American Standard Version [NASV]- AMG Publishers - Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D. Greek Study Bible)

In my teaching  www.pohlman.info/hideandseek2.htm , about half way down the page under the heading entitled TWISTED LIGHT, I cover several aspects of fakery, by outlining such words as substitutes, vicarious, replacement, proxy, legal fiction, fiat, and counterfeits.  You may find it interesting, and maybe even as a good build up to this teaching.  I want to take a different tack here.

Have you ever known anyone who peddles a counterfeit item, on purpose, all the while trying to pull it off that he or she is peddling the genuine real thing?

Unfortunately, I have met and known a few people like that.  Even more unfortunately, I have lost quite a large sum of funds (my own combined with other precious brother's resources collectively) at the hands of such charlatans.  Everyone I meet in business seems to have had such encounters, and the experience either makes them more sharp, keen and attuned to discerning evil from good practitioners, or it makes them disillusioned, distrusting and suspect of all mankind, expecting the worst at every turn.

How many people do you know who say, "I want to believe in something that is false?"

This is less common, but it still exists - obviously.

PRELIMINARY GROUNDWORK

In the physical - if you consider what is being said in the opening scripture above, you come to realize that there were charlatans (and there still are) who made a living, on purpose, by wanting to chisel their customers, utilizing false weights, measures and scales.  They enjoyed being false.  Here's just one example of many plots and schemes that deceivers utilize.

An ounce of 24-carat gold takes up just so much physical space, known as mass.  Dealers in precious metals have certain "standards" for measuring such things, but for our understanding, let's just say that an ounce of 24-carat gold measures in at a ½-inch cube (this not the real - but made up so we can gain understanding).  If I (as a buyer of gold) were to try and purposely fake you out (a seller of mined gold dust), I would have what looks like that standardized ½-inch cube of 24-carat gold, but in truth, the center of it has some lead in it that I've plated over with gold.  So, when you arrive at my dealing table, I put my seeming-24-carat weight on the scale, and we pile on your gold dust, until the scale balances out.  I give you the going rate of $350 per ounce for the supposed-ounce you gave me, and we're done.  The truth is, if a true "standard" balance measure were utilized, it would be discovered that you gave me the equivalent of a ¾-inch cube of gold, and I would owe you another $175 more.

Schemes like that are something that most people in Christendom are not likely to fabricate, but unfortunately, there are proverbial wolves in sheep's clothing lurking in our midst.

In the spiritual - when you challenge people on their actions, which are stemming from their belief-systems, you almost always are presented with a compelling argument that they are doing what they are doing because they think it is "right" and or "good."  You just don't find people who are motivated to do things on purpose because they are the wrong or false things to be doing.  Think about that for a moment.  You probably have a few people you can think of, who are operating out of a theological base that YOU think is wrong, but you know that if you challenged them, they'd respond to you that they think they are doing something that is right.

If you think about that long enough, it humbles you to seek deeply the things of Jesus, to be on His true and correct footing, at the same time, praying for mercy for others, not out of judgment, but compassion, that they too will find the right footing IN JESUS.

With so many spiritually "well-intentioned" humans running around, why do we have such a running amuck - spiritually?  Guess who the muck runner IS?  Yup, old satan himself - master of twisting of truth, bender of lies, situational ethicist himself.  He will try to get you to swallow 99.999% truth right along with .001% false, and he's more than willing to wait a long time in doing it, in the interest of increasing the false side, just one .001% at a time, until down the road, when you are swallowing 100% false.  Can you hear his accusation ringing in your ears, "it's just a little white lie?"  "It's not THAT bad?"  The next thing you know...

Proverbs 6 : 2  If you have been snared with the words of your mouth, have been caught with the words of your mouth,  3-  do this then, my son, and deliver yourself; since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, go, humble yourself and importune your neighbor.  4-  Do not give sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids;  5-  Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter's hand, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

(New American Standard Version [NASV]- AMG Publishers - Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D. Greek Study Bible)

... so save yourself.  Now there's an interesting remedy.  Your mouth got you in trouble, so save yourself.  Your own words ensnared you, now use your mouth, and words from your brain, and un-ensnare yourself.

(Are you wondering...) "How do you do that?"  Exactly as pointed out above.  First recognize sin for what it is, point it out, expose it.  Look at that initial .001% and identify it for what it is - sin.  Quit the situational ethical rationalizations.  Call it for what it is - sin.  Follow on with all of the rest of the twisting that has also been mislabeled as "good" by you, when it is truly sin.  Stop calling good as "bad," and evil as "good."  Recognize the trait for what it is, deception.  Lay the spiritual axe to the root, cut satan out of your life.  Only recognize good, and call it good.  If you must see the enemy's camp, see the evil and call it evil.  Sounds so simple, doesn't it?  It is a life-work for most of us.  Willing-obedience is the stuff that makes it strength-walking-in-Jesus for most of us.  On the other hand, slothful sinfulness makes it into spirit-weak slavery for others of us - and we must pray with all hope and humbleness for those folks.

SOME HISTORY

With that as a lead-in, I want to look at a most-interesting counterfeit deception that has mired the ekklesia, the chosen called out ones of Christ, and I do mean MIRED.  We are by-and-large caught in a quicksand bog of such great proportions, 6,000+ year's worth, that it is going to certainly take the miraculous move of Christ Himself to unfetter His collective Body (which hopefully includes us) in order for us to be a fitting Bride for Him at His return.  For now, our concern is to be the people we are supposed to be, looking to our individually freedom at first, and also collectively as we have our individuality straightened out in humbleness.

From day-one in the garden until sin-day, mankind had the freedom to openly  and frequently fellowship with the Creator of the universe.  While He is omnipresent, it is said that He wasn't before mankind's face at all times, sometimes He was unseen and that He had a way of making Himself seen at other occasions.  A fleshly manifestation, if you will.  I won't go into that deeply, but many people think that the flesh manifestation was actually that of Jesus', since He has been with the Father right from the beginning.  If you try to think about that too long, it might just boggle your mind, since Jesus was immaculately born through a woman, physically, at a certain later point in earth-human-time (roughly in the year 3760 in the Hebrew calendar as we know it).

From sin-day until Jesus was crucified (roughly 3793 in the Hebrew calendar as we know it), those of the Hebrew race had an ever increasing incremental collection of laws to live under.  Sin-day immediately brought on the necessity to cover one's sin (animal skin coverings) by the shedding of (animal) blood, in order to have a very limited access to Father God.  This is only a temporary fix.  It isn't a permanent solution in God's eyes.  A man who was created as perfect, with the free will to transgress, also sinned, and thus it became perfectly clear to the Hebrew people that a perfect man (Messiah - meaning consecrated, or the anointed human ONE [not animal] - the only one capable of bringing true healing for the sins of the nation of mankind) had to be blood-sacrificed for the sins of the whole of humanity.

As an overlap, starting in the earliest days of Jesus "ministry" until He was crucified, and right up until the middle of the fourth century after He was gone, Jesus' called out ones were set free from the LAW of providing temporary animal sacrifices in the temple buildings and ritual adherence to sacraments and ever-increasing manmade laws.  Read that very carefully and let it sink in to your spirit.

ON TO THE OBVIOUS

Now if I stopped there, you'd be somewhat puzzled.  You'd be thinking, "How can he say that for approximately ONLY  350 to 370 years we were set free from the law, but now he's insinuating that we are back under the law?"

Read it over again and again.  That IS what I am insinuating, IF you are one of the people who has succumbed to the counterfeit doctrinal teaching of the Judaizers (they even call it "orthodox" - a Greek word meaning right-thinking, but that makes it a contradiction of terms, because it's most certainly NOT right-thinking in the least bit).  You can judge that for yourself as we look at it here.  It really isn't for me to judge.  As far as I am concerned, if I ask you, you will tell me that you desire to do what is right, and you fully believe you are indeed doing what is right.  Therefore, the revelation is for you to find out in Jesus' Holy Spirit revealing time (as opposed to being from the mind of another man), and for you to execute a change, in case you find out differently about your beliefs and deeds.

Ah, there's the clue, the counterfeit teaching of the Judaizers.  What must that be?

THE MEAT OF IT

The sum of the Hebraic experience always brings us back to what we see as an example that developed as a result of the Hebrew nation leaving the totalitarian fascist regime of Egypt , wherein the Lord had the Jews sprinkle sheep's blood on the doorposts of their "houses" so God's Angel-of-Death didn't touch the faithful-&-believing-Hebrew households, but slaughtered the first born of all else.

Up until the Hebrew captivity in Egypt, you can follow along during the lineage of eventually-noteworthy forefathers like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph (who peaceably and figuratively brought the Hebrews to reside in Egypt), where rituals, altars and temples had been on an incremental increase for all the tribes of Judah (Jews), but this "Passover" event solidified and codified a united annual ceremony for the nation of Jews, from that point forward.

So, from that first exodus-Passover event up until several decades after Jesus came and left (whenever the Jerusalem temple was again destroyed), the slaughtering of animals as a temporary blood-atonement-sacrifice for our sins was a regular annual fixture in their lives.  Not only that, the "laws" kept being added to incrementally, and they encompassed other items like the meeting building, the priesthood, the customs and traditions, the board of directors, and so forth.  If there is one pivotal stand-out custom, which set the Jews apart from the rest of the world, it was the practice of circumcision.  Under that ritual then, fall all of the other assignments from God, in order to be a "Jew."  And by all, I mean all - which includes the festivals, the buildings, the ritual practices - all.  It just so happens that circumcision is a "mark," a standout feature.

DEVELOPMENT OF A COUNTERFEIT

When considering the counterfeit teaching that crept into "The Way" of the Christians (as they were called, right after Jesus left), one has to think about where the counterfeit came from and by whom it came.  Jesus and all of the writers who eventually became canonized into what we call The Holy Bible, all referred to His followers as His chosen, or His "Called Out Ones" (the Greek word for that is ekklesia - still seen in the Greek derivative language of Spanish as the word iglesia).  There is never a reference in ANY original scripts where we are referred to as a building, a meeting or an institution (which is what the Middle English Scots-Irish word kirk means, which began being used by King James in his 1611 translation, and which eventually became the word church).  Jesus definitively set us all free from the law of sin and death.  There is no argument over that.  He has shattered the shackles of the old institution, the legalism, the laws, the temple, the building, the need for an altar, and all rituals - including circumcision.  The evidence and marks have all been fulfilled in their need to be executed in each of our lives, BY HIM.  If you follow algebra, you know that we no longer have requirement to partake in any of the "old institution, the legalism, the laws, the temple, the building, the need for an altar, and all rituals - including circumcision."

If you have argument with that, I suggest you reread all of what Jesus is quoted as saying in all of the New Testament in the Bible.  You'll find it there.

THAT, is exactly what the Judaizers DID have argument with.  They dogged Him while He was here, in the form of Pharisees, Sadducees and the high tribunal of the orthodox Sanhedrists.  Once He was gone, they didn't just lay down and play dead themselves, did they?  Scripture tells us several accounts where "the circumcision party" kept right on dogging the Called Out Ones, including all of the apostles, in fact the entire early called out ones.  Sanhedrist-Saul was one of the first protagonists of the Circumcision Party, having a hand at having Stephen and James killed very early on.  Uh oh, not so nice a bunch of people, are they, all over what?  Counterfeit tradition.  Then the Lord had His way with Saul, knocked him down several pegs, he eventually became Paul, and from then on even Paul was dogged by the Judaizer-Circumcision Party (read Galatians) and he had to have a come-to-Jesus meeting with Peter and the apostles at Jerusalem over it at one point - but they got it worked out according to Jesus' plan (i.e. - no old traditions).

If you think that circumcision was the only issue they had with these early followers of Jesus, you'd better put your logic-hat back on and think about it.  If you read Peter's account of it, you get to see that the "pull" was to go right back to all of the ritual obedience issues, food exclusions and so forth.  Jesus substituted Himself in the Passover feast so we don't ever have to slaughter an animal again.  He resides in US as His temple, doing away with all temples, their rituals, sacrifices, and so forth.  Reasonable understanding shows us that a new form of human leadership was set in order, as Paul describes to us, but a blood sacrificing priesthood is no longer necessary.  I have said this many times and I'll repeat it here.  If Jesus had intended for us to go right back and take part in any or all of the old ways, He could have, and he most certainly WOULD have easily instructed us, AND I believe we'd have it there for all of us to see and read, four-fold, as in the first four books of the Gospel.  He didn't do it, did He?  Neither did any of the other writers God used to write any of the Bible!  It's simple.  We do not have to succumb to the way of the counterfeit Judaizers.

TWO ASIDES

For one moment, let's step aside and look at the word counterfeit, and then we'll come back to the specific groups who produce counterfeits in our spiritual realm.

1-  A very common story that you may have heard is how people are trained, who are in any type of money-handling retail setting, to spot counterfeits.  Do you know the answer?  They are taken through long sessions where they do nothing but handle the true item.  Over and over and over.  When the counterfeit comes along, it stands out.  If you've ever been in the situation, you know what I mean.  I remember my first time, as a young man in high school working at a fast food hamburger joint, having handled tens of thousands of dollars, and one day a phony bill came across my hands.  It shocked me.  I can tell you, it works.

QUESTION:  Which ones of these are real?

ANSWER:  None.  They are all electronic pictures, none of them can be turned into real paper money.

Handling the real thing, the true acid-free, highest-possible rag content paper, with intaglio-printed ink of a specific defined hue that's only available to the government printing office, the perfectly centered stampings, the perfectly cut edges, the underlying multiple colors and variations of shading, and all of the little embedded watermark pieces that go along with the real thing, you become very keen to the weight, the very feel is most tender to your touch - despite the wrinkles, stains and tears that come with use.  The more you handle the truth - the real - the more sensitive you become, in case a fake comes along.  There ARE spiritual applications to that, when you meditate on it and ask the Lord to show you where they are.

2-   In case you think I'm being a smarty-know-it-all with that last question, and especially with the answer, let me give you an account of a real-life instance.  As a result of business that I do, I occasionally have contacts outside the USA.  This catches the attention of scam-artists once in a while (if you want to give them the credit of being artists, I just think they are the leech dregs of society).  On my birthday several years ago, I was told that as a result of my contacts, I had also been entered in an international lottery (like when you utilize your American Express card and you're automatically entered in a drawing once a year), and I had won a healthy sum along with a few other people.  Where I have business banking relationships with no less than eight banking institutions, this was a real possibility - but not probable in my way of thinking, and I was suspicious at the start.

Apparently, there are plenty of folks who believe these sorts of things without asking questions.  I didn't.  If you think about it a moment, you can imagine if you were presented with such a piece, with your name in the "Pay To The Order Of" section, and think about what your reaction would be.  Would the quantity catch your attention and make you think or wonder if it was for real?

I performed an amount of due diligence with officials and my main bank, sending them the copies of the seemingly official documents, announcement's, the demands, and the supposed check made out to me.  While I did my confirmation process, the grand total winning was supposedly being moved from the Netherlands to Nigeria, and then the divided winnings would be distributed to us winners.  I was to receive a sum of $800,000.  In order to receive it, I was supposed to send an $850 Western Union® check to someone in Nigeria.  I was sent all sorts of official-looking government and banking documents to substantiate the verity of the people I was dealing with - supposedly that would allay any suspicions I had.

While you are looking at a computer generated picture, a check that looks like this, and one that is printed in conjunction with that bank name could be real.  It's entirely possible that the scammers had a real printed version that they were using to copy from.  I guess there are fools born every minute in the USA, and they were counting on hooking me as another on of them.

Here is the eMail post I sent on 2 DEC 03 to the perpetrator(s) of the crime.

To:  Mr. John Morgan

Ms. Irene Brown, of my own bank - disclosed this information about ABN-AMRO and Chase Bank of Texas…

While the bank title on the check is from "ABN-AMRO BANK" (a legitimate bank in the Netherlands), the routing number is not for them, whereas the document attempts to portray that a different banking institution is substituting in proxy for ABN-AMRO BANK, - being - CHASE BANK OF TEXAS - 214.741.1602

The Bank Routing Number (113000609) is DEFINITELY for Chase Bank Of Texas, but it is for their Electronic Funds Distribution Department Only, and would NEVER be printed on a hard printed document or funds instrument, as in a printed check, or especially a cashier's draft, besides, that routing numbers is for RECEIVING funds only and not for sending funds out.

Per the representative at Chase, the digits that indicate which branch it comes (336000) from are illegitimate numbers, no where close to any numbers they use for their legitimate branches.

This check is a FRAUD.

Computer generated on someone's electronic computer generated photo manipulation program.

Expect a visit from international fraud police soon.

Well, you may think that's an interesting story, and that criminals get away with such things all the time.  I am just that skeptical.  But they must collect enough money from unsuspecting people in order to keep doing it, especially knowing that someone might just show up at one of their real physical addresses that money is delivered to.  You can imagine my surprise when I found out that because I submitted the information to the proper authorities, I was able to be part of a sting operation to catch these criminals.

Here is the press account I received just two months later on 30 JAN 04.

Dutch Police Arrest 52 in E-Mail Scam

The sad part to us is that several of our very good friends in the Lord have missionary work that touches these areas throughout the African continent.  Specifically, one fellow from Benin has been trying to get to the USA for college level schooling for some time, and these sorts of scams don't help the reputation of his country, nor to raise levels of trust for exchanging monies when it really is necessary.  Even more sad, the fellow we are talking about, one Herve Mama, is the son of one of the highest security individuals in the country, and he was trying to start schooling at Tulane University in New Orleans, on his way here, when the 2005 hurricane Katrina wiped out Tulane.  We have not heard from Herve since.  Very sad.

Okay, before we get too far off track, let's get back to the meat of the article...

EXPLORING SPIRITUAL COUNTERFEITS TO TRUE EKKLESIA

Let me ask you two questions as a lead-in to this next section...

- if Christ's called out ones (Greek - ekklesia) are the true living embodiment of Jesus' Bride, meaning it's a relationship - not a building, incorporated institution, set of rituals, and so forth ...

    Are we teaching Body (as ekklesia-called out ones), according to Ephesians 4, to spiritually handle as much of the real and true as possible, so we are not tossed about to and fro, and that the brethren who come after us will stand and walk strong in Christ, even alone if need be?

    Are we teaching church [middle Scots-Irish-English - kirk] (institution, ritual, building, circumcision, sacrament, sacrifice), handling so much fake that we can't distinguish when the real (ekklesia - called out ones - Body of Christ) does indeed come along?

Very tough questions, and as I said, almost all of us want to be on the side of doing what is right.  It borders on judgmentalism if you use them to look at others instead of yourself only - so be careful not to use an eye toward your neighbor and only look at yourself when reviewing those questions.

All right, let's go back to the discussion of specific groups who produce counterfeits in our spiritual realm.

Paganism - I am not going to spend much time in this arena, because I go into great depth in other writings that you can find on my web site.  Suffice it to say that the pagans cannot duplicate true relationship found in Jesus.  Impossible.  What we definitely have in Jesus is the ability to have the Creator of the universe living in us and through us, as us, for all eternity, starting now.  That one sentence is such a strong and powerful evangelistic statement.  The pagans can't duplicate that relationship, so they offer a second-best substitute, proffered by their king of lies, satan himself, and that substitute is sexual practices that are outside of the marital bonds which our Lord called us into, and their practices are based on seasonal changes and ritual - even sacramental shows.  Unfortunately, well meaning Christians even sucker for these most base counterfeits, while not recognizing paganism nor satan as their Lord, but they are still drawn away from the "real," as a result of their flesh-intervention over their spirit-control.

Judaizers - These folks who are categorized in Biblical terms as "The Circumcision Party," (now there's a party I am not interested in attending) are actually easily understood.  They had a history of well over 3,000 years of traditions, laws and buildings to maintain.  They did indeed have temple taxes to pay for the upkeep, and that was quite a task in itself.  On top of that they had a collection system in place, called the tithe, to pay for the priest-system of administrators of the temple rituals and animal sacrificing.  Then they had a whole collection of laws, God-written and man-contrived, that had amassed over those three-plus-millennia.

Think of it in the most simple terms - here's a parable.  In order to receive a high school diploma, you had to wear strictly defined and enforced gender-specific uniforms, and successfully pass 12 years of schooling.  In your last four years, you had to pass all four year's classes of English, History, Math, Science, Physical Education, a foreign language and at least one elective course in all four years.  How do you feel when you are in your graduation ceremony and the announcement is made that next year and after, no one has to wear uniforms anymore, and they have dropped the physical education and foreign language requirements?

THAT my dear readers is how many of the Hebrews felt, while Jesus was here on earth teaching His New Testament ways, and at the moment of His death He sealed the truth of it (when the temple curtain was ripped top to bottom).  3,000+ years of tradition, has just been tossed in the waste basket.  Traditions die hard my dear friends.  If you don't believe it, you just haven't been in an institutional setting long enough.  Just get yourself employed in an institution and wait for the winds of change to blow and you'll see what I mean.

You can read the accounts of the Sanhedrist Saul seeing to it that Stephen was stoned to death, how James was executed with a sword and it PLEASED the Judaizers.  How Peter was quickly to be next, but God spared him for some reason.  How Peter was vexed by the Judaizers and it took a monumental dream to get him to see the error of his Judaistic ways.  How the Galatians under the apostle Paul's tutelage had to totally reconstruct their Judaizer-thinking and practices.

You would have to read history books to see that Jesus' called out ones (ekklesia), called The Way, maintained a building-free form of RELATIONSHIP for more than 300 years, until Emperor Constantine declared Christianism as the state religion, and thus institutionalized what had been a relationship up until that point, bringing it into chapels and cathedrals (temples) once again.  Talk about a shackling counterfeit!!!  And it has worked that way since.  HOWEVER, just like in the days when Elijah hid in a cave from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, there is a remnant of God's who sees the truth, and functions outside the counterfeit, who do not bow their knee to the institution nor to the paganistic relics and signs, nor are they part of many of the "church" buildings found around the land today (yet another teaching - i.e. paganism right within christianism), where some of them might be in the buildings, but their spirits are in Jesus .

LAST THOUGHTS

I asked you early on "Have you ever known anyone who peddles a counterfeit item, on purpose, all the while trying to pull it off that he or she is peddling the genuine real thing?"

I'll let you know this, Jesus warned us that tares (weeds that look like the real wheat for a while) would grow up right along side the wheat, and we are to continue expecting it, BUT we are also to have discernment - not with a "weeding-out" mentality where we pull them out and throw them away - that's for Jesus and His timing, not our vigilance or zeal.

So what do we expect?  Be real.  What do you think the odds are?  How many people do you think surround you, who fall into that category of peddling a counterfeit item, on purpose, all the while trying to pull it off that they are peddling the genuine real thing?

Answer:  you don't have to look any farther than Jesus own disciples, and that may be a generous ratio, but we'll leave it at that.  One in twelve.  Judas.  They are there.  We are not to be on some colonial witch hunt.  Just know that they are there.  Don't be surprised when their heads pop up, accepting the bribe, and going a different way, mercenaries that they are.

Don't be surprised when you see them bringing divisiveness into The Way, Jesus' chosen called out ones, in the interest of maintaining tradition, buildings, ritual sacraments, (maybe even circumcisions) and so forth.  In that day, stand strong, and declare with Joshua...

Joshua 24 : 15  ... as for me and my house ,we will serve the LORD.

(New American Standard Version [NASV]- AMG Publishers - Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D. Greek Study Bible)

Stand strong, handle as much of the truth in spirit as you can.  Teach those in your charge to do the same.  When the tares of counterfeiting-satan come along (some of them will even come along unwittingly to themselves), your alarm bells will go off, and you'll know how to handle them, in spirit and truth, as well as love.

© 2006  Permission to copy or reprint granted only if full version is quoted and proper notation of authorship recognition is given.

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