A New Wineskin
California, 1971. The Jesus Movement was in full swing.
There was an excitement there such as Gene had never seen
in all of his religious childhood. It was easy to get involved
-- praising the Lord, witnessing on the streets, and passing
out Jesus tracts to the endless stream of hitchhikers traveling
up and down the coast of California. He volunteered to
work in a rescue mission and developed a special burden
for this radical generation of youth. It wasn't long before
he realized that most people in the movement did not have
a deep conviction in their heart, but were just caught
up in the impulsive enthusiasm of the times. He observed
that even the sincere ones did not seem to have the power
to overcome the sins of their former life. Despite the
popular movement's outward zeal, which Gene so admired,
he could see that their fire was only a fading ember. Already
the seemingly radical changes in people's lives were beginning
to wear off, and they began settling back into the status
quo of rote [1] religion.
In the midst of these circumstances, walking alone on
the California beach, Gene came face to face with the truth
of John 15:5, "I am the vine, you are the branches;
he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit;
for apart from Me you can do nothing." If his life
was to mean anything, if he was going to actually do what
he had been created for, it could only come about through
obeying and utterly depending on his Savior -- and teaching
others to do the same. Eventually Gene left California
and headed east to the Rocky Mountains. He had heard there
were lots of "flower children" disillusioned with the "Woodstock
Nation" and people who had dropped out of traditional lifestyles
who were living in the mountains trying to find peace.
Perhaps there he would find people who wanted to hear the
good news of the salvation he had found in Jesus, the Savior
of the world.
A Radical Atheist
In a small, unspoiled mountain village in Wyoming lived
a young woman named Marsha. Unlike Gene, she had been raised
knowing nothing about the Bible and could count on one
hand the times she had even been in a church building.
Her college philosophy courses, combined with the religious
hypocrisy she had seen all her life in southern California,
had convinced her there couldn't be a God. She couldn't
believe the Christians who said they had a "personal relationship
with God" when their lives were full of the same ambitions,
pleasures, pursuits, and mundane daily routines as her
own. She knew in her heart that if there really were a
God and someone actually knew Him, that person would be
radically different!
The emptiness of college and the shallow relationships
there had caused her to drop out and move to that small
village, looking for love and peace and a life that was
closer to nature. There she had found others who seemed
to want the same thing -- to really live
and be real. But before long her friends traded in their
ideals for a subtle conformity. Their passion for justice
and love started gradually being replaced by the same old
greed and selfishness they had all tried to leave behind.
When Gene showed up in the village, she admired his passion
but was offended at his Bible. Yet when he read to her
about the love of this man called Jesus and the high standard
of justice His words called for, she was intrigued. If
people actually did what this man said, it would result
in a society that was everything Marsha had always dreamed
of. She barraged Gene with challenging questions: Why had
she never seen these words lived out? Why did Christians
do little more than dress up in fancy clothes and meet
in elaborate buildings, even in countries racked with poverty?
For these questions Gene had no answers. All he knew was
that the Son of God had saved him, had filled his heart
with a love for others, and would do the same for anyone
who sincerely called out to Him. It wasn't the Savior's
fault that people weren't obeying His words.
Marsha couldn't ignore the truth of what she was hearing.
Amazingly, this confirmed atheist put her trust in the
Son of God, for she had become convinced that He was mankind's
only hope. Soon afterwards, she and Gene returned to California
and were married -- joined in a covenant
that has withstood the test of time for over three decades.
The Last Place on Earth
Even though Gene had a new life and was married to a woman
who shared his convictions, he knew that many things from
his old life in Tennessee were unresolved. And he could
not be devoted to the purpose God had called him to until
his conscience was completely clear. Facing his past in
Chattanooga was painful for Gene, and the south was the
last place on earth that Marsha wanted to be, steeped as
she was in the stereotypical prejudices of her California
upbringing. But their lives no longer belonged to themselves.
They were living for their Savior now, so off they went
to Gene's hometown.
They both got jobs there, and soon all the debts were
paid and (as much as possible) all the wrongs were righted.
During this time they attended services at several of the
churches in the area where their zeal for the Lord attracted
much attention. They also opened their home to anyone who
wanted to come and learn about their Savior. Many young
people came to meetings in their living room just to sing
and talk about Jesus. Because of the things they heard
and the love they experienced there, many teenagers quit
taking drugs. People hailed their ministry as "a great
work." Every Sunday they would bring a truckload of young
people to the different churches they attended. Their little
group was popular, and everyone was happy.
The Light Brigade
The little brown house on Ringgold Road where Gene and
Marsha lived became known as The Light House ,
and the little band of believers began sharing their faith
through an "underground" paper called The Light Brigade
Freepaper . They were excited about experiencing love,
a clean conscience, and a new life. Whenever there was
a concert or other public gathering, the Light Brigade
would be there handing out papers.
The response was amazing. Teenagers showed up at all hours
of the day and night. Some had nowhere else to go and needed
a place to stay. But how would Gene and Marsha have time
to care for these people if they continued working their
regular jobs? Unwilling to turn away anyone sincere, they
were in need of a bigger house. But how would they make
ends meet? Asking for donations was out of the question.
The Bible taught them to do honest work with their own
hands to have something to share with those in need. [2] That's
just what they wanted to do -- work together
and share everything they had with each other.
Thus was born The Yellow Deli restaurant. They
did yard work to get a few dollars together and rented
a small building. After a couple of months of renovation
and a coat of bright yellow paint, the cozy little sandwich
shop was ready to open. It was a place where they could
work for a living and still be together, learning all about
their Savior and His teachings. Anyone who came in to get
a meal could also get a glimpse of the new life they had
found -- the result of being forgiven
and having the Holy Spirit living inside. On the menu they
printed, "We serve the fruit of the Spirit. Why not ask?"
People loved to come in and talk and sit for hours in
this restaurant. It was a peaceful place, not full of the
usual tense atmosphere of a typical sandwich shop. The
local papers did big full-color stories about them, giving
glowing reports of their work and their menu.
For a reasonable price they were able to find a big house
in need of much repair, which they fixed up and began living
in. It just happened to be on "Vine Street." The name reminded
Gene of the Bible verse he had come to know so well: "I
am the vine, you are the branches ; apart
from Me you can do nothing," so they called their new home The
Vine House .
They still attended services at various churches, but
problems were beginning to surface. There were murmurings
in the congregations about the "hippies" and black people
invading their respectable gatherings. The young disciples
were starting to ask difficult questions, too. They wondered
how the people they went to church with could be so wealthy
when there were so many poor people around. And why did
they act so cold and distant? Hadn't Gene told them that
Christians were called to live a life of selfless love
for their neighbor?
The Super Bowl
One Sunday it all came to a head. The church they were
attending cancelled their evening service because the Super
Bowl game was going to be on TV. Even though the preacher
had many good things to say in his sermons, it didn't seem
to make much difference in the lives of the people. Their
priorities seemed to be like the ones Gene had given up
when he was saved.
From that day on, the little band of disciples stopped
attending services. Instead they just went to a nearby
park on Sunday mornings to sing and worship. After all,
the Bible never said there had to be a preacher in a pulpit
and everyone else listening quietly in pews. On the contrary,
the Bible taught that everyone should bring something to
say, or a song to sing. [3]
That choice was very significant. When we stopped "going
to church" and started being the church something
wonderful began to happen. We began discovering who we
were, and what God wanted to have happen on the earth.
Verses in the Bible that we hadn't really noticed before
began to stand out. With excitement we discovered that
the disciples in the first century lived just as we were
living. Acts 2:44 said, "All who believed were together
and had all things in common." And Acts 4:32 was
even clearer: "All the believers were one in heart
and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was
his own, but they shared everything they had."
The Vine Christian Community
From that time on opponents rose up from the ranks of
the religious against our little band of disciples. No
longer were we just a nice little ministry to young people
that made up for how the churches were failing to reach
the youth. Now we had become an independent entity, The
Vine Christian Community . We weren't asking the churches
for donations, teachings, seminary training, or approval.
We were paying our own way and raising up our own leaders.
People who hadn't wanted us at their churches in the first
place were now offended that we had stopped coming. We
didn't really understand what was going on and tried to
make peace, but found all our efforts futile. When we tried
to explain that according to the Bible we were just doing
what was normal for believers, it only made matters worse. "You're
saying that you're the only ones!" was the most common
response. Lies and slanderous rumors began to surface about
us. Suddenly we weren't so popular anymore.
All this time, however, our numbers were growing. We had
to buy another house to accommodate all the people who
came to live and work with us. And when a disciple from
a nearby town wanted a Yellow Del i back where
he had come from, we moved people there, got a house, and
found a building for the restaurant. Then came more houses
and more delis. Within four or five years' time we were
running seven delis and occupied a dozen large houses in
Chattanooga and the surrounding area. And we still handled
all of our assets as we had at first -- voluntarily
sharing all that we had.
And so it went. Often because of difficult circumstances,
and always at great personal cost, disciples were sent
out to establish communities. But that, after all, was
the foundation we had been on from the beginning: meeting
meeting the pressing need, giving out of what sustained
us, doing whatever love demanded. We hadn't sat down and
planned out how to spread our beliefs or our lifestyle.
We hadn't anticipated becoming more than what we started
in Tennessee. Nevertheless, by 1990, communities had been
established in four other countries, several were going
in the New England area, and one in the Midwest. By the
year 2000, communities had begun in several other countries,
as well as in many other parts of the United States. [4]
Dry Bones
Just as we had never intended to become a worldwide movement,
we had also never imagined ourselves to be a part of the
fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. But over the years it
gradually became clear that a restoration was taking place
in our midst, and that we were living at a very significant
time in history.
In the 1970s we knew from our heart and our experience
that there was more to following the Savior than going
to church. As we tried to pursue our desire to live a life
pleasing to our Savior, we began to see things in the Bible
that confirmed us. The accounts we read of the first-century
church portrayed people who lived a radical life of self-sacrificing
love for one another and were distinctly different from
the society around them. It was all too obvious that such
a life was missing from the Christian Churches of the twentieth
century.
The reason was fairly obvious, too. There was no radical
difference between churchgoers and non-churchgoers because
there was no authoritative message being proclaimed to
tell people what God wanted them to do. Jesus' love for
His Father caused Him to obey His Father's word. He, in
turn called His disciples to the same love. He went before
them and was their example. His message called them to
abandon their fishing nets and tax booths and to give away
their personal possessions. He commanded them to sever
their ties with any family members who opposed their devotion
to the cause. The apostle Paul had even renounced his training
as a Biblical scholar in order to know this Jesus whom
his colleagues despised. But Christianity did not preach
such "hard sayings." Instead, it has intellectually dissected
the words of Messiah and rationalized away the need to
obey them.
It wasn't hard for us to see why that authoritative message
was missing in modern times. Someone would have to consistently
live that life of self-sacrifice and care himself, because
of his love for Jesus, before he would have the authority
to call others to abandon everything to follow Him. Thus,
a major focus for us in the 1970s was learning to be obedient
to the message we had received.
During the 1980s we continued to seek in the Bible for
the foundation of the early church to find our identity.
Gradually it dawned on us what the first Church had been -- not
just a religion, but a nation. [5] That
nation had been known as the Commonwealth of Israel. [6]It
had been made up of priests (each one a representative
of God on earth) and had possessed its own culture. Piece
by piece, the puzzle began to take shape. There had been
a radical separation between the Church and the world in
the first century and there had been a very good reason
for it. The nations of the world functioned on the basis
of Natural Law -- the things that all men knew in their
consciences to be true and right [7]-- but
the priesthood had a higher law and greater accountability.
As we studied the history and prophecies of the Old Testament,
passages from the New Testament became much clearer. Living
according to Natural Law was not bad, and God had an eternal
reward for all who struggled to do right (see What
About the Heathen? page 78), but good morals alone
could not accomplish the purpose of God on the earth. There
had to be a holy nation that proved their love for Messiah
before He could return to the earth to establish His kingdom
with them. There would have to be a people separate from
the nations of the world who would live their lives obeying
His commands. Matthew 24:14 and 21:43 were very clear on
this point.By the close of the 1980s, though, it became
obvious that this holy nation would not even be able to
exist on the earth apart from the influence of righteous
men in the governments of the nations -- men
who would uphold freedom of religion and other basic human
rights.
As we entered the 1990s, we began gathering every morning
and evening to pray for the rulers of the nations in which
we dwelt. [8] At the
same time, our message became much more sharply focused.
We gained more understanding about the ways in which society
was violating the Natural Law -- to the
point of calling evil good and good evil. It was becoming
obvious that the time-honored ideals of the hard-working
man, the submissive wife, and respectful children were
under attack in the world around us. Men were striving
for positions where they could make the most money with
the least sweat possible. Women were demanding at least
a 50-50 partnership where there was no acknowledged head.
Children were increasingly being left to themselves to
choose their own course and form their own values. The
concept of family was being re-defined to the point that
homosexual partnerships were being given the same legal
status as marriage in some places.
We felt a growing urgency to let people know about the
good, clean life our Savior had given us. In addition to
passing out literature at public events and backpacking
in pairs across the countr
yside to share our message, we
established a toll-free number and later a website where
people with questions could find answers. We continued
to print our freepapers, calling our main publication The
Twelve Tribes Freepaper .
As the twentieth century drew to a close, various Biblical
prophecies stood out to us. Isaiah 49:6 spoke of the "raising
up of the tribes of Jacob to be a light to the nations
so that salvation could reach to the ends of the earth." It
was becoming clear that salvation reaching the ends of
the earth (which Matthew 24:14 said must happen in order
for Messiah to return and bring about the end of the age)
depended on a nation composed of twelve tribes. These tribes,
we came to understand, would not be the natural descendants
of Jacob, but a spiritual Commonwealth of Israel [9]-- twelve
self-governing tribes. Each tribe would be composed of
the disciples in a geographical area, living a common life
together that would be a light to the people around them.
It would be restored gradually, like the vision of dry
bones in Ezekiel 37, member by member becoming united together
and fleshed out into a host of communities -- the
resurrection of a spiritual nation whose hope had dried
up at the end of the first century.
We realized that this was our future, if we proved worthy
of it, but many movements have come and gone in the last
nineteen centuries, and none have fully recaptured the
fervor of the first-century disciples and spread it to
the ends of the earth. Always there have been selfish motives,
factions, corruption, and compromise. Never has there been
a people such as the prophetic dream Daniel [10] describes -- a "stone
kingdom" made up of people hewn from the mountain of the
world "without human hands." Attempts at restoration have
always involved fleshly human effort in forms such as political
alliances between church and state, the use of military
force, and persuasive propaganda. But the Stone Kingdom
of Daniel's prophecy can only be established through love,
bonding people together by a deep affection based on the
sacrifices they have made for each other.
And so we have reached a critical point. There are communities
being raised up in twelve geographical areas by responsible
people who have been disciples for decades. Their children,
for the most part, are building this nation with their
parents. A rich culture is emerging in our midst. We have
a clear vision for the future. But we face a supreme test.
Will we continue to allow the new wine of the Holy Spirit
to fill our hearts and change our lives? We will if we
remain true to our Master's words in John 15:5 -- "Apart
from Me you can do nothing." The challenge is to
rely on the Spirit of Love, and not on our own natural
abilities, so that we will not fall prey to the pride,
selfish desires, and compromise that have caused every
other movement of the last two millennia to fail. Everything,
quite literally everything, depends on this. And with this
vision we press on, for the love of our Master Yahshua
compels us. [11]
[1]Rote: routine
or repetition carried out mechanically or unthinkingly.
[2] Ephesians 4:28
[3] 1 Corinthians 14:26
[4] See the back cover
for addresses of some of our communities, or visit our
web site for a complete list.
[5] 1 Peter 2:9
[6] Ephesians 2:12
[7] Romans 2:14-15
[8] 1 Timothy 2:1-8
[9] Ephesians 2:12
[10] Daniel 2:31-45
[11] 2 Corinthians
5:14-15
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