Q. I was visiting the homepage of a polygamous wife and emailed her to ask some questions about the materials on her site. I was shocked when I got a stinging rebuke from her for (as a man) not asking permission from her husband to speak to her first, and was told to apologise to him! When I wrote to the husband I was told that she had been right and that 'law is law'. I find this sort of behaviour bizzare and more reminiscent of Islam. What does this ministry say?

This is indeed bizzare and yet, sadly, this is the way things are moving in amongst the 'polygamy-by-force' crowd. At the very least the lady in question should have put her husband's email address on the page with a note saying that any men who had questions should first email him since how could anyone possibly know what these people believe? Secondly, by posting a homepage in a public place this woman is, in a way, 'talking with strangers' - thousands of them - who are reading her homepage. Furthermore, she is inviting people to break their domestic rules by not putting up a warning notice.

This is a relatively new development in this particular wing of the Christian/Messianic polygamy movement and, in my view, a symptom of its spiritual aridness caused by excessive legalism. The presence in the patriarchal community of Messianics who reject the teachings of Paul, even to the point of calling him a heretic, is in part, I believe, to blame for this sad demise of Christian/Messianic polygamous women who are being put back into the chains of a bygone era from which Christ has liberated them.

Now having said this I would not want you to think that I am a feminist or that I am teaching that gender rôles are indentical. A careful reading of the New Testament reveals that Yah'shua (Jesus) freely taught married and unmarried women without necessarily seeking their husbands' or fathers' permission. He spoke to the Samartian woman at the well at Sychar without asking any man's permission (since she was alone), and so according to these legalists Christ was a Torah-breaker!

Many of the regulations in the Law of Moses were designed to protect both men and women from fornication and adultery. This was a time when many extra regulations were added because of the hardness of the people's hearts (e.g. Matthew 18:8). We learn from this that sometimes Yahweh gives us extra rules and regulations to keep us in check but that when we are mature enough not to need them, that such are no longer applicable. In saying this I am not giving licence for people to pick and chose which of Yahweh's laws they should obey on the basis of a perceived maturity because I am not talking about every and any law. Some laws are built into the fabric of creation (like the Ten Commandments) and some are extra statutes given "because of the hardness of their hearts" (Matthew 19:8).

I was recently (and very briefly) involved in some marriage counselling with a polygamous family that was disintegrating, three of the four wives having already left. One of the estranged wives asked me for help and thus I found myself entangled in a web of patriarchal counsellors all giving advice, some of it contrary. Some were hyper-legalists and were blind to grace, mercy and forgiveness, and all they could seem to do was cry 'Law! Law! Law!', a war-cry that the husband had picked up along with his surviving wife. The tragedy of the situation was seeing how, in actual fact, the family were slowly slipping backwards into Judaism and into bondage.

The hyper-legalists hate Paul because Christ taught Him the heart of what Christ was. (I am not incidentally, here defending the 'hyper-Paulists' who teach that the whole Torah is evil and has been removed altogether - I do not subscribe to Replacement Theology or salvation by cheap grace). The same heresy that afflicted the early Church (Messianic Community) is now beating at the doors of the Patriarchal Christian/Messianic Movement, demanding circumcision and adherence to the minutae of elements of the Law of Moses that have since been relegated to history by the cross, which includes a man not being allowed to speak to another man's wife without his permission.

As a matter of fact I have no objections to this rule if this is a particular family's house rule and the patriarch feels it is necessary, though I would regard it as a sign of spiritual immaturity of the part of himself, or one or more of his wives, if he felt such was necessary. I have always followed the admonition of Paul to be circumspect in my dealings with the opposite sex so that no-one can speak evil of me, and as a rule I don't enter into conversations with other men's wives if such might compromise me, or them, in the eyes of evil men. But I will not treat women as though they are inferior beings when in Christ there is no gospel distinction between male and female.

I give my wives the freedom to converse with whom they will because I know where they stand in Christ, though once this nearly went badly wrong for one of my wives who took liberties she should not have. If Yahweh reveals to me that a particular man is approaching them with unrighteous motives and they do not see it, then I will caution them. If I discover that the man is indeed evil and has evil intents, and they are blind to this, then for their own sakes I will tell them not to have anything to do with this man, as is my right as their head. I have only ever had to do this once in my marriage to date (I discerned the man was a satanist, as indeed he turned out to be, and was sending curses on the family) because my women are sensible, Spirit-filled believers. They have their freedom in Christ, and with freedom comes responsibility. Of course, if the freedom is abused, then the husband, as head, has the right to limit a wife's activities until he is satisfied that she is responsible enough, for her own good and for the good of those she is guardian over (like children), to once again enjoy that freedom.

What many patriarchs don't seem to understand is the fact that the Torah (Law) has been turned on its head - not removed, but juxtaposed differently in a man's life. This was what the much maligned apostle Paul was trying to say. He taught that there was nothing wrong with the Torah (Law), saying it was good and holy (Romans 7:12), but reminded his readers that salvation did not come from legalistic observance of the Torah (Law) but in trusting in the Messiah. His teachings are but an amplifcation of the Master's, who tried to show the spiritually blind and deaf people of His day that the Torah (Law) was made for man for his blessing, and not the other way round for his condemnation. In summarising the Ten Commandments into Two (note that He did not replace the Decalogue) He was showing people that unless they found and lived the Heart of the Torah (Law) that they would miss it entirely and instead find themselves in legalistic bondage. And what was that heart? Love - love Yahweh passionately, and then love and treat your neighbour in the same way you would wish him to love and treat you. And whilst love implies obedience to Torah (Law), as reiterated and confirmed by John and the other apostles, it primarily appeals to a person to stay close to his heart where Yahweh, finally, reveals Himself, by giving him pure joy. Lose contact with your heart, and the Torah (Law) simply becomes a dead weight, crushing the soul.

Therefore the very clear Messianic teaching is: always start with love, and work your way outwards from there. People must first know that they are loved before they will willingly follow. If they are compelled in lovelessness, then they will become slaves to tyranny, and the Torah (Law) - which is good and holy - will be perceived as evil. The Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) cannot operate in such a vessel.

People ask my wives and I how we manage to have so much love and joy in our marriage and it's very simple: we follow the Master's teachings. They are baffled and alarmed therefore when they come across other Christian/Messianic polygamous families and wonder why many of the women are mere shadows.

No man should be living Christian/Messianic polygamy who does not know how to apply the Torah (Law) in righteousness in his family - indeed, such a person probably shouldn't be married at all.

In closing, I would like to point out that in the New Covenant of Christ we have returned, as the writer of Hebrews reminds us, to the Melchizedek Order which predates the Torah and the Priesthood that mediated it, the Aaronic or Levitical Priesthood. Aspirant patriarchs ought to read this Epistle very carefully as they try to reconstruct Mosaic life in their homes with a layer of Christian terminology on top. Perfection is not attainable through the Levitical system "for on the basis of it the Torah (Law) was given" (Hebrews 7:11). The whole Mosaic system has been replaced with a "better" one based not on ancestry, oathes or the threat of execution for disobedience. No longer is the Torah (Law) just to be lived on the basis on what is imprinted on stone tablets but on the basis of what is written on the heart.

Let us clearly understand that the Mosaic Covenant was not only incomplete but, because of the requirement of the time, 'unnatural' statutes were instituted (like the liberal divorce laws) to prevent the people totally slipping into darkness. Therefore as whole the Old Covenent Torah was in some sense "wrong" (Hebrews 8:7). It was, therefore, only ever temporary, being replaced by New Covenant Torah.

Such thoughts are, of course, tantamount to heresy to the ultra-legalists and Judaisers in the Christian/Messianic Polygamy Movement, but the weight of New Covenant scripture just does not sustain their position, which is why many of them are already chopping out those parts of the New Testament they don't like. The New Covenant is "New" on the basis that the "Old" one has been entirely replaced, just as the other day we threw out our old refridgerator and bought a new one (note that they were, and are, still 'refridgerators'). Moreover, this New Covenant will not be "like" (similar to) the Old one (Hebrews 8:9, NIV) but have an altogether different appearance and flavour. And this covenant starts from an INNER KNOWING OF YAHWEH (vv.10-11) which comes as the result of the supernatural activity of the Holy Spirit. And "by calling this covenant 'new', [Elohim/God] has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and ageing will soon disappear" (v.13, NIV). (See, I Will Make a New Covenant with the House of Israel).

Please notice that the writer of Hebrews (whom I believe was Paul) did not say that the old covenant 'had' disappeared but was in the process of disappearing. Now, all the animal sacrifices and ceremonial aspects of the Law ceased from the day Christ died and was resurrected - that disappeared in one day. So what aspect of Law would gradually disappear and not go, as it were, in a flash?

I have never come across a Scriptorian who has really explained this passage. Typically, scholars argue that this epistle had to be written before AD 70, and the basis for this is, in part, this verse which, they say, is evidence that the Mosaic sacrificial system was still in practice, and that the audience - Hebrews - were still practicing it. That is why, they claim, the writer says the system is passing away because Jerusalem hasn't yet been destroyed the the temple sacrifices brought to an end.

Admittedly, this is a possible interpretation, but I doubt it, for if it is the ceremonial aspect of the Law alone that is being alluded to here, then we have to conclude that that both the Old and New Covenants were running in parallel for a while, a notion contradicted by the fact that the writer of Hebrews says that the Levitical priesthood system was already gone and had already been replaced my the Melchizedek. If the Priesthood has gone, then the covenant that was administered by that Priesthood has gone with it.

In view of the fact that the preceeding verses are talking about the process of writing the law on the hearts of men, we are forced to adopt the interpretation that the writer is not talking about the ceremonial aspect of the law (you can't write animal sacrifices on people's hearts) but the ETHICAL and MORAL. In other words, what he is saying is that the whole mentality and spirituality of the Levitical system is passing away, and as we know, people's thinking processes don't change overnight. And in some cases, it may take centuries to elute wrong thinking out of cultures - the story of the struggle for the rebirth of Christian/Messianic polygamy is ample evidence of that!

No wonder Paul reacted so strongly against the Judaisers who were trying to preseve the old thought patterns with its harshness and lack of love. The issue was never whether the ethical or moral parts of the Torah were right or wrong but the mode of their application. And since the application of the Judaisers was out of a legalistic framework, which is the diametric opposite of the Gospel of Salvation, it had to be cut out of the heart of the Church (Messianic Community) with all speed lest the Church (Messianic Community) once again become another neo-Mosaic institution but with a Christian/Messianic gloss on the top. Much of Messianic Judaism is an attempt to re-establish this early heresy calling it by a new name, the 'Renewed' Covenant.

We are, at this very time, witnessing powerful Judaising tendencies in the Christian/Messianic Polygamy movement, and they are dangerous. Not only are they a threat to the women who are, in some cases, being turned into chattels, but they are a threat to the men who hearts are being progressively turned to stone. This tendency is a serious cancer to the Christian/Messianic Polygamy movement and it is spreading fast! I and my wives have even had the chance of a beautiful new marriage temporarily (we hope) spoiled by it.

The writer of Hebrews reminds us, finally, that "the Torah (Law) is only a shadow of the good things THAT ARE COMING - not the realities themselves" (Hebrews 10:1, NIV). Please note the present continuous tense. And whilst the text continues to describe how animal sacrifices were but shadows of Christ's own sacrifice, that was something that had been completed by that time. We have to conclude that the moral and ethical aspects of the Torah (Law) are included in this description and are its primary focus otherwise we are forced to conclude that the two covenants were running in parallel OR that the New Covenant had not yet come at all.

If we are to harmonise all the scriptures, we are forced to two conclusions:

• 1. The need for animal sacrifices, and the whole ceremonial law, together with its Levitical priesthood, CEASED TO EXIST as far as believers are concerned from the moment Christ was resurrected and the Day of Pentecost saw them endowed with the power of the Royal Priesthood that Peter later speaks of;

• 2. The New Covenant, which is not a legal covenant written on stone but an invisible one written on the hearts of believers, is a PROCESS that at that time was not complete and which, I maintain, is still not complete today. And the evidence that it has not yet been completed is proven by the fact that people are still teaching each other the Gospel (and getting very confused because of all the contradictory teachings) and because people are STILL TURNING TO LEGALISM, thus demonstrating that the old has still not "passed away" fully.

That means that the Epistle to the Hebrews is still more than relevent to us as far as the moral and ethical law is concerned. The Gospel is still not properly written on people's hearts, otherwise there would be unity.

Any system that returns to legalism betrays not only that it is defective but that it has not understood what the New Covenant is at all. And the evidence that they have not is in their works - the failures of their marriages being one.

The days of the Patriarchs, before Moses came along, were marked (at least in scripture) by the singular absence of written laws, though in surrounding nations were were various systems like the Code of Hammurabi. This has led some commentators to wrongly suppose that the Patriarchs had no system of law at all. This is wrong. The fact that the patriarchs subjected themselves to the "Order of Melchizedek" is proof that this is not so. All Orders (like our own) have a legal code of behaviour that is enforced by a Priesthood system, Melchizedek being Abraham's Priest. Our New Covenant High Priest, Yah'shua (Jesus), was after this Melchizedek Order. If we are to understand the New Covenant Law and Priesthood we must first of all understand the Law and Priesthood of Melchizedek, because it is to that we are now allied, and not the dead Levitical one.

The fact that the Aaronic/Levitical spirit is still passing away means that there are two spirits which coexist and therefore compete with one another - a Levitical spirit and a Melchizedekian spirit. The one is Mosaic, and the other Christian. One is outer and the other is inner. One is based on what is written on stone and the other on what is written on the heart. One is a shadow and the other a reality.

The children of Israel received the Law of Moses only because of REBELLION. They were offered the Melchizedek Order, even though this is not mentioned by name, but refused it. And how did they refuse it? When they refused to talk to Yahweh face-to-face and instead demanded that Moses be their INTERMEDIARY.

From this point onwards Yahweh's intimate contact with believers diminishes and we find the number theophanies (times when Yahweh manifests Himself) diminishes sharply too. Contrast the Patriarchs with the people of Israel and you are at once struck by the fact that the Patriarchs seemed to walk with Yahweh as though He were right there amongst them. He openly and freely talked to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and they seemed to have little problem making contact with Him. He spoke, they heard, and they acted.

The ancients talked face-to-face with Yahweh

Contrast this with Israel under the Mosaic system. The only people who ever seemed to hear Yahweh were the prophets who had the thankless task of rebuking the people for their uninterrupted waywardness. Not until Christ came and the disciples were anointed by the Holy Spirit did that intimate contact and fellowship with Yahweh RETURN.

But it didn't last. The Church (Messianic Community) fell into apostacy and the old Mosaic-type systems returned. First, with the attempted coup d'état of the Judaisers whom Paul had to oppose, and then in the major Church institutions which appeared like the Catholics and and Eastern Orthodox who appointed Moses-like intermediaries (Popes, Patriarchs, Cardinals, Bishops, Metropolitans, etc.) for the people (quite apart from changing the Gospel). And once again, intimate contact by men with Yahweh diminished.

This Levitical form of Gospel - this defective, wrong spirit which Yahweh once HAD to institute because the people rejected the higher Melchizedek Order - is right now tearing the Christian/Messianic Polygamous movement apart. Instead of walking with Yahweh in love and letting His Word teach them, people are again turning to councellors and teachers TO DO THEIR OWN THINKING FOR THEM. And in so doing, they are rejecting - without perhaps realising it - the New Covenant and the better basis of Yahweh's promises!

The family I briefly tried to minister to - who called me to repentance because I did not go through their system of rules - is falling apart. The husband has turned to a multitude of counsellors who have, between them, waylaid him. (I am not saying that some of the council they have received isn't good - only that it is conflicting). Because he has acquired the most counsellors, who pronounce him legally guiltless, one of the wives finds herself totally isolated. NONE OF THEM have understood what the New Covenant is at all! Not one!

What they should be doing is forgetting EVERYTHING that has happened, cease the accusations and finger-pointing, and simply come together on the basis of Christ's Two Commandments to love Yahweh passionately and to treat one another as they would want to be treated themselves. What the husband should be doing is saying: "Hey, something has gone very wrong here. Let's stop accusing one another, come together and just worship Yahweh together in praise and prayer!" If they were to do this for a few days and place everything else aside - however hard (for all are surely hurt) - Yahweh would begin to work on their hearts and lead them to COMMON GROUND on which to build further. As Christians/Messianics they should have that in any case. The husband should leave ALL councellors out of the picture and learn to be a PATRIARCH like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob whose only counsellor was Yahweh Himself. That will of course, take great RESPONSIBILITY, SENSITIVITY, an OVERFLOWING LOVE, and great PATIENCE. He should forbid ANY discussion of the problems that led to the breakup of his marriage, admitting beforehand that he might be in error himself in some things so that the wives know he is not just manipulating them according to his private agenda, and get everyone Yahweh-centred. They should arrange child-minders during the times of these meetings so they can be ALONE. And if anyone is afraid, they can always arrange for friends to be nearby who can easily be called.

This is the Order of Melchizedek which is the Order of Christ. It's the ONLY way that will repair that broken marriage. By accusing each other of being in violation of this or that aspect of Torah is to miss the entire message of the Gospel of Yah'shua (Jesus) - those aspects will sort themselves out once love has become the key focus.

I'll not pretend this will be easy for them and the husband must be prepared to repeatedly throw water onto any fires that may spontaneously erupt. He must forget self and focus entirely on Christ. But first he has got to get his women together in praise and prayer. If that hurdle is too great, each of the parties should first spent time in praise and prayer with their own counsellors and then come together.

The same thing applies in courtship. The only way that Yahweh can reveal your marriage companion(s) to you if is you go to HIM for counsel yourself and not others to program your mind. But if you are coming out of a Levitical mindframe you are going to have problems because Yahweh does not reveal Himself through that medium and in the end you are left to make a decision based on your own imperfect and unprophetic judgment. We should never forget that the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil was also the Tree of Death, and was juxtaposed against the Tree of Life. And if we are to successfully walk in Yahweh's will we must be eating the fruit of Life, not the Tree of Knowledge. It is interesting that Yahweh forbade that route to our first parents and how keen Satan was that they should take it, promising that they would become gods in their own right.

But this is the point, isn't it? Men and women want to be gods, the sovereigns in their own realm, and so they elect to find the path to life through knowledge (gnosis). As almost everyone who has been married will tell you, they think they know their spouses well until they have lived with them a while and start making unexpected discoveries ... for GOOD AND EVIL. The tree of knowledge gives mixed blessings and cursings, whereas the Tree of Life gives only blessings.

In many ways, the Levitical System is a Knowledge-based system containing hundreds of laws and minutae which the Jews simply could not resist adding to in their voluminous Talmuds and Mishnas. The Tree of Life - the Melchizedek Way - is entirely different, and indeed became inaccessible to Adam and Eve after they had eaten from the forbidden Tree. That is why you cannot live both the Levitical and Melchizedek systems simultaneously - they are diametrically opposed to each other. And even though we can survive by means of the Knowledge Fruit it always brings mixed blessings and curses ... good and evil.

Heavenly marriages - marriages that are eternal - are based on the Melchizedek Tree of Life, which is Christ. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they in a sense chose to save themselves through legalistic observance of the Torah (Law). The conflicting views of salvation both within and without Christianity are moot witness of the folly of such a way.

Remember, it was Israel who chose the Levitical system, not Yahweh. And for their folly, they got a whole lot of other unexpected rules in addition to the Ten Commandments. Were they disadvantageous to the women? Most certainly - but then let us not forget that the mindframe that the recently liberated Israelites brought with them from Egypt was essentially matriarchal and feministic, as witnessed by Miriam's disrespectful behaviour towards her brother Moses. In fact, the Law punished both the men and the women. To be under that system would, for one who knows Christ, be a terror, as Paul discovered for himself.

The Good News is that Christ brings responsible, patriarchal freedom (cp. Luke 4:18; 1 Corinthians 8:9). Counsellors, especially in tricky areas like marriage, tend to compound the problem, for as Paul writes: "why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience?" (1 Corinthians 10:29, NIV). To meddle in so serious a matter as marriage is a serious thing indeed since no counsellor can have the one-flesh perspective that those who are in the union enjoy.

For a really good example of this meddling tendency, read the Book of Job. I am often amused when Christians/Messianics accidentally quote the words of Job's counsellors and assume that it is the word of Elohim (God), when it isn't! That precious book is a wonderful testimony of well-meaning but fallacious attempts by men to mediate. And what is the solution to the Book of Job? Is is rational? Does Yahweh give a breakdown for His reasons for doing so? No, we are not to use the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil at all, but instead turn to the Tree of Life. Yahweh did not choose to give His reasons, which means that Job did not need to know.

The legalist loves to pour over scriptures and try to piece together the mind of Yahweh, but he never will. The result is always Phariseeism. He can achieve some understanding, to be sure, but in daily and even life-saving situations - such as in marriage break-up or the selection of marriage partners - the Tree of Knowledge, whilst it may point us in a certain direction (which is admittedly useful occasionally), it cannot lead us to the final solution, which will inevitably be flesh-based to some extent. Here the only thing that will help - the only thing that will count - is what flows from the Tree of Life, even if it contradicts all our logic and rational thinking. That is why the stories of Elohim's (God's) three main marriage journey witnesses - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - are preserved in Holy Writ for us.

It is not easy to convey these things to people for truly unless you are operating out of the Tree of Life you will not be able to see it. There are already at least two - if not more - emerging 'Patriarchal/Messianic Christian Talmuds' which have been constructed on the basis of what the writers believe to be an exhaustive study of the Torah and the rest of the Bible. But they do not agree. And why not? Shouldn't the Word of Elohim (God) end all disputations and disagreements? The problem is that the Scriptures contain TWO SYSTEMS, one partly built on the Tree of Knowledge, and the other on the Tree of Life. And different people happily dip into both, and come to all sorts of odd conclusions.

We have, for example, one ministry judging the marriage of Jacob to two sisters as restrospectively sinful because one interpretation of the Torah is that two sisters should not marry polygamously (there is another one - see Did Jacob Sin in Marrying Two Sisters?), forgetting that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were under the Order of Melchizedek which was superior to the Levitical. It is the Levitical which must be judged out of the Melchizedek, not the other way round, because the Melchizedek is higher, being the Order of the Messiah.

We have another ministry which allows a husband to divorce a wife for being 'treasonable' in leaving a husband she alleges is abusive and threatening to go to the police, based again on the Levitical system. But the New Covenant permits no such divorce, allowing only for separation.

The Melchizedek (New Covenant) requires a much higher standard of conduct which is why Yah'shua (Jesus) tightened up on so many of the the Levitical system's statutes, and yet modern patriarchs are appealing to the inferior system which has, in truth, passed away. In so doing, they are recrucifying not only Christ but destroying themselves and their marriages.

It is perhaps to be regretted, though no doubt Yahweh had His reasons, that we have no record of the Melchizedek Order's laws, statutes and priesthood in the Book of Genesis or elsewhere. Personally I think its omission from our canon is intentional, Yahweh's purpose being to sift out those who are eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge from those who are eating the fruit of the Tree of Life. This belief is reinforced by the observation that Yah'shua (Jesus) taught in parables to prevent those who were not worthy of salvation from being saved (Luke 8:12) - a radical teaching indeed! Something profound to meditate on ...

The understanding of our work at this ministry and the Chavurat Bekorot (Holy Order) lies in this clear differerentiation between Knowledge and Life, Outer and Inner, Levitical and Melchizedek, Old Covenant and New, Mosaic and Christian/Messianic. There is always confusion when two systems operate simultaneously, as when communism fell in Russia, and democracy was established. The paralysis of Russian political life was in part because of the continuation of the old communist system as new wine was being forced into old wineskins.

This history of Christianity is the story of two mixed systems which we see reflected in the early life of the patriarch Jacob, who is the last of the patriarchal trimumvirate in the appellation, the "Elohim (God) of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" (Exodus 3:6). We discover that Jacob the deceiver, like Christendom, is playing a double game, until finally desperate circumstances in the form of the threatened extermination of his family by Esau (paganism), finally forces him to deal with the dichotomy, wrestle with Yahweh, and gain the victory over the fleshy way of doing things which is knowledge- and human ingenuity-based. This is what the true meaning of what Israel is.

The history of Israel from the time of the Egyptian captivity up until the advent of Christ is not to supply us with the rôle model which Christians/Messianics of the Melchizedek Order need, because it is based on the deficient Levitical system. And yet this is exactly what the Church (Messianic Community) did, emulating the shadow of the true reality in its attempt to control and manipulate the masses. The true Patriarchal Way is infinitely simpler than the 'New Talmuds' which are being evolved in the patriarchal community today. It's simplicity has been revealed to our Order which is why the way of this Order has been so successful, by and large, in implementing Christian/Messianic polygamy. And though there are no statute lists of the Melchizedek Order in Genesis, they are actually there, spread in the texts. Indeed, you will find ALL THE TEN COMMANDMENTS in Genesis! What you don't find is one single incident of DIVORCE there because it didn't exist. There is the incident of Hagar being sent away but not divorced. Indeed, according to the Book of Jashar (to the extent that that is reliable) and other sources we learn that periodically Abraham would visit Hagar and his son Ishmael, for she remained his wife. One thing which we do know is that divorce did not exist in the Melchizedek Order, not because there were't the 'grounds' for it (as we have come to understand that wrong concept) but because nobody ever entered marriage with that in view, for marriage was considered by them as being eternal and unbreakable. It was, in other words, of the Order of the Tree of Life, which is the Tree of Immortality.

The Melchizedek and Levitical mindframes were, and are, ENTIRELY DIFFERENT.

Author: SBSK