“WHO ARE THE NAZARENES?”
“WHO ARE
THE NAZARENES?”
The
Nazarenes are the grandchildren of Methodism … and probably
have around
two million adherents around the world today.
A little
background:
Methodism
was born in song.
John
Wesley
preached nothing
but the blood, and those that were saved were ecstatically
overjoyed at
being made free from the power of sin … and when you’re happy you start
singing
… in the Methodists case … with thousands of hymns.
Put it
this
way … a saved Methodist was a saved Methodist … and John Wesley saved
England from having a bloody French-type revolution.
However,
because the Methodists were so zealous about sin, they were tormented
to
the rafters, that they would find themselves continually sinning.
This made
them think that they were not saved.
Questions
emerged like “How do we know we are saved if we keep sinning …
maybe we’re
not saved!”
Their
glaring mistake was not being able to understand what the following
verse in
Colossians said …
“In whom
also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands,
in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the
circumcision of
Christ:”
(Colossians 2:11)
… that is
…
their soul was saved but their body kept sinning.
In
addition, they misinterpreted the Bible about being washed by
the blood
(Revelation 1:5) … they wrongly believed they should be totally free
from sin
and committing sin.
Furthermore,
they could not understand that under the Old Testament the soul was
irretrievably attached to the body … and so when the body sinned,
the soul
sinned and vice versa … bodies and souls under the Old Testament were
treated
as one.
“… the soul
that sinneth, it shall die.”
(Ezekiel 18:4)
The
Methodists, the Holiness Movement and the Nazarenes failed to see that
under
the Old Testament, the soul was superglued to the body … they
could not
be separated.
It was
what
could be called “a package deal’ … as the popular saying goes “The body
and
soul were joined at the hip.”
This is
why
Israel under the Old Testament were constantly shedding animal blood
for the remission
of sins past (Romans 3:25) … and rightfully so.
This was
God’s grace to them that the blood of animals could be used to atone
for past
sins … rather than God wiping them out and sending them to hell.
So up pop
the Holiness Movement with their fortnight/month long bush revival
retreats,
where wacky things took place … you know getting filled with the so
called ‘Spirit’
… wanting to burn out any remnant of sin.
They were
the original jumpin’, pumpin’, howlin’, crawlin’, barkin’, laughin’,
screamin’,
dreamin’, whirlin’ and twirlin’ crowd.
Sometimes,
these gatherings went on for weeks … some people would be in comas …
lying on
the ground … motionless … for days at a time … having been slain in
their
deceptive ‘Spirit’
They were
whackin’ and slammin’ each other on the head; doing the Dervish
Sufi Spinning
Dance (look it up) … Namin’ and Claimin’ … Blabbin’ and Grabbin’ …
Reamin’
and Screamin’ … Whoopin’ and Hollerin’.
But things
only got worse! People were having ‘zipper’ problems, collection plates
were
ending up where they should not have been … to put it mildly … with the
whole
thing collapsing into a flesh-mess.
Dear
Reader, you can starve the body or feed the body, but it will not be in
any
honour to the satisfying of the flesh
(Colossians 2:23)
So then
the
Holiness Movement said “Mmmmm! This isn’t working!”
So they
sat
down with a hot cup of tea and a Arnott’s Nice (pronounced ‘Neece’ or
‘Nice’
depending on your preference) biscuit and came up with the term of
calling
themselves Nazarenes based on the following verse …
(Matthew 2:23)
“That’s
it”
they said “we’ve got to get back to the basics of the Ten Commandments
… we’ll become
more like Jesus … we will emulate Jesus … and do great works for the
poor and
needy.”
And so
they
parked their car in Matthew’s garage … you know … the Sermon on the
Mount
(Matthew 5-7).
Now one
would think, that if you were a Christian, you would, at the
least call,
yourself an Antiochian, not a Nazarene … Christians
being first
known at Antioch
(Acts 11:26).
But no …
they retreated backwards to trying to act like Christ … the Son of man
… and
under kingdom of heaven ground rules.
Now Dear
Reader, here’s the thing … a Nazarene is a person who chooses
to dwell
in Nazareth … as the verse says.
Doctrinally
and spiritually, Christians DO NOT DWELL IN NAZARETH!
Christ as
a
Nazarene was about
works,
works, works and more works.
Christians
as Christians follow Paul as he follows Christ
(1 Corinthians
11:1).
In a
nutshell, Christ says to Israel on the Mount “Look people, believeth
in
me that I will fulfil the Ten Commandments perfectly on
your
behalf. They will be impossible for you to keep (Galatians 3:10-13).
You will
continue to sin, so you will need to keep on sacrificing animal
blood for
the remission of your past sins.”
So you can
see how the Holiness Movement jumped out of the frying pan and into the
fire …
by bringing themselves under a works-bondage for the
continuation of
their salvation.
Oh yes,
don’t get me wrong, some of these people may be saved … they
simply do
not believe in eternal security … hence all the flesh antics of the
combination
of their false ‘Spirit’ and works.
Satan
truly
does masquerade as an angel of light
(2 Corinthians 11:14).
Yes, put
it
this way Dear Reader, some Nazarenes may be saved but have this
dreadful fear
of losing their salvation.
Some of
their beliefs:
1. Coming
from the Methodist desire for sinlessness and the Holiness movement,
some
present day Nazarenes still wrongly believing they need to be baptised
IN …
NOT WITH OR BY … the Holy Spirit, as the only way to be free from
sin
(1 Corinthians 12:13; Acts 11:16)
2. They
wrongly
believe that God’s Holy Spirit empowers Christians to be constantly
obedient to God … that is … they should never sin … but they do
(Galatians
3:10-13)
3. They do
not eat meat … which they consider as being unlawful.
4. They
use
a Bible version called The Gospel According to the Hebrews …
aka The
Nazarene Gospel Restored … but this is not the Book of
Hebrews as
found in the Bible.
5. They
support the right of women to be leaders and Pastors in their
churches …
which is against scripture.
6. They do
not drink alcohol
7. They
refrain from cutting the hair … to be like Jesus … but
disobeying Paul
(1Corinthians 11:14)
8. They do
not allow the living to come in contact with the dead, or
graves, even
of family members, although they can attend funerals.
9. They
desire to emulate Jesus … hence their love of working with the
poor as
Jesus did.
10.
Failure
to understand that the kingdom of heaven is not the kingdom of
God.
11. The Sermon
on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7) is their basis for them to be
like and
follow Jesus.
12. Coming
to the dispensations, they have no statement regarding the rapture
or
the millennium.
13. Dancing
is frowned upon as breaking down all moral inhibitions and reserve
14. They
have
a post-legalism and therefore a lack of eternal security
when it
comes to salvation.
15. They
are free-willers … as coming out of Methodism.
16. Always
doubting
their salvation security … by failing to understand Colossians 2:11
… a
separated and saved soul is cut away from the flesh … that is a pure
and
sinless soul trapped in a sinful flesh body.
17. They
do
believe in the triune Godhead of one God consisting of three
persons …
the Father, the Holy Ghost and the Son Jesus Christ.
18. They
do
believe in an eternally existent, infinite Creator, with the second
person of
the Godhead eternally existent with God the Father. They believe that
Christ
was God manifest in the flesh.
19. They
believe
in infant baptism as a sacrament and an initiation … and the
start of
being born into the community of faith.
In summary:
The Nazarenes
are a curious mixture of the Gospel of Matthew; the Book of Hebrews;
Pentecostalism; tongues speaking; post-legalistic salvation … if not
pre-salvation;
denying Paul’s edict of no women Pastors; ignorant of the various
dispensations;
water baptisms; meat/alcohol/dancing forbidden in most quarters;
outwardly
moralistic.
Nazarenes
are often seen as the veritable RELIGIOUS LIQUORICE ALLSORTS …
a mixture
of Methodism, Pentecostalism, Charismania, Sermon on the Mount and so
on.
Their
basis
may have originated in being saved by the blood (John Wesley’s
Methodism) but loss
of salvation is an ever present fear … as were many Methodists.
As someone
has said “They are RELIGIOUS PENDULUMS … having swung from
Methodism to
Pentecostalism and then back over to the kingdom of heaven doctrine of
Christ …
go figure?”
“For they
being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to
establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the
righteousness of God.” (Romans 10:3)
Harley
Hitchcock
October
2024
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