The Saul Complex: Why Ministerial Mayhen is Rampant in Ministry

The Saul Complex:

Why Ministerial Mayhem is Rampant in Ministry

Gaddiel Odum ben Shomeyr

Some say the problem in circles of ministry and faith, specifically in Christianity and Messianic/Natsari Judaism is Hypocrisy. The reason there are so many “Red Flag” groups, people, ministries denominations, sects and cults today is because of charlatans and hypocrites. I disagree, hypocrisy may be a component but is not the main issue; I think flesh is. I do not necessarily think we have a bunch of hypocrites running around in Natsari Judaism as I do people who have the “Saul Complex.”

A hypocrite is someone who is defined and pretending to be someone they are not. Was Saul legitimately and genuinely called, ordained and anointed by God through the Prophet and Judge Samuel? Yes! But he acted in ways in which he did not live up to or act in ways becoming of the position into which he was called, placed and occupied; much like many politicians today.

A hypocrite is preaching one thing and living another. We do not see this being the case with King Saul. But we do see Saul rationalizing his behaviour and actions whose logic comes out of fear and a spirit that is sick. Hypocrites do not to this; hypocrites do wrong and know they do wrong. Hypocrites live a double life and know they are living a double life. Hypocrites speak out of both sides of their mouth and know they are doing it. They know and try to hide these facts from others. Saul never tried to hide his sin from Samuel, but instead tried to rationalize and explain away his poor decisions. Saul never tried to hide his hatred and his lethal intentions towards David. Hypocrites do not do this.

Let’s briefly take a look at Saul. Saul for one had a low self-esteem. He was tall in stature but lowly in spirit. He felt insignificant and unworthy because he was from the smallest tribe and smallest clan in Israel and was at first so reluctant to be king that he hid (I Sam. 9:21/I Sam. 10:20-24). This is initially why God choose him and could use him as the first King of Israel. We see once he got use to the “captain’s chair” which is the Throne, that his head and chest began to swell a little bit with pride and thought he had more liberties and rights than he truly had and we see this manifest when he did not follow Samuel’s instructions to the letter, later rationalizing it away and when he grew impatient waiting for Samuel and sacrificed without him (I Sam. 13:8-15). This not only revealed his pride but also his fear of the people instead of fearing God. Even in the midst of Saul’s disobedience and sin this did not negate the call, anointing and gifts bestowed upon Saul; did he not still prophecy in the midst of his rebellion (I Sam. 19:19-24) and was he not so anointed that David refused to harm him in anyway (I Sam. 24:6)!?  His disobedience and sin did not negate or retract the call and gifts given to Saul by God but it DID remove the divine hand of blessing upon him and blocked up the divine channels of communications with God (I Sam. 28). Also think of Samson, who was in sin against God and in rebellion against the Nazarite vow to which he was called into and born under, he didn’t lose his anointing, he didn’t lose his strength (until he submitted to the enemy) but instead he lost the protection, blessing and favor of God (Jud. 13-16).

For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. – Romans 11:29

When confronted by David I believe Saul genuinely was remorseful and saw the error of his ways (I Sam. 24:16-22; 26:17-25) but because he did not fully repent, submit and seek help, his fearful and faulty logic and rationalization out of the sickness of his spirit kicked back in and he rationalized away his pursuit of David. His failure to fully repent, submit and seek help left the door of his soul wide open to permit the evil one to come in (I Sam. 16:14-18; 19:9-10 ).

The example of Saul gives us, I think, a clear picture of why there can be so many legitimately anointed and inspirational teachers and leaders in this movement who have and eventually reveal fatal flaws that hurt themselves and their followers. It’s not that you had the wool pulled over your eyes and you were duped and taken for a ride, it’s that their Saul Complex got in the way of doing right by you and succeeding in ministry.

Imagine if when Samuel told Saul that the kingdom had been taken away from him and given to another, he fully acknowledged his fault, submitted and determined to live out the rest of his reign accepting that it would be David’s and not Jonathan’s and that despite this he would finish out his reign in a godly way to the best of his ability, how different would have been his outcome? Remember, even when Samuel said the kingdom was ripped from him Saul was still called, ordained and anointed as King. If he would have confessed and repented of his sins right then and there and would have totally been submitted and accountable and transparent with Samuel he wouldn’t have gotten the kingdom back, but perhaps we would have read in the Scriptures:

 “King Saul secured the Land of Israel for all of the tribes, He removed the High Places and God delivered him and Israel from all her enemies. King Saul died full of years, and all of Israel mourned greatly for their first king. And Saul slept with his fathers and was buried and David son of Jesse succeeded him as King.”

Instead of:

“And when the men of Israel that were on the other side of the valley, and they that were on the other side Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities, and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them. And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in mount Gilboa. And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to publish it in the house of their idols, and among the people. And they put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth: and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan.” - I Sam. 31:7-10

Our problem today is that our teachers and Rabbis, very few of them are accountable or under submission to anyone thus the rationalizations claimed to be revelations of the Holy Spirit supposedly justifying their actions and reasoning’s. I myself have a group of peers and leaders that I trust that I am accountable to and that I submit to and that are not afraid to call me out and set me straight when necessary.

“…I die daily.” - I Cor. 15:31

Just think! We could literally turn the world upside down the book of Acts style if all these genuinely anointed teachers and leaders within our movement who just have these fleshly hang-ups would totally surrender!

Brokenness is the only cure, the only remedy for the Saul Complex. It took consulting a witch for Saul to finally hit rock bottom (I Sam. 28). It took the scandal with Bathsheba for David to become truly broken and repentant (II Sam. 11-12, Psalm 51).  Like Joshua and Achan, sin in the camp doesn't stop the anointing of God, but it stops the protection, favor and blessings of God (Josh. 6-7).

So now we can see and understand how there can be so much powerful truths, anointed and revelatory teaching in this movement and yet a good synagogue, a good congregation, a good ministry, a good Rabbi, or a good Teacher is so extremely hard to find! We also see how rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft because it opens the door for that evil spirit to come in and sabotage a leader and or a ministry (I Sam. 15:23).

So I suppose another red flag to watch out for is if there is anointing in a leader and or ministry without fruit and blessing following it, run! It’s a red flag!

We so desperately need transparency and brokenness if we are to survive and pass out of the time of the Judges and into the Book of Acts.

Resolution: Revolution!

The Natsari Revolution

Rabbi Yehudah “Tochukwu” ben Shomeyr

The Coming Hebraic Civil War

The Hebraic movement of Messianic/Natsari Judaism finds itself in a time like unto the time of the Judges, a time akin to the medieval and renaissance period where two extremes exist simultaneously. A time where everyone does what is right in their own eyes and a time where everyone is blindly having a love affair Orthodox Judaism. Within it there exists a scattered, yet fully cognitive and fully aware remnant, disgruntled and disillusioned by such flagrant disobedience to GOD and HIS WORD and HIS Prophets and the blind, lemming mentality where brainwashed and doped up followers high on the elixir of Orthodoxy and Jewish Mysticism gladly follow the sap in front of him over the edge of the precipice.

Where is the Martin Luther of Messianic and Natsari Judaism? Who will stand in protest and nail it to the synagogue door? Where is the Messianic and Natsari Keith Green who will not pull any punches and convict us in love?

You think the Hebraic Movement is splintered and fractured now, just wait, it gets worse. For upon the horizon is a rebellion led by this disgruntled remnant (I Sam. 22:2). They will be the first domino to fall, the catalyst that triggers a Protestant style Revolution within the Messianic and Natsari faith and it will culminate into a Spiritual Civil War (Exd. 15:3, Matt. 10:34-39) and that will begin the Resolution of Reformation. Before there is peace, there must be war. Armageddon has to occur before the New Heaven and New Earth can come and eternal peace to reign.

I’m not a warmonger, but if war must be waged, it must be a just cause. Israel justly rejected Solomon’s son and left Judah, thus began the Civil War between the Two Houses of Judah and Israel. The Tribes justifiably went to war with Benjamin after the abominable thing they done to the Levites concubine. What was the cause of the American Civil War? Blind allegiance to former British Governors and Slavery.

Why is there coming a Civil War in the Hebraic Messianic and Natsari Movement? Because of blind allegiance to Judaism and the Spiritual Slavery it causes.

The Sheep will be separated from the Goats and the Chaff will be blown away as the Wheat remains, the Wheat will be harvested and the Tears will be burned.

The Need for Rebellion an Revolution in the Hebraic Movement.  

Growing up in Christian home and a Baptist denomination I quickly seen double standards and contradictions within the faith; differences in what the Word of God says and what manmade religious doctrines and customs dictate.

I have never been an inside the box kind of person and I never truly fit in with, belonged to, or conformed to any given religious set or group. I have been constantly ridiculed, criticized and rejected by the religious establishments because I am different and because I choose GOD and HIS WORD over mans and his doctrines.

In Christianity I found a false and ignorant freedom outside of the Torah which created its own boundaries and bondages. In contrast within Messianic and Natsari Judaism where I found adherence to the Torah in light of and in conjunction with Post Resurrection Judaism and its Rabbis which also created boundaries and bondages of its own. I refuse to be bound or bullied by either!

In contrast I’ve also seem romanticism with either the ignorant and fearful backwater ways of Protestantism of the Southern United States as morality and religion was back in the 1940’s and 50’s; to the romanticism and blind allegiance of renaissance Catholicism with its saints and superstitions. In Messianic and Natsari Judaism I have witnessed a romanticism and blind loyalty to Rabbinic and Orthodox Judaism who’s Rabbis from 2000 years ago to the present with their customs and traditions, who hate me, my faith and my Messiah and will never accept such. On the other hand I also am witnessing a Messianic Faith which tries to hybridize Protestantism which rejects Torah which with Messiah is the foundation of the Messianic Faith; becoming a living oxymoron and a walking contradiction.

I therefore gladly make my declaration and take my stand; opening myself up to the rejection, hate and ridicule of people bound and brainwashed by these variants of the religious establishment and its brand and flavor of faith, to walk to the best of my ability in the footsteps of Messiah Yeshua the Living Torah.

I did not leave the ignorance and bondage of Christendom to trade it for the chains of another, which can be found all over the fractured slivers of the Hebraic Movement.

My Messiah was a Sacred Rebel, a Holy Revolutionary that questioned and bucked the religious system of His day and its high time His People follow suite.

Ashamedly I have to admit in evaluating my life, my faith and my walk; that in converting to the Messianic/Natsari Faith I foolishly and ignorantly threw out a lot of good things I received in from Christianity and also picked up some bad things that have bled over into the Hebraic Movement from Orthodox Judaism. It’s long overdue to for me to rectify these gross imbalances.  It’s a time of purging and reckoning, come hell or high water.

If Yeshua and the Prophets before Him experienced the persecution of the religious establishment of their day and I in mine, well, I’m in good company.

We desperately need to take our faith and the movement in which it is attached to and sift it like wheat and truly determine what is the wheat of Torah and the chaff of manmade culture, custom, tradition and doctrine.

It is sadly ironic that what I had to do as a Christian in Christianity I am having to do as a Hebrew in the Hebraic Movement.

I never allowed or accepted condemnation from Christianity and I sure as hell am not going to take it from the Messianic/Natsari Movement. I refuse to be made to feel guilty for things of commission or omission that are not outlined in Torah or the Whole of Scripture or by Messiah Himself! I will no longer live self-consciously as if I were walking on egg shells or thin ice. Let the stones of others fly. The Written and Living Word is my buckler and shield and that trumps any tradition or fence concocted or erected by any religious authority. I want chapter and verse to justify what I do.

The Torah is fence enough but if there be erected a fence around the Law it will be built by my own hand, for myself and my reasons and it will not be imposed upon others.

…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Phl. 2:12

I will not look, act, think or be what others expect me to be anymore. The only approval I seek, crave or need is that of my Heavenly Father.

Am I sounding to “Christian” for some of you? Look, the Torah and Messiah are not in question here; the customs and traditions attached to them are. The religious system built and or being built in connection with them is.  It is not about religion but relationship. This is something that we knew from Christianity but seem to have forgotten in our Messianic walk. Do you want to be religious or real!?

So let’s drop the religious entrapments and embellishments in which we hide behind and get real and honest with ourselves and with the Movement. Let us wake up and take the drastic necessary corrective action that if something offends us we need to…

  …cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. Matt. 5:30

What Needs to be Done

Many in our movement, out of anger and disillusionment and due to feeling betrayed, have foolishly thrown the baby out with the bath water and have rejected and done away with the good things we had obtained in Christianity and due to these same feelings, some in this movement have foolishly assumed that because they ignorantly believe that Jews never departed from  Torah, that they have all the answers and we thus adopted customs, traditions and doctrines of Judaism that has nothing or little to do with Torah or Messiah.

Bottom line is, Orthodox Judaism with its customs and traditions is the other side of the same coin of Roman Catholicism. Both having suspect, unfounded and unreliable legends, customs, traditions, teachings and doctrines; some of which even violate the Torah and other Scriptures and or Messiah Himself!

We need to understand that any Rabbi or Sage after the Resurrection of Yeshua is suspect and any “church father” from Ignatius on is suspect and unreliable. Why learn from and put credence in a Jew who rejects and hates Messiah Yeshua and why learn from a “church father” who hates and rejects the Torah!?

We need to focus on the Rabbis and Sages before Yeshua, the contemporaries of Yeshua and the Apostles and their 1^st and possibly 2^nd generation disciples after them. We cannot focus on what we don’t have; the many Natsari documents locked away in the Vatican vaults, but the documents of the Natsarim we do have.

The Natsari Movement today needs to be more pure, organic and uncluttered and unpolluted by Catholic and anti-nomian Protestantism or Orthodox Judaism. We need to be the 1^st Century Natsarim in the 21^st Century. Nothing more, nothing less. We need to molt and shed the Greco-Romanesque Western way of thinking and operating and conform to the Eastern Hebraic Method of Operations. If we do not do these things, our movement and faith is nothing but a farce and a joke and will die and wilt before our very eyes.

Time to stop playing synagogue, church or whatever you want to call it and get serious about our faith, walk and movement. The ball is in our court. It’s time to rise above and separate ourselves from the polluted, corrupt, cultic red flag extremists, wackos and wannabes that give us a bad name. You hang out with and chum around with bastards (Heb. 12:8) you’ll start thinking and acting like them. Time to be the legitimate heirs and Kings Kids that we truly are!

It’s now or never! Now is the time!

…behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. II Cor. 6:2b