Definition:The Perfect Universal Lifestyle (PUL) is the lifestyle lived by Jesus, Peter, James, John, Paul and all the Apostles, and believers, both Jew and Gentile converts, for the first few years of the NT church.  Based on the perfect, holy, just, and good revelation of Torah, it would include all or most of the 613 'commands' established as the lifestyle of a fully observant Jew in the days of the Messiah.  Ultimately, compliance to the PUL is the 'sign' of one's acceptance of the covenant of Abraham (Rom 4:9-11).

 

Deploying the Perfect Universal Lifestyle:

 

     1.  The Standard is Given: God, through the Torah (OT), declares a single universal lifestyle for all mankind as a requirement for membership in family of God (Israel). He begins deployment with Israel.
[Num 15:15,16  The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the LORD:  The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you.'"]

     2.  Writing the Final Draft:  In a glorious act of fraternity, God allowed, indeed expected, man (Israel) to digest the revelation of Torah and then express the ‘instructions’ of Torah in its final lifestyle (legal) form.  Man can never say it's 'too difficult' - he wrote the final draft.  With the definition of the perfect life complete, the perfect life could come, and in the life of Messiah Jesus, God sanctified (approved) the PUL as the one and only perfect and obedient expression of an inward faith in God.

     3.  Empowering the PUL:  In Messiah's death and the Re-newed (empowered) Covenant, the way was opened for mankind to eventually 'perfectly obey' rather than 'carefully obey' (Deu 6:25) the requirements of the PUL.  Messiah did not end the PUL but rather gave us power to live it - perfectly.  While speaking against legalistic abuses, which claimed the PUL was the source of righteousness, Messiah, as the cornerstone of the church, and latter the apostles as its foundations, continued to live and expect new converts, Jew or gentile to live the PUL just as it was commanded in Torah.

     4.  Faith First:  Israel had rejected their king (Messiah) and his kingdom thus breaking the national dimension of Abraham's covenant.  But Israel's tragedy would be riches for the world.  God would now suspend the national fulfillment of the covenant, and as the prophets had foretold, God would turn to all of mankind (the Gentiles) to call out for himself a people 'faithful' to the greater spiritual dimensions of the covenant with Abraham.  Consistent with God's dealing with Abraham and Israel, God would stress and then implement the inner 'heart circumcision', before the external 'signs,' in his outreach to the rest of mankind.  This period of grace or non-compliance with the full outward 'signs' of the inner work, was initiated by the Spirit guided, Acts 15 Jerusalem Council.  Once again, the 'just' would learn that faith alone (in the blood of Messiah) would reconcile them to God. 

 

     5.  The 40 Jubilee's Journey:  The Acts 15 accommodation does not rescind or diminish God's expressed truth as revealed by Torah - that the PUL should be practiced universally by all mankind.  Unfortunately, Gentile Christianity, for most of 2000 years or 40 Jubilee's (one Jubilee = 49 years), has conveniently mistaken an accommodation of childhood grace as the termination of the PUL, and continues to falsely teach against compliance to it.  The church has failed to distinguish childhood from adulthood, the journey from the destination.

        6.  Entering the 'Promised Land':  The transition from corporate childhood to adulthood, from Moses to Joshua, is imminent.  The Biblical symbology and contrast of 'wilderness' and 'promised land' cannot be denied.   As we approach the end of the age, the truth of Christianity's 'journey' of non-compliance, and its imminent re-compliance to the PUL as it enters the land on Passover has become apparent.  The PUL is at the pivotal center of the prophetic role of the end-day 'adult' church.  The church has no 'territorial' promises, but it does have 'relational' promises - oneness with Messiah and Father God.   Therefore, our 'promised land' in this age is holiness-in-fact (perfection), and holiness can only be defined in terms of the PUL.  No other perfect lifestyle has ever been defined, Christian or otherwise.

Universal Compliance:  Once again, following the pattern of Israel's Exodus from Egypt, the wilderness, and fourteen year conquest of the promised land, compliance to the PUL will become the outward sign of an inner sanctification and separation from the world.  Faith is first, but faith without 'works' (PUL) is dead. Legalism, the human tendency to please God with 'external works' is a youthful inner war.  That struggle must end, and the real war of truth with God's enemies must begin.   While any prescribed lifestyle is not required for salvation, there will come a time, before the end of this age, when those who have heeded the leading of the Spirit, adopting the PUL and all else, will be the only ones equipped to withstand the evil days that will befall mankind.  Protected in an 'ark' of safety, the actions of the faithful, will condemn the world, including those who thought they could be lukewarm in their response to God.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Contemporary Christianity is only addressing the elementary goals of Biblical Christianity, - an honorable life and the great commission.

 

2.  The contemporary Christian lifestyle perpetrates the myth of two lifestyles (Jew and Gentile).

 

3.  The contemporary Christian lifestyle cannot answer the prophetic requirements of:

a. Complete Oneness (that the world will see)

b. All truth

c. Perfection (Sinlessness, Holiness)

d. All Power

e. Protection

f. The final model of 'redeemed' humanity against which God can justifiably judge and punish (condemn) the whole world (i.e. Noah).

g. Provoking Israel to Jealousy

h. Communicating the prophetic end-time message to the world or to Israel

i. The ‘I do’ pledge of obedience required for preparation of the bride of Messiah

j. The requirements for the 'consecration of the high priesthood' for their end-time ministry.

 

4.  The PUL was the lifestyle lived and thereby sanctified by Messiah and the Apostles - the 'foundations' of the spiritual house (temple) of Christianity.  Many today attribute our spiritual father's adherence to this lifestyle to 'Jewish customs' or to the early church's incomplete comprehension of the Re-newed Covenant - this is absolutely wrong.  Avoiding these errors, many than go on to create the 'equal but ordained' Jewish/Gentile dual lifestyles theology.  This also is contrary to the Word of God (Num 15: 15,16) and only confuses the search for prophetic truth.

 

5.  The origins of the PUL transcend Israel and Judaism.  The Sabbath, the sacrificial system, the Melchizedek priesthood, and the covenant of circumcision were practiced by gentiles (non-Israelites) before Israel, the Torah, or Judaism ever existed.

 

6.  All evidence indicates the PUL has its origin in heaven.  The PUL is the common living environment of the universal Kingdom of God.  It should not be perceived as a purely 'Jewish' lifestyle.  The earthly tabernacle and temple are patterns of the original temple in heaven.  The temple ceremony centers around the 'fixed times of the Lord' ('Feasts of the Lord' - not 'Feasts of the Jews'), the sanctity of the Sabbath, and the priesthood are all seen in heaven, of which, all believers are native citizens.  Israel was a splash of heaven on this earth.

 

7.  The origins of both the old and new covenants were delivered to mankind outside of Israel.  The original Passover was held in Egypt.  The Torah, the central revelation of the PUL, was given on Sinai in Saudi Arabia; Paul's revelation of the new covenant was also given in Arabia.  Jesus was crucified 'outside' Jerusalem.  This symbology indicates that the PUL is neither intrinsically Jewish nor intended to be observed only by Jews.

 

8.  Abraham was neither an Israelite nor Jewish.  He was the gentile spiritual father of many nations, the recipient of the covenant promises which included both a spiritual inheritance and a physical inheritance through his 'seed' Messiah.  As a sign of mankind's faithful compliance, God instituted the covenant of circumcision, as an everlasting covenant (Gen 17).  Gentiles Abraham and Ishmael (and all males of his household), ninety-nine and thirteen years old respectively, were the first humans to 'sign', (by circumcision) the covenant - which was instituted and accepted before Isaac or Jacob, of the Israel/Jewish line, were even born!

9.  Christianity's nearly 2000 years of Law-less existence clearly parallels the Biblical pattern of Israel's journey from Egypt into the promised land.  As a community, the men of Israel were circumcised before they celebrated the Passover in Egypt and in like fashion the early church under the guidance of the Apostles also required compliance to the Law, including circumcision.  However during the forty year wilderness journey, compliance was deliberately set aside and the sons born in the wilderness were not circumcised.  And so, like Israel, during the church's journey of forty Jubilees, God has again set aside compliance (Acts 15) to the PUL.  Christianity has now completed forty Jubilee cycles since the death of its Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ.    But now, as the 'wilderness' journey ends and the promised 'holy' land stands before us, timely new instructions are being given to us.  Our instructions will be found in Biblical patterns.  The conquest of Israel's promised land took fourteen years and began on Passover.  Just after crossing the Jordan, in the face of their enemies, as an act of consecration in preparation to keep Passover as the Law requires, Joshua ordered all the males of Israel circumcised.  The symbolism is clear, the first circumcision in Egypt was under Moses, but as Messiah's body prepares to enter it's promised land (which will also take fourteen years), Messiah himself (Joshua, a type of Messiah) is calling for compliance to the PUL.

 

10.  Mankind was designed to live in a state of sinless perfection as his normal and eternal state of existence.  Adam and Eve lived perfectly, and in the future all ‘glorified’ flesh, and effectively all flesh blood humans will live on this earth in sinless perfection.  The atoning work of Messiah, expressed in the PUL, can only be proven to be superior to the power of sin, self, and the devil by producing sinless humans who are yet in this present evil world. Sin is an aberration; the atonement is the perfect antidote.

 

CONCLUSIONS:

Therefore, it is our admonition that all men everywhere, including Gentiles, begin (if they have not already done so) a prayerful, studious, Spirit-led preparation toward recompliance to the PUL as declared by Torah.  This is not a journey into legalism, but into freedom and obedient preparation for 'marriage' to Messiah.