This article appeared in the Summer 1997 issue of The Tree of Life Magazine
NEWSGROUP PRAISE REPORT FROM NORWAY
Many of you are just finding out about
the internet, and we wanted to share with you a wonderful
testimony and a lesson hot off the Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup.
Since we study the Hebraic "roots" of our faith, we
have a "nickname" for those in the newsgroup: We are
known as "Rooters." This couple live in Bergen, Norway
and were invited to write an article for this magazine. It
arrived June 11 and we just couldn't resist sharing it with you.
Now you can hear what is happening in another part of the world,
and know that this is not the only letter that we receive. Things
are happening all over the world! Baruch HaShem! Cheryle Holeman
Dear Rooters: Shalom!
First of all, thank you Eddie and thank you Cheryle and Tom! You
don't realize how much you have meant to us up in the cold north.
We also want to thank all of you in this newsgroup. We have
learned a lot from you the last few months. But most of all, we
are grateful to the L-rd who showed us the way.
We were supposed to write (much) earlier, but we feel that our
English is not "perfect" (good enough???), therefore we
has been kind of slow. We hope you will forgive us.
But here we are, Arne and Grete Wang, from the western part of
Norway, more precisely, from a town called Bergen. We have been
more or less like other gentile believers, ordinary Christian,
"good" people, doing the right things etc.
One day, 7 years ago, the L-rd revealed to us, the truth that
Israel still has a particular place in G-d's plan for this world.
We understood that He wanted us to study this matter, and from
that day our lives changed. We did not have any teacher, because
the congregation we belonged to, didn't believe that Israel still
were G-d's chosen people. Therefore we had to rely on the Bible
and the Holy Spirit. That was enough!! We prayed to Him in a
different way that we used to. And He lead us ALL THE WAY. We
studied both the Old Covenant and the History of the Jews and the
Church.
In 1993 we knew that the time had come to share some of the
truths we had been taught. What happened? The L-rd gave us a free
access to a secular local Radio Station (He had been training us
for 3 years in a Christian Radio program), He also supported us
with our own Studio (a new house..... that's another story). We
started to produce a 1 hour weekly Program, called "Israel,
in the past, present and future". After about 6 months, we
were able to increase to a 1 hour 45 min. long Program each week.
They were so popular that the owner of the Radio Station, offered
us even more free time on the air. Therefore more people were
able to listen and we are now "on the air" 2 hours 45
min. every week. In the beginning we didn't realize which
direction this would lead us, but one year later we experienced a
new revelation.
A dear friend of ours, went to Israel to celebrate Succot. When
she came back, she brought a stack of audio cassettes (and some
books) from the feast. In this stack, we found Richard Booker
with his Seminar from one of his books: "How the Cross
became a Sword". We literally "took off",
now we understood!!! We had to get hold of his books, and we
called International Christian Embassy Jerusalem and ordered all
his books!! They understood that this was urgent and sent what
they had immediately.
Now The Holy Spirit lead our studies in a new
direction, we started to understand how important the Roots of
our faith was. We had to tell others about what the L-rd had
revealed to us, and the Radio programs was the best way to teach
others about this wonderful truth.
In July last year 1996, the L-rd spoke to us and told us to
arrange a week-end Seminar at a small Christian Country Hotel,
not far from Bergen. We called the Headmaster at once, and booked
in for one week-end in the fall. Then we started to plan for this
event, and since I just had got INTERNET-access in my computer,
we started to Surf on the Net. I remember I used the keyword
"Shabbat", and guess who we found? HEBRAIC
HERITAGE MINISTRIES!!!! Praise the L-ord!!!
We really found something, everything we needed for the week-end.
I, who never had translated anything, had to do just that. OK,
the L-rd is the Master, He know what we are supposed to do, so be
obedient, even if it seems strange at the moment, He knows
everything and He will use them who are willing!!
The Seminar was a great success, 40 people, Erev Shabbat in the
Country far up north!! Who would imagine? They wanted more, we
would like to do more, and we did!! Close to New Year we
"stumbled" over Ha'YDid
Ministries, we knew this was from the L-rd, He had lead us,
no doubt. He wanted us to study more of the L-rds Festivals,
especially Passover. I just had to obey, He wanted us to do a
Passover Seder Demonstration, we had never been to any, so what
should we do?
Cheryle had already been through that part and I learned a lot of
her "Anti Panic Passover Guide". If it is OK,
I will translate it and adjust it a little for Scandinavian use.
Then we read Eddie's fabulous Haggadah, and we found it so
important that we decided to translate it as it was. (We asked
for permission first!) We will send it over to you Eddie!!
>From Eddie:
**************
Praise the Lord! Sounds great! The Lord is good and His mercy
endures forever !!!
>From Grete:
**************
In Norway we could not get Matzah, so I just had to make it
myself. (I have never seen "real Matzah", I have only
read about it). But I learned a lot. We had to drive for 8 hours,
looking for Grape juice, but, for the first time in our life, we
did not find any. The L-rd did another miracle, He made
"grape juice" out of black currant and red currant
juice. It tasted like grape!!!
I could have wrote a book about all our efforts, preparing the
Passover Seder, but it turned out to be an unforgettable evening.
Our plan was to celebrate with a few people, and we rented a
lounge for maximum 30 people. I ordered turkey and got 5 nice
ladies for hostesses. I told our listeners about the event, and
they started to call. We had to say stop after 40 -----, we were
too many already, but everybody felt the presence of the L-rd,
and we will do it again next year.
We now have our own Homepage
(in Norwegian) if you would like to visit? Do you speak
Norwegian?? I doubt it. But you may know some Scandinavians? Both
Norwegians, Swedish and Danish understand each other.
We are looking forward to doing more for our L-rd, and we know
that all of us in this group has a great and very important work
ahead. More and more people are searching for their roots, and we
are supposed to tell them where their real roots are to find.
We had plans for Shavuot, but the L-rd stopped us. I'm not sure
why, but I think it has to do with the date. How can we know
where to start counting the Omer?
>From Eddie:
***************
I explain this in my book, "The Seven Festivals of the
Messiah".
In Lev 23:15 it is written:
"And you shall count unto you from the MORROW AFTER THE
SABBATH, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave
offering: seven sabbaths shall be complete"
The ISSUE is that there are TWO sabbath during the week of
Passover.The 1st day of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15) is declared
by God to be a SPECIAL sabbath known as a "high
sabbath" (John 19:31). This day is a sabbath regardless of
what day of the week that it falls on. This is in addition to the
weekly sabbath.
There was a disagreement between the Sadducees and the Pharisees
regarding the interpretation of this verse. The Sadducees and the
Pharisees did NOT like each other. The Sadducees took the verse
LITERALLY and took it to mean to morrow after the "WEEKLY
sabbath". The Pharisees took the verse to mean the SPECIAL
sabbath of Nisan 15. The modern day Orthodox Jews are descendents
from the Biblical Pharisees. So, today, Judaism begins counting
from the SPECIAL sabbath being Nisan 15.
Although MOST of the doctrine of the Sadducees was UNBIBLICAL
(Acts 23:7-8), it this case, I believe that the Sadducees were
correct. Yeshua/Jesus is our example. HE died on Passover. HE is
our First Fruits (I Cor 15:20, 23). Therefore, I believe that the
counting should according to the WEEKLY sabbath.
>From Grete:
**************
Shalom and G-d Bless you all.
Arne and Grete Wang
"Christian Scions"
If you like to visit:
http://home.sn.no/~gwang/