Protestant Scott Lively's appears to support Talmud Selden This understanding was deeply rooted in the Christian Hebraist tradition that viewed the Hebrew republic as a model of limited government and distinct spheres of authority. A leading figure in that tradition was John Selden (1584–1654), the great English jurist and scholar whose monumental studies of Jewish law and Hebrew commonwealth profoundly influenced John Locke and, through him, the American founders.
The Lively Letter - Online Edition,4/11/2026
Observations and Insights on Current Events, History and Theology. Photo above is at Tel Gezer archaeological site looking west toward the port city of Jaffa, Israel.
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Above: LBJ signs the Johnson Amendment that created the church straitjacket called IRS Code 501(c)(3).
The Coup that Overthrew
God and His ChurchPreface. This week I created all of the formal paperwork for First Century Bible Church including the Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws, and Statement of Faith, plus an Addendum to the Article of Incorporation titled The Coadjuvancy of Church and State: America’s Departure from the Founders’ Vision (which details the steps of the judicial/political coup that overthrew God and replaced Him with Secular Humanism in America) and an Addendum to the Bylaws titled Qualifications of an Apostolic Trustee (which explains this role, how I personally qualify to fill it, and the guidelines my Board of Elders will need to follow to replace me in the event of my demise or incapacitation.)
These addenda taken together explain the American Founders' understanding of the true definition of a church and its relationship to the state. Very few Americans know the profound truths contained in these documents. I am sharing them with you in the form of addenda because I want you to see these truths applied in real life to an actual church, established by an Apostolic Trustee (me) in the same manner as Jesus' Apostles did, and upon the same bedrock of biblical logic.
If you would like a copy of the entire package of documents as an email attachment, just request them by email. Today, I am providing just the addenda, because I'm pressed for time.
The Coadjuvancy of Church and State: America’s Departure from the Founders’ Vision
I, Scott Lively, apostolic trustee and founder of First Century Bible Church, write this addendum as a student of both biblical and constitutional law. Having practiced constitutional law professionally and applied biblical law in real-world contexts as a pastor, teacher, political candidate, culture warrior, columnist, and pundit, I offer this summary of the church’s proper relationship to civil government and America’s unfortunate departure from that relationship.
The Founders’ Premise: Coadjuvancy Under the Sovereignty of God
The American founders established this nation on the shared premise that both church and state are under the sovereign authority of God. They envisioned coadjuvancy — two separate, sovereign spheres cooperating for the common good without either usurping the authority of the other.
This understanding was deeply rooted in the Christian Hebraist tradition that viewed the Hebrew republic as a model of limited government and distinct spheres of authority. A leading figure in that tradition was John Selden (1584–1654), the great English jurist and scholar whose monumental studies of Jewish law and Hebrew commonwealth profoundly influenced John Locke and, through him, the American founders.
This biblical model was powerfully reinforced by sermons such as Reverend Samuel Langdon’s 1788 address, “The Republic of the Israelites an Example to the American States,” which broke a critical logjam stalling the adoption of the U.S. Constitution by demonstrating the superiority of the Hebrew republican form of government.
Central to this tradition was John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government (1689). In the Second Treatise, Locke argued that legitimate civil government is a fiduciary trust derived from the consent of the governed and limited by the law of nature, which itself is derived from God. He explicitly rejected the idea that the magistrate has any authority over the care of souls.
The church, Locke maintained, is a voluntary society under the direct headship of Christ, possessing its own distinct jurisdiction. Government’s role is to protect natural rights and maintain outward order, not to govern religious conscience. Locke’s ideas, shaped by Christian Hebraist scholarship, directly informed Thomas Jefferson’s Statute for Religious Freedom in Virginia and James Madison’s Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, both of which became foundational to the First Amendment.
The Declaration of Independence appeals to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” and the First Amendment was written to prevent Congress from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This was not hostility to religion; it was protection of the church’s sovereignty under Christ while allowing its moral influence to shape the public square. This was true coadjuvancy.
America’s Illegitimate Judicial Coup
Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, the federal judiciary engineered a profound and illegitimate shift from this biblical and constitutional foundation to a regime of secular humanism in which government presumes superior authority over the church. This turn violates the spirit of both the Declaration of Independence (which is literally the first law printed in the United States Federal Code, appearing as the first organic law in 1 U.S.C.) and the Bill of Rights which expanded upon it.
The transformation was led by Justice Hugo Black, a former Ku Klux Klan member and political ally of Lyndon B. Johnson. Black played a key role in shielding LBJ from exposure of the blatant election fraud that secured his 1948 U.S. Senate victory in Texas (the infamous “Box 13” scandal). In gratitude, Johnson later championed Black’s influence on the Court.
In 1954, Johnson pushed through the Johnson Amendment, which inserted the 501(c)(3) restriction into the Internal Revenue Code — a mechanism designed to silence churches from speaking on political and moral issues by threatening their tax status. This was the opening salvo in the judicial coup that followed. The pivotal Supreme Court cases that accomplished this transformation include:
- · Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947), in which Justice Black wrote the majority opinion. Everson imposed a test of supposed “benevolent neutrality” toward all religions in place of the founders’ open acknowledgement of the Supreme Being. It incorporated the Establishment Clause against the states and introduced Jefferson’s “wall of separation” metaphor in a way that began erecting a barrier against religious expression in public life.
- · Torcaso v. Watkins, 367 U.S. 488 (1961), in which Justice Black again wrote the opinion striking down a Maryland requirement that public officials declare belief in God. In a now-infamous footnote, Black listed “Secular Humanism” alongside atheism as religions entitled to equal protection, thereby empowering militant atheists to dismantle the Judeo-Christian infrastructure of government and society — beginning with the removal of prayer and Bible reading from public schools (Engel v. Vitale, 1962, and Abington School District v. Schempp, 1963).
- · These decisions, and the broader line of cases they represent (Lemon v. Kurtzman, 1971; Roe v. Wade, 1973; Obergefell v. Hodges, 2015), substituted judicially imposed secular humanism for the founders’ Christian-informed order. In my writings and public work over four decades, I have repeatedly warned that this constitutes a form of soft tyranny that presumes the state’s moral superiority over the church — a direct contradiction of Madison’s declaration that religion is “wholly exempt from [the] cognizance” of civil government and Jefferson’s insistence that government’s legitimate powers extend only to acts injurious to others.
The Pre-Everson Understanding
Prior to Everson, the Supreme Court openly acknowledged the supremacy of God over both church and state. In Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 143 U.S. 457 (1892), the Court unanimously declared: “This is a Christian nation,” and affirmed that America’s laws and institutions presuppose a Supreme Being and a Christian people. That ruling reflected the original American consensus. Everson and its progeny overturned that consensus without constitutional amendment, constituting a judicial coup against the founding order.
First Century Bible Church’s Position
First Century Bible Church stands in deliberate and principled opposition to this illegitimate transformation. We maintain our apostolic independence, exercise our automatic exemption under IRC § 508(c)(1)(A), and refuse any entanglement that would imply government superiority over the church. We do so not out of hostility to lawful government, but out of fidelity to the original American understanding of coadjuvancy and, more importantly, to the biblical order in which Christ alone is Head of the Church.
This addendum forms an integral part of the governing documents of First Century Bible Church and shall guide the Board of Elders and any future apostolic trustee in preserving the church’s biblical sovereignty and its proper, limited cooperative relationship with civil authority.
Adopted on 4/11/2026,
Qualifications of an Apostolic TrusteeGuidance for the Board of Elders
This addendum is written by me, Scott Lively, as apostolic trustee and founder of First Century Bible Church, to provide clear biblical guidance to the Board of Elders in the event they are ever called upon to select my successor. The role of apostolic trustee is not one of hierarchical lordship but of faithful stewardship, modeled on the lives and ministries of the Apostles Paul and John.
The Biblical Models
The Apostle Paul offered himself unapologetically as an example to the early Christians in both mindset and comportment. He shunned false modesty when describing his gifts and calling, writing, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). He exhibited the highest levels of wisdom, courage, and commitment to the cause of Christ in his unique role as “the apostle to the Gentiles” (Romans 11:13).
Paul also demonstrated proper respect for the authority of government without ever compromising the separate and superior authority of the church (Romans 13:1-7; Acts 25:10-11). He lived a life of self-sacrifice, willingly enduring persecution, beatings, shipwrecks, and imprisonment for the sake of the Gospel, yet he never compromised his faith or ethics (2 Corinthians 11:23-28).
The Apostle John exemplified the role of an apostle in his oversight of the congregations he supervised. In his later years he wrote with pastoral authority to the seven churches of Asia (Revelation 2-3) and emphasized abiding in Christ, walking in love, and remaining faithful to the truth (1 John 2:24-28; 3 John 1:4). Both Paul and John modeled lives of service to the cause of Christ through ministry to congregations and lived with the conviction of matured experience — faith in Christ was not a hope of things unseen but trust vindicated by lived reality.
My Life as a Modern Exemplar
For four decades I have deliberately modeled my Christian life on the example and guidance of Paul, and more recently have adopted John as an additional guide for my role with First Century Bible Church. I am a pale shadow at best of these men, but like Paul I do not allow false modesty to prevent me from letting my light shine before others, “that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
Ever since my healing and deliverance from long-term bondage to alcoholism and drug addiction in a prayer of surrender to Christ in 1986, I have sought to live a life of Christian service and to champion the biblical worldview. The chapters of my Christian life’s work since then include:
- · Joining and co-leading the Oregon Citizens Alliance from 1988–1995, defending the biblical definition of marriage and family in the public square.
- · Founding and operating the Christian Mediation Center in Sacramento from 2000-2004 to bring biblical reconciliation to disputes.
- · Helping to found the pro-family movement in Uganda in 2002–2003.
- · Forming Lively, Ackerman and Cowles law firm (of which I was managing partner from 2004 to early 2007) and its public-interest law foundation sister organization, The Pro-Family Law Center, before giving up both to return to the mission field.
- · Serving with New Generation Church in Riga, Latvia in 2006–2007, including a 50-city speaking tour through eight countries of the former Soviet Union.
- · Founding and operating the Redemption Gate Mission Society from 2008 to the present, including the purchase and remodel of Redemption House (in the Hood) from 2008–2015 and the founding of Holy Grounds Coffee House to serve the bottom strata of society.
- · Conducting a 27-nation fact-finding tour of the global conservative/populist movement from 2015–2017.
- · Running for governor of Massachusetts in 2014 and 2018.
- · Throughout all these chapters enduring intense opposition and persecution from “progressives” and the LGBT movement including multiple major lawfare lawsuits, relentless lies and character assassination by media at every level, vandalism, social cancelations, and innumerable hate messages and death threats — without ever compromising biblical truth, self-censoring or descending into hatred of these persecutors.
- · Moving in 2018 to our son’s farm in Memphis to care for my wife, who suffers from advanced degenerative scoliosis, where we live in a small cottage and enjoy time with our five delightful granddaughters (and our other son’s two children nearby in Nashville).
- · First Century Bible Church is my current chapter. In it I have retired from high-stress culture-war activities to focus on doctrine and discipleship based upon everything I have learned over these many years. The Victory in Christ Trust is my legacy project that I intend to survive me and carry on my vision for a renewed and strengthened church in America by helping ministries that help people recover from debilitating lifestyle-based addictions and disorders.
What Qualifies an Apostolic Trustee
What I believe best qualifies me for the role of apostolic trustee is that I am a professionally trained and experienced fiduciary with a long, proven track record of putting service to the cause of Christ above my own wants and comforts. This is best exemplified by the fact that I have maintained — even to this day — a relatively frugal missionary lifestyle when my skill-set and professional accomplishments would likely have made me very wealthy had I pursued that goal instead.
The Board of Elders, when the time comes to select my replacement, should look for a man who demonstrates the same combination of proven character, sacrificial service, mature biblical conviction, and unwavering commitment to the pre-Roman, Hebraic understanding of the faith that I have sought to model. He must be a man who has been tested by fire, who understands the weight of fiduciary responsibility, and who is willing to place the cause of Christ and the restoration of all things above personal comfort or worldly success.
May the Lord grant you wisdom and discernment in that solemn task.
In Christ’s service, Scott Lively Apostolic Trustee and Founder First Century Bible Church
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Resurrection Day and the Second Advent: The Oracles That Bridge Both Comings
Why Christians on this special day should respect the Jews and look forward to their collective salvation
Preface
On this Easter Sunday, 2026, we celebrate the central event of Christianity: the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. This was no isolated miracle. It was the precise fulfillment of the final act of Passover week — the offering of the First Fruits. As Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep… But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.” On the very day the priests in the Temple waved the first sheaf of the barley harvest — the day after the Sabbath following Passover — Jesus rose from the grave as the first sheaf of the greater resurrection harvest.
At the Last Supper, on the eve of His crucifixion, the Lord commanded His disciples to continue the ritual of the bread and the wine “in remembrance of me” and to do so “until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 22:19-20). In that single command He anchored the entire prophetic calendar.
The biblical feasts are not merely ancient Jewish observances; they are the divine framework for both advents and God’s entire redemptive timeline. Passover and First Fruits (as well as Unleavened Bread and Pentecost) were fulfilled at the first advent. The fall feasts — Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles — await their complete fulfillment at the second advent, which will culminate in the literal Millennial Kingdom.
It was always God’s plan to save the corporate House of Judah at the Second Advent. Through the long Age of the Gentiles He has carefully preserved them — not as an afterthought, but as the faithful stewards of the oracles of God. That preservation is the very reason the two houses remain interconnected even now, and it points directly to the soon-coming culmination of prophecy: the restoration of both houses and of “all things” in the thousand-year Sabbath Kingdom.
With that hope firmly in view, we turn to the Apostle Paul’s clear teaching in Romans 3:1-2 about the special advantage given to the Jew — the oracles of God — and what that advantage means for us today in Restoration Theology.
The Oracles of God: Romans 3:1-2 in Restoration Theology
At First Century Bible Church we teach the pre-Roman doctrines of the Apostolic Age. One of the clearest statements of the two-house division of the Abrahamic Covenant is found in Romans 3:1-2, where Paul asks, “What advantage then hath [present tense] the Jew? … Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
”In Restoration Theology the “oracles of God” (logia tou Theou) refer specifically to the written Hebrew Scriptures — the living, authoritative revelations God gave to the patriarchs and prophets and entrusted to the House of Judah (Leah’s line). This stewardship was part of the deliberate probate division of the covenant inheritance after Jacob married two wives. The House of Judah received the scepter, the Temple service, the Levitical priesthood, and the custody of the written Word. The House of Israel/Ephraim (Rachel’s line) received the birthright, the double portion, the name “Israel,” and the fruitfulness that would become a multitude of nations. The oracles stayed with Judah.
This is why, even after the northern house was divorced and scattered, and even after the corporate House of Judah (defined today as Judaism) collectively rejected Messiah, the Hebrew Scriptures have been preserved and transmitted by Judah through every dispersion. The oracles themselves were never taken away from them. They remain Judah’s covenantal trust.
Yet we must carefully distinguish these preserved written oracles of the Old Testament from the Living Word of the Christian era. John opens his Gospel with the declaration that “the Word was with God, and the Word was God … and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14). The written oracles pointed forward to Messiah; the Living Word is Messiah Himself.
During the two-thousand-year Christian Era (the two “Days” of the Age of the Gentiles), the House of Israel — defined corporately as Christianity — has received the new covenant first. Jeremiah 31:31-34 is already being fulfilled in the House of Israel: God is putting His law in their inward parts and writing it on their hearts. When a person accepts Christ he receives the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit who will guide him in all truth (John 16:13; John 14:26; 1 John 2:27). However, the written oracles remain an essential component of Christianity.
Paul makes this practical for every believer when he writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:15-17: “From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” By “scripture” taught to Timothy “from your youth” Paul clearly means the Old Testament, since much of the New Testament had not yet been written when Paul sent this letter, much less compiled and canonized.
Here Paul shows that faith in Christ does not replace the written oracles; it illuminates them. The Holy Spirit and the continually preserved written oracles work in tandem to equip the House of Israel (Christians) to perform the good works God prepared beforehand for us to walk in (Ephesians 2:10). Thus the oracles remain a living testimony to the world throughout the Age of the Gentiles.
While present-day debates over the role of the Jews in current events and prophecy often address (often contemptuously) the phenomenon of Talmudism — the Jewish practice of following the Hebrew sages’ commentaries on the Torah (and commentaries on the commentaries) — it is rarely if ever noted that this practice is driven by a near-fanatical insistence on leaving the Torah itself completely untouched. Jews in the Gentile age practically do backflips to avoid even speaking the name of God.
Viewed from the Restoration Theology perspective this makes perfect sense: the chief duty of the House of Judah is to preserve the oracles until they are restored in a perfect form in the Millennial Kingdom. They also have the witness of the House of Israel’s fall from grace and authority at Shiloh by mishandling and misusing the Ark of the Covenant — the incident that caused God to shift authority to the House of Judah at the time of David. They do not want to suffer the same fate. And because of that the Torah itself is shielded from tampering by layers upon layers of commentaries, like a vault within a vault within a vault.
The continuing role of the Jews (the corporate House of Judah) during this same period perpetuates two-house interconnectedness even though the House of Judah remains only partially hardened. The curse Christ pronounced upon that generation in Matthew 23 is not yet fully lifted; that lifting will occur at the Second Advent.
Until then, Judah’s faithful stewardship of the oracles keeps the two houses linked: Judah guards the documents while the House of Israel carries their message to the nations.
The Second Advent itself spans the three fall feasts. It begins with the Resurrection/Rapture on the Feast of Trumpets (when the Bride of Christ is glorified) and culminates at the Day of Atonement (Revelation 19:11-21). Only then, five days layer at the Feast of Tabernacles, does the literal Millennial Kingdom begin — the “restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21; Mark 9:12) in which both houses are finally reunited as one stick in the hand of the Lord (Ezekiel 37).
At that moment the oracles that Judah preserved will be perfectly joined with the Living Word that the House of Israel has already received. The new covenant will be fully realized for both houses together under Messiah on David’s throne.
This is the precise Hebraic logic Paul is teaching in Romans 3:1-2. The advantage of the Jew is real and ongoing: they were given the oracles. But that advantage is not the end of the story. It is the foundation for the full restoration of all things when the two houses become one and every oracle finds its perfect fulfillment in the Living Word who reigns from Jerusalem. That is Restoration Theology in its purest apostolic form.
Postscript
Dear brothers and sisters in the House of Israel, let us pray earnestly for the Jews of the House of Judah. Even now the Messiah is preparing their hearts to receive Him collectively at His soon return. Pray that many Jews will begin to turn to Him publicly in these closing days of the Age of the Gentiles, awakening the full House of Judah to the reality of His soon return and the irrevocable promises He has made to them (Romans 11:25-26; Zechariah 12:10; Romans 11:11).
The same God who preserved them through centuries of dispersion is the One who will lift the partial hardening and fulfill every word spoken to their fathers. May our prayers hasten that glorious day.
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"Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
The Victory in Christ Trust (VICT) operates as an investment fund under the auspices of First Century Bible Church that makes grants to qualifying ministries helping people overcome the behavioral flaws and patterns of conduct listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 which hinder full fellowship in the body of Christ. This includes especially those who struggle with substance abuse, same-sex attraction disorder and gender dysphoria.
The VICT uses free-will donations from supporters to grow a principal balance that is invested conservatively to generate returns. This principal remains intact and untouched, serving as an engine for earnings: 10% of which are added back to principal, with 90% allocated for operations and grants. As a church ministry, contributions are tax-deductible where applicable, with full transparency and donor input on grant recipients.
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(choose the Victory in Christ option).
Today's VICT UpdateThe VICT Principal Balance as of 4/11/2026
is $56,100
We have not yet created the brokerage account to invest these funds for earnings but expect to complete that task within the next 7-10 days.
There are additional funds pledged that have not yet arrived.
I have permanently reduced my salary at Redemption Gate Mission Society by $1000 per month and will commit that sum to the VICT project as my personal monthly contribution starting May 1st.
Please keep in mind that the VICT funds are restricted to the VICT project and are not used for the operations or overhead of First Century Bible Church or Scott Lively Ministries, both of which need your support.The Donation Portal for VICT, FCBC and Scott Lively Ministries is HERE
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The image below depicts a sample article by Scott published on his Substack
- · Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947), in which Justice Black wrote the majority opinion. Everson imposed a test of supposed “benevolent neutrality” toward all religions in place of the founders’ open acknowledgement of the Supreme Being. It incorporated the Establishment Clause against the states and introduced Jefferson’s “wall of separation” metaphor in a way that began erecting a barrier against religious expression in public life.
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