Fren-17 Fondements Apostoliques - Melquisedec Sacerdotes
Art Katz

Arthur "Art" Katz (1929 - 2007). American preacher, author, and founder of Ben Israel Fellowship, born to Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York. Raised amid the Depression, he adopted Marxism and atheism, serving in the Merchant Marines and Army before earning B.A. and M.A. degrees in history from UCLA and UC Berkeley, and an M.A. in theology from Luther Seminary. Teaching high school in Oakland, he took a 1963 sabbatical, hitchhiking across Europe and the Middle East, where Christian encounters led to his conversion, recounted in Ben Israel: Odyssey of a Modern Jew (1970). In 1975, he founded Ben Israel Fellowship in Laporte, Minnesota, hosting a summer “prophet school” for communal discipleship. Katz wrote books like Apostolic Foundations and preached worldwide for nearly four decades, stressing the Cross, Israel’s role, and prophetic Christianity. Married to Inger, met in Denmark in 1963, they had three children. His bold teachings challenged shallow faith, earning him a spot on Kathryn Kuhlman’s I Believe in Miracles. Despite polarizing views, including on Jewish history, his influence endures through online sermons. He ministered until his final years, leaving a legacy of radical faith.
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The video is titled "Within the Veil" and explores the concept of evolving into a higher spiritual state to enter the holiest place. The speaker initially hesitates to listen to the tape due to the speaker's accent, but eventually becomes captivated by the message. The speaker discusses the importance of appreciating the blood of Jesus and its role in atonement, but also emphasizes that it has opened a new and living way for believers. The sermon concludes with a call to courage, boldness, and understanding in order to fulfill the apostolic mission of the church.
Sermon Transcription
And there's something of a special kind that God wants expressed tonight. Different from the previous nights and yet altogether related. And yet without this, nothing that has been spoken can be attained. In fact, we would stand in a very peculiar danger of adopting yet another religious vocabulary. Just as we have been inducted into the charismatic, now we can be inducted into an apostolic form of speaking. Yet another phraseology. To which in the end we have just been rendered technicians. This is the most horrible of all fates. That we should have taken these holy and ultimate things. And to make of them yet another weary religious form. Something is required if we're going to be that prophetic living testimony. A vital church in word and deed and presence. That is going to unmask and to reveal the principalities and the powers. And fulfill the eternal purpose of God through the church. A thing that will save us from being mere technicians. It is one thing only. The knowledge of the reality of God. A priestly knowledge. Therefore, we are commended to consider Jesus in Hebrews 3.1. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider Jesus. But consider him how? As the apostle and the high priest of our confession. Talk about the mysteries of Christ. I don't understand it. My spirit is wiser than my mind. But this much I know. There is an inexorable connection between that which is apostolic and that which is priestly. We might attempt some fulfillment at other ministries and callings. Without the necessity of having a high priestly center. Although I doubt that. But there is something about that which is apostolic. That is eternally joined to that which is high priestly. There are certain things that we grievously lack as an apostolic church today. One of these is the awesome fear of God. The imminent sense of the soon coming judge. But another is the lack of a priestly consciousness. We have this as pertaining to some previous dispensation. This is Old Testament stuff. I pray that tonight the Lord is going to alter our understanding. Because of His Son, He says, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Not only is there a connection between apostolicity and priesthood. Not only is there a connection between apostolicity and priesthood. There is a connection between that which pertains to sons and that which pertains to priests. This mysterious high priest, this Melchizedek. Not descendant from the genealogy of Aaron. But a king of righteousness and of peace. Of whom it says in the 7th chapter and the 3rd verse. Without father or mother or ancestral line. Without beginning of days or of ending of life. But resembling the Son of God, He continues to be a priest without interruption forever. I tell you that this speaks to me of something that I covet for myself personally. It's a position, a place that is a requirement for that which is apostolic. Above culture and time and language and nationality. It's without beginning of days or ending of life. It resembles the Son of God. It's a priest without interruption. Perpetually. It's exhausting even to consider this. The kind of priest who ever lives to make intercession for the saints. What is the source of his animation, his energy, his life? We are exhausted just to consider these possibilities. That God has called us to be such a church and such a priest. Such a fulfillment of his eternal purpose. Such an agency for a kingdom come. We are spent just walking through the days of this seminar. Session after session. We are battered and moved from side to side. But what kind of priesthood is this without interruption? This is something other than a professional ministerial posture. That is somehow appropriate behind the pulpit and something other in the private life. This is a priesthood without interruption. We are told in the 16th verse that it's on the basis of the power of an endless and an indestructible life. Are you jealous to be this kind of a priest? Are you jealous to become this kind of a priest, this kind of a sacrificer? Do you recognize that except that this dimension be added to our being, there is no way that we can consider Jesus the apostle? No more than he himself can fulfill his apostolic dimension. Without also being the high priest of our confession. So equally is it incumbent and required of us. A priesthood of this kind. Not on the basis of natural qualification. But in exact proportion as we resemble the Son of God. Priests without interruption. Above time and culture and nationality. Without mother or father or ancestry. Beginning of days or ending of life. A continual flow. Out from the throne of God himself. On the basis of the power of an endless and an indestructible life. A son who has been made a priest forever. He says in the 27th verse, who has no day by day necessity. I kind of like this. Not only one who is above culture and above time. But even above necessity. Something about the nature of this priestliness. Of such an emancipated kind. Little wonder that it can give itself perpetually to the purposes of God. The basis of its energy is endless and indestructible. It has no day by day necessity. It's above necessity. It's seated at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. A minister in the holy place. The true tabernacle which is not erected by man but by God. I love the fourth verse of the eighth chapter. If he were then living on earth, he would not be a priest at all. Am I bewildering you? Does this sound totally irrelevant? Some strange mystical reference. If he were still living on earth, he would not be a priest at all. He's in another dimension and in the heavenly place. Anything less than that would invalidate his priestliness. He has his true existence in reality in the heavenly sanctuary. This is a priest who can come before God in the holiest place of all. Only the high priest can. God has eternally fixed it. Therefore, in Exodus 25, it's interesting to read the description of that holiest place. God gives it to us in extraordinary detail. We know that the tabernacle of God, like the temple that came later, has the same essential architectural pattern. An outer court that is open to the daylight without any covering. And thereby the place of entry is the bronze altar for sacrifice and the basin for washing. Symbolic of our entry into the house of God through the salvation, through the atonement of the blood of the Lamb. And then as we proceed further, there's a second court. And this is covered by skins. And there's a veil. And the priests daily entered. Not as many who trafficked in the first court in the heavy labor of sacrifice and fire and slaughter. But those priests whose function it was to light, both in morning and night, the holy altar of incense. And to place the showbread on the table of the Lord. A room that is shut off from natural daylight. But it has as its illumination a seven-branched candlestick. And it is a much brighter light. Not subject to the variables of the natural elements of weather. And sunlight. It's a constant light and a brighter light. But there's yet a final and an ultimate place. And few there be who have entered there. It's the holiest place of all. The holy of holies. There's no daily traffic there. Only one can enter there in the course of an entire year. And that on the basis of the blood of a pure sacrifice. In that place there is no seven-branched candlestick. And yet it is the brightest and most glorious light of all. It is the Shekinah glory of very God himself. It is his presence. And it is over the mercy seat and over the ark of the law. You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. And you shall make two cherubim of gold. Make them of hammod work at the two ends of the mercy seat. One cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end. You shall make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends. You shall make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends. And the cherubim shall have their wings spread upward covering the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another. The faces of the cherubim are to be turned toward the mercy seat. And you shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark. And in the ark you shall put the testimony which I shall give to you. Then this precious verse. And there I will meet with you. And from above the mercy seat and from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel. Paul cried out again and again, Who is sufficient for these things? Perhaps some of us have begun to emit that groan in these days. Even as we become increasingly conscious of the magnitude of what this apostolic calling is. How do we move from an institutional age toward the restoration of apostolic glory? How do we communicate the dimension of things that has been lost in our modern church experience? How are we to restore the sense of urgency and imminence of the things that shall shortly come to pass? How shall we warn our generation that God has appointed a day in which he will judge all nations on him whom he has raised from the dead? How are we to be fitted for such apostolic confrontation? Where is our courage and our boldness? Our understanding and our sensitivity? As we thread our way through all this in these painful adjustments and accommodations turning from the power of tradition and the established and institutional ways of men to come to the formation of this living church, this powerful prophetic witness whose presence alone is a testimony to the principalities and powers of the air Who is sufficient for these things? And where are we to find our answers? How are we to be led, even in days like these in so holy a theme as apostolic foundations? There I will meet with you and speak to you about all that I will give you in commandments for the sons of Israel This is the alternative to becoming mere technicians and adopting yet another brittle phraseology It is to come in to the holiest place of all the high priestly place that is open to those who come in the form of the Son of God without father or mother or beginning or ending of days It is the source of the indestructible life a source of inspiration and anointing of words that I will give you if we are to fulfill the mandate of God I'd like to ask you tonight where you are in the house of God Where are you in that tabernacle? Have you entered by the blood of the Lamb? And yet remain in that outer courtyard the place of initial salvation and think that you have arrived for a much better condition than you were than previously outside that house and content to remain there as so many of God's people are the fundamentalists, those who know nothing more than the issue of salvation and continue to preach it Sunday after Sunday to the saved do not know that there is a holy place beyond and that there is an entry within that veil by the Holy Spirit symbolized by that burning incense the altar of incense which continually ascends up to God a picture of the praise and worship that comes with the induction into the Holy Spirit coming from the uncovered place into a covered place and introduced with it, therefore, to new concepts in God the authority of God, the offices of God the ministers of the church the concept of eldership and church government the submission and authority of God and seeing in a much brighter light new things beyond the issue of atonement, beyond the initial issue of salvation you begin now to see the issues of the body of Christ even that of the kingdom of God it's a tremendous place and a charismatic place of a new quality of worship and praise of seeing and relationship of involving the serious and purposeful things of God but there is yet a deeper place that admits only high priests who are called also to that which is apostolic and here is a much greater light beyond the issues of church government and order beyond the subject of the body of Christ and even the realities of a kingdom come here is the stewardship of the mistress the mystery of the eternal purpose of God who created all things in order that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might be manifested to the principalities and powers of the air and this is according to the eternal purpose of God and this is according to the eternal purpose of God you never will glimpse this except in this light you never will fulfill this except for the words that are given and the inspiration that is communicated and the intensity of the life that is transmitted in the holiest place of all where his presence is between the wings of the cherubim above the ark of God and the righteous requirement of his law in the place of mercy there I will meet with you and give you words all that pertains to the sons of Israel who command me in authority out of my presence in the holiest place of all I'm speaking by faith tonight trusting for your faith it's a really moot question of how well you are able to understand this have you been progressively brought from faith to faith till this night because God's intention tonight is more than a dissertation on the tabernacle of God in the holiest place his intention tonight is an entering into the holiest place of all without which there cannot be an apostolic fulfillment consider Jesus the high priest and the apostle of our confession you cannot have the one without the other we will be rendered mere technicians and be victims of another hollow phraseology God is bidding us enter into the holiest place of all to dwell in that presence for there he will meet with us and give us all in command for the sons of Israel I've waited a long time for such an entry waiting spiritually to qualify as much as I am at war with the secular world something of its concept of evolution yet lingered with me that I had to evolve into a higher spiritual state by virtue of which I would then be enabled to enter into this holiest place but I stumbled upon a series of cassettes it was entitled, Within the Body Beyond the Veil something in my inner man went click I could not rush fast enough to hear them and I put the first tape on with great expectation something in my spirit rising to the mystery of this and I heard the first few statements and I was tempted to shut the machine off some hillbilly American some coarse ungrammatical redneck not my style at all and as my finger went to the eject button I hesitated because something began now to reach me beyond and through this accent that was beyond beyond nationality beyond culture beyond time beyond father or mother or beginning or ending of days and I continued to listen on cassette by cassette of a man whose frustration was much like my own the risings and the fallings of the spiritual life the good days and the bad days that rendered us incapable of saying with Paul you know what manner of man I was with you in all seasons and I followed him in the scriptures through the book of Hebrews how the law was only a shadow of good things to come and not the very form of those things that they could not make perfect those who draw near and I followed him in the scriptures but one came in point of time who can whose blood was better than the blood of bulls and of goats and of sacrifice who entered by his own blood into the heavenly place and entered once and for all isn't it remarkable how simple phrases elude us in all of our impressive spiritual sophistication we have not allowed these words to impact upon our souls he entered once and for all and he bids us enter also and to enter boldly not on the basis of our natural qualification we have not to be descended from the Aaronic priestly line this is another priesthood that resembles the form of the son of God to those who find themselves in him and have the faith to believe and the confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus you want to know something children the long and the short of it is that we do not appreciate the blood of Jesus so much as the father does we have come to appreciate it in terms of our atonement it is sufficient to wash away sin and guilt but his blood has done something more it has opened a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh and since we have such a great high priest let us take the veil let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith I remember that last night hearing that tape I was in bed my bible was open to these scriptures in Hebrews and he described in that last tape how he came to a Sunday morning service weary and defeated in that kind of terrible monotony and predictability to which our churches can so easily come but there was a woman that morning in the service who was a very bright light she could hardly contain herself she was waving her arm in the air she had a testimony to give yes sister he said and she said I just want to say that I have entered within the holiest place of all oh he was quick to correct her you mean to say that you hope to enter after all she was only a housewife no she said I have entered by what means he said by the blood of Jesus and the veil that was rent by his flesh I simply drew near with a true heart of faith and I confessed right now in Jesus name without any acknowledgement of qualification in myself I do enter into the holiest place of all by the blood of Jesus and she said something happened I have entered I am in a new place and it was visibly true of her before that service ended one by one people were getting up in the congregation and making a simple confession that they are entering right now faith is always now isn't it on the basis of the blood of Jesus into a new and living way he himself entered for which reason I was then hearing his tapes of a new kind of enablement that had come to him of an enhanced and deepened quality of apostolic faith of a fresh source of creativity and originality that he gets in a new place of communion with God in the holiest place of all I think it was at about that point that I shut the machine I took my glasses off my long Jewish nose I thought for a moment in reflection of my years in Christ the frustration, the rising and the falling and I just simply breathed a prayer flat on my back I said Lord right now not on the basis of any qualification of mine I do enter into the holiest place of all by the blood of Jesus and the veil rent by his flesh and something in my deepest inner man went click and I believe I have been in that place ever since holding fast the confession of our faith for every power of hell will seek to steal this from you oh this is only a play on words it's a kind of biblical rhetoric there's no really actual place of entry this heavenly thing is only a vapor it's an intangible thing you have all that you need by virtue of your salvation this is only a conceit on your part God doesn't intend for you to have a conjunction of that which is priestly and apostolic you and yourself are the same hold fast the confession of your faith I'm just being obedient tonight as I have been every night and every session in these days I did not come with a single concept of how these days should be fulfilled I know much better than you that the Lord himself has been unfolding these messages time by time he set before us a standard this morning on apostolic character that took our breath away so beyond mere Christian respectability so beyond any kind of nice guy-ism nothing less than the blamelessness of an Apostle Paul himself consciences void of offense with God or with man consistent in season and out knowing what manner of man I have been with you in all seasons for your sake you didn't have to be spiritually acute to realize this who is sufficient for these things how can we attain this how can we come into this apostolic fulfillment an eternal purpose of God through the church in this age enormous and demanding as that is but the age is to come is God cruel to set before us such a calling and to think that we shall be able to fill it on the paucity of our own human enablement even with the benefit and blessing of the baptism of the Holy Spirit there's yet a deeper place an ultimate place it's the holiest place of all it's for those who are called to that which is apostolic and high priestly consider Jesus as you have never before considered him the Son in whose image we also are called for he who is joined to him is one spirit with him understand Paul better when he says in him I move and live and have my being that as he has entered we enter once and for all where are you tonight and where do you desire to be and where have you the faith to be do you desire an apostolic participation in the eternal purposes of God will you be able to stand against apostolic persecution and suffering where nothing matters to you and you count not your life as dear unto yourself we have got to come into a certain priestly place without which there cannot be an apostolic fulfillment and he has rent the veil and bids us come not on the basis of our qualification but on the basis of the blood of Jesus for the life of the flesh is in the blood such a life such a blood sufficient for our entry there I will meet with you in the holiest place of all at the mercy seat above and between the cherubim and the ark of God and I will speak to you about all that I will give you the grace that is given to preach the unfathomable riches of Christ and to bring to light what has been hidden until now that God has created all things in order that through the church to the principalities and powers of the air the manifold wisdom of God might be demonstrated of all that I will give you in grace in enablement in inspiration in indestructible life in commandments and in authority for the sons of Israel do you believe these things? do you have a faith sufficient to enter? we have all to be in a different place of faith some sufficient to believe certain doctrines some sufficient to believe for healing some sufficient to believe for the baptism of the Holy Spirit by which there ought to be an evidence of such an entry have you a faith to believe for an entry into the holiest place of all that there might be an apostolic fulfillment in a high priestly way the only thing that can save us from becoming mere technicians and being victims of the cruelest thing of all to take the holy apostolic language and make of it yet another mere phraseology this is the last message of the last night and God is calling us to an unusual involvement and participation I have fulfilled my obedience in the instructions that I have received in speaking what I have tonight which have come to me from within the veil in that holiest place because I was too exhausted, too spent to consider or to conceive out of my own mind the appropriateness for tonight there is a high priestly place available for us there is a life that flows from us which is indestructible there you ever live to make intercession priests without interruption you know what manner of man I was with you in all seasons now it's up to you faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God some of you in the mentality characteristic of the French speaking will sweep this aside some American evangelistic device some fanciful play on words not to be earnestly considered but there are others of you whose hearts are already burning you can hardly be contained you want to stand up and to say what that woman said in that service now, now because faith is now and the hour has struck for the time is short and God is requiring a fulfillment that can only come from this place within the veil have you the faith to enter with a true sincere heart in full assurance of faith to hold fast a confession of hope that now I enter within the veil into the holiest place of hope through a new and living way by the blood of Jesus I'm just going to conclude now in prayer and there will be a time of silence and as many of you who have heard a call from God an apostolic call in these days beyond any ability in yourself God is now also opening the way for the source from his own life and presence to fulfill it will you come? precious God Lord I have only the most minimal sense of the glory of this mystery and yet I know that it's true that there's a place within the tabernacle of God that is ultimate the holiest place of all for the ultimate purposes of all a place that has been opened to us by the blood of Jesus and the veil rent by his flesh I have discharged my God what you have commanded me to speak tonight and now I ask you to hear every soul who responds by faith in the blood of your son Jesus to enter and to abide in the place of your presence and there to receive words there to receive commandments there to receive grace to preach, to teach to bring to light that which is hidden to fulfill the apostolic requirement of godly character to be blameless at the day of your appearing hear those my God who will respond by faith now in Jesus name
Fren-17 Fondements Apostoliques - Melquisedec Sacerdotes
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Arthur "Art" Katz (1929 - 2007). American preacher, author, and founder of Ben Israel Fellowship, born to Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York. Raised amid the Depression, he adopted Marxism and atheism, serving in the Merchant Marines and Army before earning B.A. and M.A. degrees in history from UCLA and UC Berkeley, and an M.A. in theology from Luther Seminary. Teaching high school in Oakland, he took a 1963 sabbatical, hitchhiking across Europe and the Middle East, where Christian encounters led to his conversion, recounted in Ben Israel: Odyssey of a Modern Jew (1970). In 1975, he founded Ben Israel Fellowship in Laporte, Minnesota, hosting a summer “prophet school” for communal discipleship. Katz wrote books like Apostolic Foundations and preached worldwide for nearly four decades, stressing the Cross, Israel’s role, and prophetic Christianity. Married to Inger, met in Denmark in 1963, they had three children. His bold teachings challenged shallow faith, earning him a spot on Kathryn Kuhlman’s I Believe in Miracles. Despite polarizing views, including on Jewish history, his influence endures through online sermons. He ministered until his final years, leaving a legacy of radical faith.