September 2011

Matthew Chapter 28 - 2011-09-23

Before we get into the final chapter of Matthew, chapter 28, it may be fitting to discuss just why it is that Christians should believe in a resurrection. There are many supposed Christians who have rejected the notion of the resurrection, shamed by so-called science – mistakenly believing that the science of man should be able to explain everything and anything, and therefore whatever it cannot explain cannot be true. This is the folly of humanism, which believes that man is god, and therefore anything that man cannot understand is fiction. Their own evolution theory is of course an exception to this. In truth, man is not god, and the true God will not be mocked.

If we believe that God created the heavens and the earth, and it is absolute folly to believe that they were created by chance, then we must by necessity believe that God transcends the physical creation as we know it. If we believe that Adamic man was created in the image of God and bears His spirit, then we can imagine that Adamic man can also transcend the physical world as God does. In the Wisdom of Salomon, at 2:23, it says: “For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.” If God has no efficacy in the reality of creation, then our faith is vain. As Paul told the Corinthians, “If only in this life have we had hope in Christ, we are the most pitiable of all mankind.” (1 Corinthians 15:19)

Christogenea on Talkshoe – September 16th, 2011 – Matthew Chapter 27, Part 2

I think of the Nuremberg trials, or the fate of Sylvia Stolz, or see what they did to Germar Rudolf and Udo Walendy and Robert Faurisson, and a thousand other unjust railroadings in this day, and I think of the trials of Christ. Taken by force in the middle of the night by a mob of so-called officials, the jewish tyranny often operates in much the same way today, which is the same way as the bolsheviks also operated in Soviet Russia. Wherever you find jews, you find tyranny and oppression conducted in the name of justice.

This is the twenty-second week of our presentation and discussion of the Gospel of Matthew. It will require at least one more week after tonight to bring it to completion. Last week we left off with Matthew chapter 27, verses 20 through 23, and we shall commence by repeating those tonight.

24 And Pilatos, seeing that nothing helps, but rather a tumult arises, taking water washed the hands before the crowd, saying “I am innocent from the blood of this man! You see to it!” 25 And responding all the people said: “His blood is upon us, and upon our children!” 26 Then he released Barabbas for them, but having scourged Yahshua he handed Him over in order that He would be crucified.

Discussing these circumstances at the end of last week's program, we focused on the situation that Pilate was in, and how it was difficult for him to avoid handing Yahshua Christ over to their desires. To me, this situation of Pilate's encapsulates something which has been a dilemma for our race since the beginning: the failure of man to properly confront evil, in exchange preferring love of the world and one's own comfort. Indeed, Pilate may have resisted the blood-thirty desires of the jews, but then he would have had to deal with their riotous behaviour and all of the political fallout which would certainly have followed. Christ Himself certainly understood Pilate's situation, and therefore said that “he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin”, as we read at John 19:11 in the discourse between Christ and Pilate which Matthew did not record.

Matthew Chapter 27 - 2011-09-09

Last week, among many other things that were evidenced while discussing Matthew chapter 26, we saw from the prophecy in Zechariah chapter 11 a direct connection between the thirty silver pieces for which Christ was betrayed to His enemies and the breaking of the Covenant which Yahweh made with the people, meaning of course the people of Israel. This is found at Zechariah 11:10-13, where it says: “10 And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people. 11 And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the LORD. 12 And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.” While it was discussed in brief here last week, Zechariah chapter 11 itself requires a full study (which shall not be done here presently), because of ambiguities, and because of differences in the Masoretic text as it compares with the Septuagint version. Furthermore, the Brenton translation of the Septuagint Greek of this chapter is also wanting – or can at least be contested - in various places. Yet all of the versions agree on this one thing: that the covenant was broken, and the thirty pieces of silver are connected to that act.

Now it can be asserted and proven, that the old covenant which Yahweh made with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai beginning with Exodus chapter 19 was a covenant equivalent to a marriage contract between Yahweh and Israel, with God as the Husband and the entire nation of the body of Israel as the Bride. That this is a proper interpretation is evidenced in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, the epistles of Paul, and many other places. That old covenant being eternal, and within the laws of marriage set forth by God, the only way that it could be broken was with the death of either the Husband or the Bride. Since Yahweh promised that a new covenant would be made with Israel and Judah, for instance in Jeremiah chapter 31 and Ezekiel chapters 34 and 37, that would also necessitate the breaking of the old covenant, as Paul explains in Hebrews chapter 8, where he also quotes from Jeremiah. So we see that the fulfillment of the old covenant, its completion (which is the meaning of the Greek word which the King James Version often translates as fulfillment), took place on the cross of Christ as Paul explains in Romans chapter 7.

Matthew Chapter 26 - 2011-09-02

Finishing the discourse of Christ concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the time of the end, and of His return, which is contained in Matthew chapters 24 and 25, hopefully we saw how these things which He said, and the parables which He left us concerning the troublous times, the ten virgins, the wicked servant, and the sheep and the goat nations, all meshed with the many other prophecies concerning those same things, and that at the end of days and the return of Christ, all of His enemies are destroyed, and in the end there are none left but the sheep. This is the true promise of Christianity, when we shall indeed have heaven on earth, which is what Christians everywhere should pray for incessantly just as Yahshua Christ Himself had instructed us to pray, that things be “on earth as they are in heaven” when His kingdom comes. And it shall indeed come. Here we shall proceed with Matthew chapter 26

XXVI 1 And it came to pass that when Yahshua had finished all these sayings, He said to His students: 2 “You know that after two days it shall be Passover, and the Son of Man is handed over for which to be crucified!”

First, here we see Matthew tell us that now Yahshua had “ had finished all these sayings”, so we see that this marks the end of the discourse which began at the beginning of Matthew chapter 24 where the apostles had initially asked Him about the pending destruction of Jerusalem and the time of the end.

3 At that time the high priests and the elders of the people gathered together in the court of the high priest who is called Kaïaphas, 4 and they took counsel that with guile they shall seize and kill Yahshua. 5 But they said: “Not on the feast, in order that there would not be a tumult among the people!”