June 2021

On the Epistles of John, Part 5: The Authors of Sin

In our last presentation in this commentary, titled The Children of Yahweh, we presented some of the Biblical evidence that those who were declared to be the children of God in the Old Testament are the exclusive beneficiaries of the Old Testament promises of forgiveness, reconciliation, mercy, salvation and redemption for Israel which are fulfilled in Christ, that Christ Himself and His apostles had declared that He had come to fulfill those same promises to those same people, and therefore also that it is those very same people who are exclusively considered to be the children of God in the New Testament. As Paul of Tarsus had attested in Romans chapter 11, “29… the gifts and calling of God are without repentance”, meaning that the promises of God did not change, and he also said in Galatians chapter 3 that no man may disannul or add to the promises of God. The New Covenant having been made exclusively with the ancient children of Israel, with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, as Paul also cited the words of Jeremiah in Hebrews chapter 8, under no circumstances may any other man from outside of the children of Israel ever legitimately claim to be a party to that covenant.

On the Epistles of John, Part 4: The Children of Yahweh

In our last presentation in this commentary, which discussed the final verses of John chapter 2 and which was titled Christ and Antichrist, we sought to describe what it was that the apostles and others had believed the Christ to be from their own professions as they are recorded in the Gospel accounts, and which they themselves must have attained through their understanding of the words of the prophets. So by understanding what the apostles had believed the Christ to be, only then can we properly understand what John could have meant where he wrote in that chapter and asked: “22 Who is a liar, if not he denying that Yahshua is the Christ? He is the Antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son!”

On the Epistles of John, Part 3: Christ and Antichrist

In our last presentation in this commentary on the epistles of John, which we had titled The Propitiation for Sin, we sought to explain how the law stood in the way of any reconciliation between Yahweh God and the divorced children of Israel. Among other things, we cited the law where it says that every man (which includes every woman) must die for his own sin. When a man sins a sin for which he is liable to death, then he himself must die, and there is no other option under the law. But the ways in which the law obstructed the reconciliation of Yahweh and Israel is evident in even more ways than we had explained. For example, once the divorce of Israel was announced in the words of the prophet Hosea, Yahweh instructed the prophet, in Hosea chapter 3 where we read “1 Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.” In Hosea chapter 2 Yahweh had already spoken of Israel and said: “7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.” In spite of that, Yahweh had also sworn later in that same chapter that He would betroth Israel once again, and betroth Israel forever. This is a paradox, as we must know that Yahweh would not transgress His Own law.

On the Epistles of John, Part 2: The Propitiation for Sin

In our opening presentation in this commentary, discussing 1 John chapter 1, we saw the apostle repeat particular themes from his Gospel in relation to the nature of Christ, that, among other things, He is the Word of Life, and He is the true Light come into the World. Doing that, we used an accompanying illustration which seeks to describe the various ways in which Yahweh, the Invisible God, chose to manifest Himself in the world. Among these are the burning in the bush which appeared to Moses, the pillars of cloud and fire which led the Israelites out of Egypt, the Rock in the desert, and finally, as the man Yahshua Christ, who is also the Son. Sadly, there are trinitarians who also call themselves Christian Identity, but who do not realize that the concept of the trinity is contrary to the truth of God.