Epistles of Paul

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Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 7: The Order of Melchizedek

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Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 7: The Order of Melchizedek

On several occasions in this epistle to the Hebrews, Paul of Tarsus has mentioned a priesthood of the “Order of Melchizedek” in reference to both Yahshua Christ and quoting the 110th Psalm, where David had written in reference to his Lord, or Messiah, and said “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” So we began to speculate as to what this Melchizedek priesthood may have been, and therefore we may understand why Christ is entitled to it for Himself.

Of course, all things do belong to God, but we have to consider this: the other things which Yahshua Christ had inherited, He inherited according to the law as it may be perceived by men, and this is one of the marvels of prophecy and Scripture. With His being the “lamb of God”, the ceremonial Levitical laws were fulfilled according to tradition, which made Him eligible to be so. This can be demonstrated from the laws concerning the passover lamb, the prophecy of Malachi, and the accounts of the Gospels. With His being the King of Kings, the laws were fulfilled in the circumstances of His birth which made Him eligible to be so, being the heir to the throne and promises of David, which is evident in the genealogies provided by the Gospels. With His having died for the sins of Israel, Paul explained in Romans chapter 7 just how that happened and how those sins were thereby forgiven, in accordance with the same Old Testament laws. So why should it be different with this Melchizedek priesthood?

Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 6: Confirmation of the Promises to the Fathers

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Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 6: Confirmation of the Promises to the Fathers

In the early chapters of this epistle, Paul had made several references to Yahshua Christ as a High Priest, asserting that He is the High Priest of the Christian profession in Hebrews chapter 3 (3:1), and more generally, that He is a high priest over the children of Israel, His brethren, in Hebrews chapter 2 (2:17). In that passage Paul had said that Yahshua Christ was a “faithful high priest of the things pertaining to Yahweh to make a propitiation for the failures [or sins] of the people.” Saying that, we know that Paul intended to describe the children of Israel because only they ever had the law, and therefore only they ever bore the stigmata of sin, or failure, in the eyes of God, because as Paul himself had explained in his epistle to the Romans 5:13 that where there is no law, sin is not imputed.

Then in Hebrews chapter 5 Paul informed his readers how Yahshua Christ, who was not of the priestly tribe, was nevertheless considered a priest, as he cited the 110th Psalm where it says “4 The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” It is inevitable that those words apply not to David himself, but to an expected Messiah, as David began that same Psalm with the statement that “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” So David’s lord, and not David himself, is the subject of the subsequent statements.

For this same thing we read in chapter 20 of the Gospel of Luke where Yahshua Christ had addressed certain of the Pharisees as it is recorded: “41 And he said unto them, How say they that Christ is David's son? 42 And David himself saith in the book of Psalms, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, 43 Till I make thine enemies thy footstool. 44 David therefore calleth him Lord, how is he then his son?” Therefore the lord which David refers to as his lord in Psalm 110:1 was indeed interpreted by all, and especially by Christ Himself, to be a reference to the expected Messiah.

Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 5: The High Priest of God

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Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 5: The High Priest of God

Thus far in his epistle to the Hebrews, Paul of Tarsus has cited many of the Messianic Psalms, attesting that they are prophecies of Yahshua Christ as the promised Son of Scripture, the Messiah or Anointed Son through whom Israel would ultimately attain salvation. Doing this he had also explained that the world was made through that same Son, which must indicate that the Son is one and the same with the Creator Himself, and that Son has also come to rule over His Own household, which are the children of Israel. In other words, the plan of God from the beginning was to become man. For that reason Paul also insists in this epistle that the Son is the first born, which is truly a status that He could only have if He is God. In Hebrews chapter 12 Paul refers to the Christian assembly as the “church of the firstborn”, as the King James Version has it, which is in reference to the assembly of Christ.

It must also be noted that where Paul had explained some of these things, the household of Christ and the household of Moses are still the same household under the New Covenant as they were under the Old Covenant. Furthermore, Paul had also cited the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy, and held up Moses, Joshua, David and Solomon all as types for Christ. Then, making an allegory from the history of the Israelites under Joshua, Paul explained that they had failed to enter into the period of rest promised to them by the Word of God due to their own disobedience, but that such a promise of rest still remained for the children of Israel if they would finally turn to obedience in Christ. And while we saw that this period of rest has a spiritual dimension, it was primarily a promise of national rest: deliverance from the ancient enemies of their God to enjoy the works of their own hands in relative peace. That deliverance is also a promise in Christ, as it is professed in the Gospel in the opening chapter of Luke. [Therefore Christians will only throw off the shackles of the Jew through Christ.]

Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 4: The Day of Rest

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Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 4: The Day of Rest

Many Christian students of Scripture have long realized that the accounts in the Bible contain types and allegories throughout both the historical and the prophetic writings, if we may break all Scripture down into those two categories. However in the Bible the lines between history and prophecy are not always clear because sometimes prophecy presents things which had occurred in the past rather than things which shall occur in the future. Moses was one such prophet, who presented prophecies describing events from both the past and the future, while also recording historical events from his own time. When Moses wrote of the past, his inspiration was not from any recorded histories, but from Yahweh his God. In that same manner, through the prophet Isaiah, Yahweh had challenged the idolaters as it is written in Isaiah chapter 41, where the Word of God says “22 Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.”

So here in his epistle to the Hebrews, Paul draws on facets of the accounts of the lives of David, Solomon and Joshua and applies them in a prophetic manner to Yahshua Christ. The writers of the Gospels did that very same thing, so the types and allegories in the historical events and in the lives of the figures of the Old Testament must have been understood by them as well. Along with them, Paul believed that things which happened to these historical individuals were described as they were in Scripture for the very reason that these men, who were all chosen by Yahweh to be leaders of the children of Israel, were living examples of the Messiah which was to come. These examples are commonly called types, and many Christian students have long understood that at least some of the events in the lives of these men were indeed prophecies of Christ. But there are other such types in Scripture which are not related to specific events or the lives of specific individuals.

Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 3: Christ is Head of His Own Household

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Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 3: Christ is Head of His Own Household

At the opening of this epistle we saw Paul of Tarsus proclaim the coming of a Son appointed “heir of all”, through whom God has chosen to communicate His will to man. So Paul inferred that God no longer conveys His will to men through prophets, as He had done in antiquity. Inevitably, Yahshua Christ is the last of such prophets. But Paul then spoke of this Son as being the image of the substance of God Himself, and many people who are too attached to their own perception of reality in this physical world do not fully understand the implications of such a statement. However some people are so attached to the physical world because it is the only world that they shall ever see, and therefore it is the only world that they can truly understand. This is the nature of true Christianity – that those who are from above hear and sincerely believe the things from above, while those who are not shall forever dispute such things. (And when we engage with them in their endless disputes, we allow ourselves to be captivated by them.)

For this reason Christ said to His adversaries, as it is recorded in John chapter 8: “Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” They will die in their errors, because they have no propitiation, nor any chance for communion with God. Quite ostensibly they are bastards, and therefore they must die in their errors, as there is no other choice for them. Their very existence is a sin against God. It is not as if the enemies of Christ had been given a choice to believe or not. In John chapter 10 Christ said “But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.” So those who are not of God are not expected to believe Him, and where Christ said “if ye believe not”, He was not giving them a choice. Rather, He was asserting a factual implication. And even in spite of the fact that they sometimes profess to believe, they are often found arguing with God.

Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 2: Angels, Spirits and Men

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Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 2: Angels, Spirits and Men

In the first six verses of his epistle to the Hebrews Paul of Tarsus extolled Yahshua Christ as the ultimate prophet and messenger of Yahweh God, and asserted that all of the messengers, or angels, of God must worship Him. But making this assertion, Paul quoted from Deuteronomy chapter 32, and doing so he also indirectly asserted that Yahshua Christ is God, because the statement which Paul cited from Deuteronomy 32 refers directly to God. We presented a brief examination of that chapter of Deuteronomy, which revealed that it contains an early outline of the plan which Yahweh had for the children of Israel: that they would be scattered on account of their sins, and then they would ultimately be offered salvation and reconciliation as their God takes vengeance on His enemies. So making this association here in Hebrews, Paul equates the Son, Yahshua Christ, as being one and the same with Yahweh, that God of war and vengeance described by Moses, as the Word of God also says in that same chapter of Deuteronomy, “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me”. If there is no other God with Him, then Yahshua Christ must be Him.

There are frequently similar statements in Isaiah which are also related to the salvation of the children of Israel, such as in Isaiah chapter 45 where we read “21 Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. 22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” In relation to those same opening verses of Hebrews we had already pointed out another similar statement which is directly connected with the Gospel of Christ, from Isaiah chapter 52 where the Word of Yahweh says “6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.” Then we compared that passage to the words of Christ in the Gospel where the apostles asked to see God the Father, and Christ replied that “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father”.

Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 1: The Last Prophet is Christ

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Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 1: The Last Prophet is Christ

Several things about this epistle to the Hebrews have been a subject of debate throughout Christian history, including the identity of the author, where and when it was written, and to whom it was addressed. We will rather confidently answer all of those questions here, even if some of our proofs are only circumstantial. First, it is evident from the closing salutation in the final verses of Hebrews chapter 13 that Paul of Tarsus is the author. There he says “23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you.” This promise is similar to others made by Paul elsewhere in his epistles, however that alone does not prove Paul’s authorship. Unlike all of his other epistles, this one has no opening salutation. But that too is for an important reason.

Now many of those who acknowledge that Paul is the author of this epistle claim that it was written while he was under arrest in Rome, however that is not true. They base that claim on the next verse of Hebrews chapter 13, where it says “Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints”, which is also a statement sounding very much like Paul although we would translate it differently, and then “They of Italy salute you.” Now, on the surface that last phrase seems to support the assertion that the epistle was written in Rome, however it actually does precisely the opposite. In the original Greek wording of that statement there is a preposition, ἀπό, which denotes separation and origin. If Paul were in Italy, he did not need that preposition, but only the Genitive Case noun to denote the origin of those whom he meant to describe. Using ἀπό, he is actually saying that these individuals were from Italy, and it becomes evident that he is describing people who had originated from Italy but were not necessarily in Italy as he was writing.

Paul’s Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 3: The Faith is not for All

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Paul’s Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 3: The Faith is not for All (οὐ γὰρ πάντων ἡ πίστις)

In his first epistle to the Thessalonians Paul had discussed the persecution of Christians by those Jews who stood in opposition to the Gospel of Christ. In the last chapter of that epistle he mentioned the promise of the ultimate destruction of those enemies of Christ. Here in his second epistle Paul has elaborated on that very theme, and has more accurately identified the nature of those enemies whom he had mentioned in the first letter, “those who killed both Prince Yahshua and the prophets, and banished us, and are not pleasing to Yahweh, and contrary to all men”, as he had described them in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2.

Here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul has explicitly stated that, as he was writing this epistle, that apostasy had already come, that there was already a “man of lawlessness”, which he characterized as the “son of destruction”, operating “in accordance with the operation of the Adversary”, or Satan. We know that this was Paul’s intended meaning because, as we have explained at length, while he described these things he had used present tense verbs, verbs which describe presently occurring phenomena, as well as aorist tense verbs describing actions which were already initiated relative to that presently occurring phenomena.

The grammar of Paul’s statements do not permit one to imagine that the men and actions which he had described would materialize at some point far off in the future. Using present tense verbs, Paul was speaking of someone who already at his own time was “opposing and exalting himself above everything said to be a god or an object of worship, and so he is seated in the temple of Yahweh, representing himself that he is a god.”

Paul’s Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 2: Satan Revealed

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Paul’s Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 2: Satan Revealed

The writing of book of Zechariah the prophet can be dated rather accurately to begin about 520 BC, during the reign of the Persian king known as Darius the Great. On the surface, the subject of Zechariah’s prophecy appears to be the rebuilding of Jerusalem in Judaea, as it is presented at the time of the building of the second temple where there is also an actual high priest with the name of Joshua. His is the same name, in its common Medieval English form, as Joshua the son of Nun from the time of Moses. But it is also the same name as the personal name of Yahshua the Messiah, who is more commonly known as Jesus Christ. Zerubbabel is also mentioned in Zechariah’s prophecy, several times in chapter 4. His name means sown in Babel, or Babylon, and he was the governor of Jerusalem at the time of the return of the remnant and the building of the second temple.

While the immediate subject in Zechariah appears to be Jerusalem in Judaea, that is not at all the ultimate purpose of the prophecy. Such is the nature of dual prophecies, that they are given in a manner which has both an immediate application and an ultimate meaning, The ultimate purpose of these early chapters of the prophecy of Zechariah is to describe the reconciliation of the people of Israel in their dispersions, the condition of their true High Priest before their sins are removed, and the propitiation which that Priest, Yahshua Christ, makes on their behalf. Joshua, the high priest of Zechariah’s time, is only a type for Yahshua Christ. Jerusalem, the actual city, is only a type for the true Jerusalem, the City of God come down from heaven, and the rebuilt temple is a type for the restored Body of Christ found in those of His people who are willing to hearken in obedience to Him.

Paul’s Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 1: The Righteousness of God

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Many little details and much of the seemingly innocuous language which Paul of Tarsus used in his epistles actually serves to sew together the historic context of the Old Testament with the stated purpose of the Gospel. Denominational Christians remain ignorant, not even conceiving what Paul had actually meant by many of the statements which he had made. So while it may seem that we often spend an inordinate amount of time on paltry details, those details are as necessary to a firm understanding of Scripture as each of ten thousand little nails are to the structural integrity of a house.

Paul’s Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 1: The Righteousness of God

As we had demonstrated from the circumstances provided in 1 Thessalonians 3:6 when compared with Acts 18:5, where it says “And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ”, Paul had written the first epistle to the Thessalonians shortly after he began to preach the Gospel in Corinth. Timothy and Silas were originally sent to Thessalonika by Paul from Athens, and they were evidently reunited with Paul in Corinth, as we are informed in Acts 18:5, where they reported to him the state of the Christian assembly in Thessalonika, as we are informed in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. It was that report, along with apparent inquiries that the Thessalonians had made of Paul, which had given him the motivation to write that first epistle to the Thessalonians.

Now there is no definite statement to inform us who had delivered the first epistle to the Thessalonians, whether it was Timothy and Silas who had again made the journey, or whether it was delivered by another. However here as Paul writes this second epistle, Timothy and Silas are with him once again, and they are included in his salutation as they had been in the first epistle. There is also no direct evidence as to when this second epistle to the Thessalonians was written. However since the major theme of the epistle is an elaboration of things which Paul had said in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, it is evident that the first epistle must have compelled the Thessalonians to send Paul further inquiries which he answers here. So it is also evident that this second epistle to the Thessalonians was written from Corinth a short time after Paul had sent them his first epistle.

Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 5: The Rapture of the Wicked

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The opening comments to tonight’s program were based on a topic posted at the Christogenea Forum.

Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 5: The Rapture of the Wicked.

Presenting the end of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, we discussed the supposed Rapture of the Saints, and discovered that Paul never really described such a Rapture at all. Rather, he was poetically depicting some of the events as he perceived that they shall take place at the Second Advent of the Christ, in relation to the resurrection of the dead and the regathering of the people of God. Many denominational Christians expecting a so-called Rapture expect to be lifted up into the heavens and into the clouds at any given moment, which is a childishly ridiculous fantasy.

We pointed out that by writing “clouds”, Paul was very likely only referring to throngs, just as he used the word for cloud in Hebrews chapter 12. We also showed that where the King James Version has the words “caught up”, the literal meaning is more properly carried off. In part, a more practical reading of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 may read “Then we, the living who are remaining, at once with them shall be carried off in throngs for a meeting...” But this is not all.

We also elucidated the fact that where Paul spoke of a meeting “in air”, or “in the air”, he was not talking about the sky or the heavens, since in the Gospels wherever the sky is referred to the Greek word is οὐρανός, or heaven, and not ἀήρ, or air. We argued that everywhere the phrase “birds of the air” is mentioned in the New Testament, the word is οὐρανός, which is otherwise usually translated as heaven in the King James Version. If the οὐρανός is the abode of the birds, then by saying ἀήρ Paul could not have been referring to the sky. Here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 the word for air is ἀήρ, not οὐρανός, so using it Paul did not intend to refer to the abode of the birds. Rather, he was referring to the physical world, as opposed to the spiritual, using the word just as he had used it in a reference to Satan, the prince of this world, as the “prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians chapter 2.

Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 4: The Rapture of the Saints?

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Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 4: The Rapture of the Saints?

So far in our presentations of Paul’s first epistle to the Thessalonians we have seen Paul express to his readers that their acceptance and conduct in the Gospel of Christ was itself an assurance that they were indeed the elect of God. We took that opportunity to discuss some of the history establishing that these Thessalonians, like the other recipients of Paul’s epistles, had descended from the Israelites of the Old Testament. Then where Paul had discussed the persecutions which the Christians of both Judaea and Thessalonika as well as the other Christian assemblies had undergone, we took an opportunity to demonstrate that the historicity of the early persecutions of Christians, in the days of Claudius and Nero, was an established historical fact.

Following that, we took the opportunity to demonstrate how Paul’s advice to the Thessalonians which he gives in chapters 3 and 4 of the epistle represented the core of something which in another context we may call Positive Christianity. Doing this, we demonstrated that Paul’s exhortations in Christ had certainly represented ideas which are fully amenable to the preservation of our race and of our White Christian nations. Doing this we also hope to have demonstrated that the things which Paul had advised were things which only Jews, who are the eternal enemies of Christ, could possibly oppose. Therefore by opposing true Christianity one is actually taking sides with the devil, and by attacking true Christians one is doing the handiwork of the Jews, something which the pagans of the first centuries of the Christian era had also done.

Now in the middle of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, we are up to the point in Paul’s epistle which contains the famous so-called Rapture passage, which is really a rather enigmatic description by Paul of some of the things that Christians can expect of the Second Advent of Christ. And in reality it has nothing to do with any so-called Rapture, as we hope to demonstrate. First, however, we will address some of the claims of the Rapture cult adherents themselves, and refute them as well.

Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 3: Who Opposes True Christianity?

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We took the opportunity to answer secular White Nationalist attacks on Christian Identity throughout this podcast. We hope that it did not interfere to any great extent with our presentation of this portion of Paul's first epistle to the Thessalonians.

Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 3: Who Opposes True Christianity?

At the beginning of 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul had discussed the persecution which he had suffered in Philippi, where he had been jailed for upsetting certain Roman pagans. They were angry for having lost the prospect of profit they had in their control of a woman who had been taken by a spirit of divination when Paul had exorcised that spirit from her. There we took an opportunity to discuss the persecution of Christians as it was mentioned by the pagan writers Tacitus and Suetonius, and later by the Christian writers Minucius Felix and Tertullian. The point which we wanted to make is that the wide-scale persecution of Christians by both pagans and Jews in the first century is a historical fact that cannot be honestly disputed. This persecution, which is recorded as early as the time of Claudius, was also usually instigated by the Jews.

We are stressing this aspect of Paul’s epistle to the Thessalonians here because there are many fools today who have been led to doubt the actual historical existence of a man named Jesus Christ, and they disparage and deny all the records of His existence. Along with that, they have obfuscated or sought to destroy what His existence really means to the people of Europe, and why those people, for the most part, voluntarily accepted Christianity. This too, is the work of the Jews in the modern era. But many Whites, and especially White Nationalists, who are disaffected with corrupt Judeo-Christianity, have been deceived by this Jewish treachery. We are confronted with them frequently.

As we argued in our last presentation, these ancient records are legitimate. There are other such records we have not yet discussed, such as the letters of Pliny the Younger, who in 97 AD was attempting to suppress Christianity in Bithynia. The persecution of Christians in the time of Pliny and the emperor Trajan was made on the basis that Christianity undermined the authority of the Roman State. These also support our position, and all together the ancient records prove beyond doubt that the traditional narrative concerning the historicity of Jesus Christ and the development of early Christianity is certainly correct.

Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 2: Persecution of the Saints

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Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 2: Persecution of the Saints

The Roman historian Suetonius, who lived from about 69 AD to about 140 AD, had a career as the director of the imperial archives under the emperor Trajan. So he must have had a lot of first-hand information upon which to base his histories of the lives of the Roman emperors. In his Lives of the Twelve Caesars, in The Life of Cladius, chapter 25, Suetonius said of Claudius, in brief, that “Since the Judaeans constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from Rome.” In spite of the bickering over this passage by modern Jews and assorted other scoffers, this brief note must be a reference to the same event which is also noted in Acts chapter 18, where it is recorded that as Paul is in Corinth, he meets Priscilla and Aquila, who were there “on account of Klaudios ordering all of the Judaeans to depart from Rome”. Those who doubt the connection of this reference in Suetonius to early Christianity conveniently assert that there must have been some other Chrestus who caused such a disturbance, among other claims. (It seems that Suetonius did write Christians where he mentioned them again in his life of Nero, 16.2.) But there were certainly Christians in Rome by this time, which is evident as Paul, writing his epistle to the Romans in 57 AD, attests that many Christian assemblies were already established in Rome, and one of the major themes of that epistle is the reasons for the divisions between Christians and Jews.

The mistaking of Chrestus (meaning The Good One) for Christos (meaning The Anointed One), or Christ, was not uncommon among the Romans, Tacitus was also confused over the name in that same manner. But the error even appears in some of the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament writings. In Acts 11:26 and 26:28 the Codex Sinaiticus (א) has Chrestian(s) rather than Christian(s). Certain early and notable Christian writers made remarks attempting to correct the confusion. In the late 3rd century the Christian writer Lactantius wrote concerning the name of Christ because, as he himself had said, “the meaning of this name must be set forth, on account of the error of the ignorant, who by the change of a letter are accustomed to call Him Chrestus.” (The Divine Institutes, Book 4, Chapter 7) But perhaps a hundred years earlier, Tertullian had written that “The name Christian, however, so far as its meaning goes, bears the sense of anointing. Even when by a faulty pronunciation you call us “Chrestians” (for you are not certain about even the sound of this noted name), you in fact lisp out the sense of pleasantness and goodness.” (Ad Nationes, Book I Chapter III) Then, at least threescore years before Tertullian, in the mid-2nd century, the Christian apologist Justin Martyr, writing only a short time after Suetonius had made a play on words relating to the error, by writing “For we are accused of being Christians, and to hate what is excellent (or chrestian) is unjust.” (The First Apology of Justin, Chapter IV)

Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 1: Mercy may be by grace, but election is by race.

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Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 1: Mercy may be by grace, but election is by race.

In the Christogenea New Testament, Thessalonians is spelled Thessalonikeans, as that is a transliteration of the way that it was spelled by the Greeks, and in our translations we endeavored to maintain the Greek forms of at least most of the names. But before speaking about Thessalonika, we will speak briefly about Thessaly, from whence the name of the city had originated. However Thessalonika was not properly in Thessaly, at least so far as the borders of the Hellenistic and Roman periods were defined. We spoke of these places in our Acts chapter 17 presentation two-and-a-half years ago, and noticed an error which we must correct.

Thessaly was the part of central mainland Greece north of ancient Attica, Boeotia and Euboea, with Epirus to the west and Makedonia to the north. The Aegean Sea was on the east. It must be noted, that in ancient times the Greek provinces never really had definite borders. They more or less described the somewhat fluid areas of habitat of the Greek tribes, which occupied greater or lesser territory as their populations or military strength either increased or diminished over time. As Makedonia increased in political power, the perceived territory of adjoining regions such as Thessaly and Thrace was diminished.

Strabo, in the ninth book of his Geography tells us that Thessaly was in early times populated by the same Phoenicians who built the Greek city of Thebes (9.2.3). There was even a river in the area named Phoenix. However the Pelasgians were imagined to have inhabited the area originally, even before the mythical flood of Deucalion, after which they were said to have been driven out. Strabo says later in that same book “Now the largest and most ancient composite part of the Greeks is that of the Thessalians, who have been described partly by Homer and partly by others.” Makedonia did not exist as a political entity in the period of which Homer had written. There are ancient connections between the inhabitants of Thessaly and Aeolia, a region on the coast of Anatolia near the Troad which included a group of islands in the adjoining sea. Certain peoples of Thessaly, namely the Magnesians and the Aenianians, are said to have been Aeolian in origin.

Paul's Epistle to the Colossians Part 7: Christianity and Slavery, with Philemon

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Paul's Epistle to the Colossians Part 7: Christianity and Slavery, with Philemon

One of the underlying themes we have been building upon from what Paul of Tarsus has taught us in the first several chapters of this epistle to the Colossians is judgment. Paul of Tarsus began when he advised these Christians of Colossae that they should let no man judge them concerning feasts, sabbaths and other celebrations, and then he also informed them that they should not submit to the ordinances of the men, nor should they worship angels, as he called them, who would prevent them from the use of those elements of God’s Creation that are beneficial to the satisfaction of the flesh, which was basically a refutation of both Pharisaism and asceticism, or, as the King James Version translates the term, “will worship”, which describes asceticism.

However Paul also informed these Colossians that, because they had an assurance of life in Christ, they should choose to abstain from the sins of the world, fornications, evil desires, covetousness, which Paul identified as a form of idolatry, and “filthy communications”, among which are blasphemies, deceits, slanders, ribaldry, and even the wrath of men.

Saying these things, Paul explained that in Christ “one is not Greek and Judaean, circumcision and uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but altogether and in all ways Anointed.” Paul made a similar statement in Galatians chapter 3, where he had said, as it reads in the King James Version, “26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew [properly Judaean] nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” And here is where many supposedly pious Christians have found, or have even created much confusion.

Paul's Epistle to the Colossians Part 6: The Indwelling Word

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Paul's Epistle to the Colossians Part 6: The Indwelling Word

Presenting the last two segments of Paul’s epistle to the Colossians, we made digressions to discuss several things which Paul may not have addressed explicitly, but which certainly are related to Paul’s message. The first of these addressed substance pharisaism. There are many substance pharisees who seek to judge other men for partaking of things which Yahweh’s law does not proscribe. Some of these things are a part of Yahweh’s very creation, and therefore He provided them. So if our God provided them, and did not prohibit them in His law, how could we justify prohibiting them? How could we condemn men for using such substances? The truth is that we cannot justly prohibit our brethren from anything which the law of our God does not prohibit. If we do, then we imagine ourselves to be as gods, like the high priests that Paul had scathingly criticized in his second epistle to the Thessalonians. They were sitting in the temple of God, exalting themselves above everything that was truly godly, and imagined themselves to be as gods. When man makes his own laws rather than seeking to uphold Yahweh’s law, he becomes an idolater because he is certainly not God. Yahweh did not give men laws as a supplement to man’s law. Rather, He gave men laws to live by, and when they do, they are free of the tyranny of men.

Another sort of pharisaism which we addressed was word pharisaism. The word pharisees insist upon controlling the lexicons of others. So where Paul had advised at Ephesians 4:29, for instance, to “let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth”, as one translation has it, they imagine that to refer to literal words rather than to lies, flattery, threats, provocations, ribaldry, statements which are actually damaging regardless of what sort of words are used to express them. Likewise, here in Colossians 3:8 Paul admonished against “filthy communications”, or as we would translate the phrase, “abusive language”, or perhaps “shameful language”. The shallow, Judaized denominational Christian imagines these passages to be talking about certain words when they are really admonishing men not to lie to one another, not to slander one another, not to blaspheme God, not to use flattery and deceit, or any of the other things which men say and do to one another whether they be done with language that is "nice" or "naughty". But these passages do not advocate word pharisaism.

Paul's Epistle to the Colossians Part 5: Bad Words and “Filthy Communications”

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Paul's Epistle to the Colossians Part 5: Bad Words and “Filthy Communications”

Thankfully, bad words and filthy communications are not all we have to discuss this evening, however we seem to constantly be confronted by what I can only call “word Pharisees”, and they certainly need to be addressed.

In our recent discussions of Colossians chapter 2, we had seen Paul of Tarsus assert that because the children of Israel were freed from the ordinances of the law by the sacrifice of Yahshua Christ, Christians should not seek to judge one another based on those ordinances. Therefore Paul said “no one must judge you in food and in drink, or in respect of feast or new month or of the Sabbaths.” Of course, Paul was not telling Christians to disregard the sabbaths and the feasts, which he had advised them elsewhere to observe. Rather, he must have meant that no one should judge them as to how they observe those things, and especially concerning all of the commandments of men that were added to God’s laws regulating them.

Paul's Epistle to the Colossians Part 4: Salvation is not by Legalism

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Paul's Epistle to the Colossians Part 4: Salvation is not by Legalism

Many Identity Christians profess to keep the laws of God, and for the most part they do. But then they adopt and intermingle a lot of their concepts of right and wrong from the greater society, or from their own personal judgment of things transpiring in society, good or bad, whereby they are really not following Yahweh’s law in the degree which they imagine. Of course, none of us follow it perfectly, and that is why we require the mercy which is found in Christ. But Yahweh’s law is much more than just church law. It is a schematic for the coming Kingdom of Heaven, and Christians should seek to live by it and establish it now. They should base their everyday decisions and their judgments of right and wrong upon God’s law first. In our time of punishment we may be compelled to obey some of the laws of men, but of course we should not do so to the point of negating or invalidating the laws of our God. When man and God disagree, we must choose to follow God.

I had initially thought to subtitle this segment of our presentation of Paul’s epistle to the Colossians as Puritanical Pharisaism, or perhaps Pharisaical Puritanism. These titles would be appropriate within the confines of our modern vernacular use of those terms, but are not really fair to most of the original Puritans, or even to at least some of the original Pharisees.

Paul's Epistle to the Colossians Part 3: The Handwriting Against Us

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Paul's Epistle to the Colossians Part 3: The Handwriting Against Us

Thus far three topics have stood out in the discussion found in Paul’s epistle to the Colossians: the fact that Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh, and that He had come to reconcile His household to Himself, redeeming them and forgiving their sins. In relation to this, Paul explains that he, being assigned the administration of this household, suffered many things for their benefit in the execution of that assignment. Here in Colossians chapter 2 Paul will continue expounding upon all three of these topics as he also adds some admonitions as to how Christians should conduct themselves on account of these things.

1 For I wish you to know that as great a struggle as I have for you, and those in Laodikeia, and as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,

Laodikeia was about 10 miles from Colossae. In Colossians chapter 4 we learn that Paul also wrote an epistle to the Laodikeians (popularly Laodiceans), which has not survived to us. The Laodikeians are mentioned again in the Revelation, where they are the seventh of the seven assemblies which had received messages from Yahshua Christ.

Here we see evidence in support of the fact that Paul himself had not brought the gospel to the Colossians, or to the Laodikeians, since those people had not seen him in person. Rather, as we had discussed presenting chapter 1 of this epistle, it seems to have been Epaphras who had brought to them the Gospel, as Paul had written there concerning the favor of God, “7 As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ”. In chapter 4 of this epistle, Paul informs us that Epaphras is also a Colossian.

Paul's Epistle to the Colossians Part 2: Jesus Christ is God

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Jesus Christ is God, or as we are more inclined to say, Yahshua Christ is Yahweh. I was startled, when I first became acquainted with the Christian Identity world, that so many people have not understood that, and there are still those who deny it. They want to limit God to a spirit world disassociated from reality. Those are seeds that the jews have sewn, and they still do, but in the end, they shall bear no fruit.

Paul's Epistle to the Colossians Part 2: Jesus Christ is God

The children of Israel had in ancient times sold themselves into sin, and for their sin Yahweh their God delivered them into captivity. From thence they were alienated from God, having been lost in paganism and a multitude of errors, and the resulting state in which they were found is frequently described in the books of the prophets and in the Gospel as darkness. This brief description encapsulates one aspect of the prophecies such as that which is found in Isaiah chapter 59, where in verse 2 the words of Isaiah in reference to Yahweh read: “2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” Then in verse 9 he speaks for all of Israel and says: “9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.”

The Gospel message is a message of reconciliation for those same children of Israel, that they repent and return to obedience to Yahweh their God in the mercy which is offered through Christ. So in the opening of this epistle to the Colossians, Paul exhorts them to “to walk worthily of the Prince in all complaisance”, and to do so while “12 being thankful to the Father, who qualifies us for that share of the inheritance of the saints in the light, 13 who has rescued us from the authority of darkness, and instead gave us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption: the dismissal of errors.”

Paul's Epistle to the Colossians Part 1: Rescued from the Authority of Darkness

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Paul's Epistle to the Colossians Part 1: Rescued from the Authority of Darkness

Colossae was a city of Phrygia on the Lycus River, one of the branches of the Maeander, and 3 miles from Mount Cadmus, which is 8,013 feet high. It stood at the head of a gorge where the two streams unite, 13 miles from Hierapolis and 10 from Laodicea. Colossae, which was situated along the great highway that crossed Anatolia from Ephesus to the Euphrates valley, was mentioned by Herodotus, where he described it as being along the route of the Persian invasion of Greece by Xerxes. It was also mentioned in Xenophon's Anabasis, where he described it as being along the route taken by Cyrus when he marched against his brother, the Persian king Artaxerxes II, around 401 BC.

According to William Smith's Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology and Geography, Colossae was “a city of Great Phrygia in the plain on the river Lycus, once of great importance [citing Strabo and others], but so reduced by the rise of the neighbouring cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis, that the later geographers do not even mention it, and it might have been forgotten but for its place in the early history of the Christian Church. A fortress called Chonae was formed (probably by Justinian) on a precipitous hill 8 miles S. of Colossae, the position of which was not not defensible; and in the course of the 8th cent. [B.C.] A.D. altogether absorbed its population, so that its name passed away, and the village near its site bears the name Khonae.” While Smith, whose dictionary was published in 1904, believed the site of ancient Colossae to have been 8 miles north of Chonae (the modern Khonos), another site has since been discovered, 3 miles north of Chonae, where the remains of the ancient Greek city of Colossae have been located. There have been found extensive ruins of an ancient city, large blocks of stone, foundations of buildings, and fragments of columns. For a long time the ruins were known, but the site was not excavated. Recently, within the past 20 years, the site has been excavated and many inscriptions and other discoveries have been made and published.

Paul's Epistle to the Philippians Part 4: Self-sacrifice is the Way to Life

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Paul's Epistle to the Philippians Part 4: Self-sacrifice is the Way to Life

Here we shall commence with our presentation of Philippians chapter 3. When we had discussed the beginning of this chapter, it is evident that Paul had begun to conclude this epistle, and immediately digressed into a warning concerning trust in the flesh. Many denominational Christians abuse this passage and cite it in order to justify the assumption that the flesh does not matter. However when we compare statements concerning the children of Israel “according to the flesh” which Paul had made in several places elsewhere in his writings (Romans 9, 1 Corinthians 10), it is evident that by repudiating trust in the flesh here in Philippians, Paul was not repudiating the flesh itself. Rather, he had only explained that one should not trust in the flesh for any means of justification, as he had stated in verse 9 of the chapter: “not having … righteousness that is from law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, that righteousness of Yahweh by the faith”.

This is the same conclusion which Paul had come to following a long discussion of the works of the law and the faith in Christ in Romans chapters 2 and 3, where he had written: “28 We therefore conclude by reasoning a man to be accepted by faith apart from rituals of the law. 29 Is Yahweh of the Judaeans only? [referring to the circumcision of the remnant of Israelites in Judaea] And not of the Nations? Yea, also of the Nations, [referring to the dispersions of post-captivity Israel, the people of the nations of the seed of Abraham described Romans chapter 4, which are the “Israel according to the flesh” Paul had mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 10] 30 seeing that it is Yahweh alone who will accept the circumcised from faith [the remnant of Israelites in Judaea], and the uncircumcised through the faith [the dispersions of post-captivity Israel]. 31 Do we then nullify the law by faith? Certainly not! Rather we establish the law.” In chapter 2 of that epistle Paul had already commended the Romans for exhibiting the works of the law written in their hearts, as opposed to the works of the law in the Old Testament rituals, showing that they were indeed of the Israelites of the Word of God with whom the New Covenant was made, when He had promised them mercy in their punishment, as it is prophesied in Jeremiah chapter 31.

Paul's Epistle to the Philippians Part 3: In Quest of a Goal - Faith versus Works

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Paul's Epistle to the Philippians Part 3: In Quest of a Goal: Faith versus Works

In Philippians chapter 1 Paul's purpose for writing this epistle is made evident where he had received correspondence from them, and writes in return to inform them of his testimony before Caesar in the Praetorium at Rome, and the result of that testimony in the spread of the message of the gospel. He sees this as a positive development whether or not those who were discussing his testimony were authentically receptive, or were merely doing so out of contention. So Paul's testimony must have caused quite a stir among those who heard it. In respect of this, Paul had concluded, in part, “that in every way, whether in pretext or in truth, Christ is declared, and in this I rejoice.”

Then, on account of the trial of the faith, Paul encouraged his readers to conduct themselves worthily of the Gospel, and doing so would help them to withstand the opposition without fear. Building on that concept in Philippians chapter 2, Paul further exhorted his readers to have love for one another and to serve one another, following after the model which was continually made by Christ Himself. With that, Paul assured them that if they eagerly did all of the things which the Gospel required of them, which is basically inclusive of keeping the commandments of Christ and caring for one another, that they would be assured preservation in this world, as Paul had also said, remaining “perfect and with unmixed blood, blameless children of Yahweh in the midst of a race crooked and perverted - among whom you appear as luminaries in the Society”.

Paul's Epistle to the Philippians Part 2: Repairers of the Breach

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Paul's Epistle to the Philippians Part 2: Repairers of the Breach

Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament, is a God of love. But the so-called Christians of the denominational churches generally would not understand such a statement, because they focus on the things which that “mean old God of the Old Testament” hates. They also do not understand that hate can be righteous, especially when hate is a matter of defending those things which one loves. In the Old Testament, Yahweh expresses a love for His original Creation, and He expresses hatred for those who would corrupt that Creation: or who themselves are a corruption of Creation. Likewise, Yahweh loves those ideas expressed in His law which allow the maintenance and preservation of His Creation, and Yahweh hates ideas and acts which violate those laws. But bad ideas cannot be destroyed, they can only be accepted or rejected by men. For that reason, Yahweh destroyed Sodom, and not Sodomy, because the Sodomites had put bad ideas into practice. So Yahweh expects His people to love His law, as His law preserves both His Creation and His people.

Yahshua Christ is the incarnation in the flesh of that same Old Testament God, Yahweh. As Isaiah had prophesied, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” For this same reason, in his epistle to the Colossians, Paul also professed that “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” Yahshua Christ often expressed His Own hatred for those same things which the Old Testament God had hated, but most denominational Christians only know the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount, and they reject the Jesus of the Apocalypse, whom they are ultimately going to get whether they like Him or not.

Paul's Epistle to the Philippians Part 1: Contending for the Faith

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Christogenea Internet Radio, Friday January 8th, 2015. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians Part 1: Contending for the Faith

The city of Philippi was established and named after Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great. From Diodorus Siculus' Library of History, Book 16, chapter 8, while writing of the time of the Social War between the Athenians and various other Greek states, we read thus:

1 About the same time Philip, king of the Macedonians, who had been victorious over the Illyrians in a great battle and had made subject all the people who dwelt there as far as the lake called Lychnitis, now returned to Macedonia, having arranged a noteworthy peace with the Illyrians and won great acclaim among the Macedonians for the success due to his valour.... 6 After this he went to the city of Crenides, and having increased its size with a large number of inhabitants, changed its name to Philippi, giving it his own name, and then, turning to the gold mines in its territory, which were very scanty and insignificant, he increased their output so much by his improvements that they could bring him a revenue of more than a thousand talents. 7 And because from these mines he had soon amassed a fortune, with the abundance of money he raised the Macedonian kingdom higher and higher to a greatly superior position, for with the gold coins which he struck, which came to be known from name as Philippeioi, he organized a large force of mercenaries, and by using these coins for bribes induced many Greeks to become betrayers of their native lands. But concerning these matters the several events, when recorded, will explain everything in detail, and we shall now shift our account back to the events in the order of their occurrence.

The Epistles of Paul - Ephesians Part 8: The Full Armour of Yahweh

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Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians Part 8: The Full Armour of Yahweh

In the later parts of chapter 5 of this epistle to the Ephesians we saw Paul of Tarsus admonishing Christians to be subject to one another, men to be subject to Christ, and women to be subject to their husbands. This is the fabric of Christian society. No Christian society can succeed unless it is adorned with this fabric. The Christian household, which is the basic component of Christian society, is a menage a trois, or a household of three, God, a husband subject to God, and a wife subject to her husband. This is the natural order of the creation of Yahweh which is found in Genesis chapter 2, it is the way we are made, and when we try to change this model we end up with the very predicament which we face today: broken homes, single mothers, disgruntled absentee fathers, and children without any real foundation or guidance in society who are instead being trained by godless employees of the State in our corrupted public schools. In addition to these broken families, we have communities of near-dwellers who compete with and step on one another, rather than helping build one another up, being alienated from one another.

Today, without an anchor in Christ, and raised by State schools, for several generations we as a society have been “tossed as waves and carried about in every wind of teaching by the trickery of men,” as Paul had warned in Ephesians chapter 4, “in villainy for the sake of the systematizing of deception.” Now we see the results of our alienation as our formerly Christian nations are overrun with pestilence of Biblical proportions.

The Epistles of Paul - Ephesians Part 7: Menage a Trois: the order of the Kingdom

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In our last presentation of Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, we took a long digression in order to explain that Jesus hates, and to also explain some of what it is that Jesus hates. Doing so, we did not have the opportunity to discuss some of the first 12 verses of Ephesians chapter 5 from all of the perspectives in which they need to be discussed. We hope to compensate for that here by repeating those first 12 verses, summarizing and adding to what we have previously explained.

Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians Part 7: Menage a Trois: the order of the Kingdom

The French phrase menage a trois means a household for three. The enemies of Yahweh our God have ascribed to it a meaning in modern literature which it the phrase by itself does not convey, just as they corrupt every other facet of society with their gross perversions. The French word menage refers to the order of a household, and it is related to our English word manage, as well as words such as manor and mansion. As we approach the end of this chapter of Ephesians, it will become apparent why we have subtitled this program Menage a Trois: the order of the Kingdom. The order of the creation of Yahweh our God is indeed an order of interdependent family units each independently arranged in a menage a trois between a man, a woman, and God Himself, and no Christian household can be healthy and complete without all three members.

As we have previously detailed here in these presentations, in the first half of Paul's epistle to the Ephesians he had explained to them many of the reasons why they should be Christians, which are related to Covenant Theology and the apostle's ministry of reconciliation to the nations of scattered Israel. Now in this second half of his epistle, he explains to them how they should be Christians, exhorting them to keep the commandments of Christ, to adhere to the truth of God in spite of the worldly falsehoods, and to act towards one another with kindness, patience and charity, maintaining unity in the bond of the Spirit in Christ.

The Epistles of Paul - Ephesians Part 6: Jesus Hates

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Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians Part 6: Jesus Hates

In the Gospel of Luke, Yahshua Christ is caught up in a dispute with the Pharisees which is described in Luke chapter 11, and then it says at the beginning of Luke 12: “In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” With this, Christ gives a long discourse which includes a discussion concerning the fear of this world and those who would “kill the body” as opposed to the fear of God who judges man after the body is destroyed. In this discussion Christ then states that “8... Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: 9 But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.”

This ultimately leads into a question posed to Christ by some of his disciples, where in Luke chapter 13 we read: “1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

Repentance is something which is only necessary when one has sinned, and sin is a transgression of the law of God. Repentance is a necessary prerequisite for forgiveness, as we read in Luke 17:3 where Christ had said “Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.” Once again, that same Jesus had said “If you love Me, keep My commandments”, and His commandments are those which summarize the laws of God. The same Jesus had also said, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 5, “17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” By “one of these commandments”, He meant the commandments found in the law. Yahshua Christ had fulfilled the ceremonial requirements of the law, so that Yahweh God could be reconciled to Israel. But He did not put an end to the commandments, as the words of Paul and the other apostles prove in the Book of Acts and in their epistles.

The Epistles of Paul - Ephesians Part 5: Speaking the Truth with Love

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The Epistles of Paul - Ephesians Part 5: Speaking the Truth with Love.

As we have already discussed at length, throughout most of the first half of this epistle to the Ephesians Paul of Tarsus had explained to them why they should be Christians, because they were indeed of the descendants of Abraham through Jacob Israel, the very people who in the period of the Old Testament had been alienated from God and who were now being reconciled in Christ. Here in this fourth chapter Paul has begun to explain how they should conduct themselves on account of their reconciliation, towards the edification of the Body of Christ which is, as he had described it, the restoration of the saints. Doing this, in the first part of this fourth chapter of Ephesians Paul had explained that these Christians now reconciled to God should find a common bond of unity in their common calling in Christ, and therefore they should seek to walk worthily in that calling with the purpose in mind that, as he had said, “we all would attain to the unity of the faith”.

Paul then professed the objective of that unity of the faith by concluding: “... that we would be infants no longer - being tossed as waves and carried about in every wind of teaching by the trickery of men, in villainy for the sake of the systematizing of deception.” Paul had also informed his readers at the end of chapter 2 of this epistle that the Body of Christ was founded upon the apostles and the prophets. Reading the words of the apostles together with the prophets the Word of God presents a clear narrative focused on a particular family, beginning with the promises to Abraham that his seed would become many nations, and that they would inherit the earth. Examining that narrative, if we observe the words of the apostles and prophets then we must accept that the people who are the called in Christ were those whom the Old Testament informs us would be called, and that the saints are those whom the Old Testament informs us are saints. So Paul refers to the “family of the faith” as the “household of the mystery”, because up until Paul's time it was a mystery as to how those promises to Abraham were kept, and that was the mystery which Paul was commissioned to reveal. Therefore Paul had professed concerning this same faith, in Romans chapter 4, that the promise was indeed certain to all of the seed, meaning all of the people who descended from Abraham through Jacob Israel, as Paul explains in another way in Galatians chapter 3.

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