Addressing Charles Weisman’s What About the Seedline Doctrine? Part 13, Children of Wrath

Addressing Charles Weisman’s What About the Seedline Doctrine? Part 13, Children of Wrath

In our last presentation addressing Charles Weisman’s book What About the Seedline Doctrine?, we began to answer his contention where he said that “The Jews… that Jesus was talking to in John 8 were true Israelites. They were not hybrids like those called ‘Jews’ today, and they were not the seed of the serpent or of Cain.” Later in this fourth chapter of his book, Weisman states, speaking of the words of Christ, that “Words may be spoken figuratively, symbolically, allegorically, poetically, typically, or anti-typically.” But he fails to mention anything of understanding words in their original historical context, which is an important aspect of understanding any real-life narrative or discussion from the past. None of the Judeo-Christian commentaries upon which Weisman has relied, as his citations throughout this book indicate, had ever interpreted the words of Christ or his apostles through the proper historical context of the captivities of Israel, the relatively small remnant which returned to Judea, and the history of that remnant over the 450-year period from the time of Ezra to the birth of Christ. Weisman, as well as the mainstream commentators, all take it for granted that the people of Judaea at the time of Christ were all Israelites, and that is certainly not true.

In his voluminous Antiquities of the Judaeans, in Book 13, Flavius Josephus described in detail how the high priest John Hyrcanus, around 129 BC, had conquered several of the cities of Palestine which had formerly belonged to Israel and Judah, but which were occupied by the Edomites since the 6th century BC. In that same book, Josephus later described how in the days of Alexander Jannaeus, a successor of Hyrcanus, he had done that same thing in 30 other towns or regions in Palestine, during his long rule as high priest in Jerusalem, from 103 to 76 BC. Both of these rulers had forcibly converted the Edomites whom they had conquered to Judaism, the Edomites accepted the conversion, and that is also explained by Josephus. These passages are cited and described in detail at Christogenea, notably in Part 12 of the commentary on Romans: The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 12, 06-27-2014: Jacob and Esau.

When Judaea was conquered and subjected by Rome in 63 BC all of these Edomites as well as the Israelite remnants in Jerusalem, Galilee and Samaria, and all of the other inhabitants of Judaea, were incorporated into a single kingdom subject to Rome. The Hasmonaeans continued as kings, although there were revolts against Roman rule. During those revolts, Herod the Edomite allied himself with the Romans against his own in-laws, as he had married a woman of the family of the Hasmonaeans, and he was appointed king after the Romans had once again prevailed. Herod then proceeded to wipe out the Hasmonaeans and the chief men of Jerusalem, killing even his own wife and the sons he had by her, and he appointed his own compatriots into the priesthood and many other positions of power.

Strabo of Cappadocia, the famous Greek geographer who wrote perhaps 70 or 80 years before Josephus, had mentioned on several occasions in Book 16 of his Geography, writing of his own time, that in Judaea, Judaeans and Idumaeans (Edomites) and others had lived together sharing the same laws and customs. So Strabo corroborates the circumstances of which Josephus would later explain the history. This is the history which Weisman and all mainstream commentators ignore when considering the differences between Christ and His adversaries, and why He said to them things such as “But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you”, in John chapter 10. Only once the historical context is properly understood, are those words properly understood.

So, as we mentioned in our last presentation, Paul of Tarsus had written in Romans chapter 9 that not all of those in Israel were of Israel. Then he went on to compare Jacob and Esau, praying for those who were actually his kinsmen “according to the flesh”. But we must ask, why would Paul even mention Jacob and Esau together in that context, if at least some of these people had not been Edomites? If the context of the division in Judaea was merely a religious difference between believers and apostates, why would Paul explain that he was praying only for his “3… kinsmen according to the flesh: 4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; 5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.” It is in relation to this that Paul then proceeded to compare Jacob and Esau, contrasting the Israelites as “vessels of mercy” to the Edomites who are “vessels of destruction”. So Romans chapter 9 presents a clear racial message, and not merely a message contrasting believers with disbelievers. Paul prayed only for his “kinsmen according to the flesh” that they would accept the gospel, and had no care for the Edomites.

When we correlate these words of Paul with the words of the prophets Malachi (chapter 2) and Ezekiel (chapter 35) and the descriptions of Judaea at the time of Christ which are found in the histories of Strabo and Josephus, then we find the words of Christ to His adversaries in John chapters 8 and 10 are literally and historically true, and we do not have to twist any of their meanings in order to understand them, as the Gnostics, the Philosophers and the later universalist Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches had been forced to do, who had all either ignored or were ignorant of this history.

As Yahshua Christ had explained in Matthew chapter 13, He came to reveal things kept secret since the foundation of the world. So He revealed the contrasting origins and destinies of the wheat and the tares when He made that statement. There are things which are not explicit in the Old Testament, but which are certainly there once the Words of Christ are understood which serve to illuminate them.

The Kenites, Rephaim and other groups which did not descend from Adam and Noah are all together in the land of Canaan, in Genesis chapter 15. Several centuries later, when the children of Israel invaded the land of Canaan after the Exodus, they were told to exterminate every man, woman and child of the Canaanites, and they were warned how these Canaanites would torment them and cause them to sin if they did not exterminate them.

Throughout the rest of the Old Testament, it is fully evident that there are different types of people. There are Adamic people which the children of Israel could accept, and even intermarry with and convert. But there were others who were considered cursed and who were to be destroyed, who were never to be allowed into the congregation, according the law. When the Israelites failed to keep them out, they were severely punished, as it is described in the prophets in places such as Jeremiah chapter 2, Ezekiel chapter 16 and Hosea chapter 5.

When the children of Israel sinned, they were described as wicked, but they were also always offered an avenue to repentance and mercy. However there are other people described as wicked who were never given such an opportunity. So we read in Psalm 59, a psalm of David: “1 Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me. 2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men. 3 For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O LORD. [For example, where Saul acts as David’s enemy and also seeks to kill the priests of Yahweh, Doeg the Edomite is present to execute his wishes. See 1 Samuel 21:7; 22:9, 18, 22.] 4 They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold. 5 Thou therefore, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah. 6 They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city. 7 Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth hear? 8 But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision. 9 Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: for God is my defence. 10 The God of my mercy shall prevent me: God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies. 11 Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield. 12 For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak. 13 Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah. 14 And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city. 15 Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied. 16 But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble. 17 Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defence, and the God of my mercy.”

In that Psalm, David speaks of the wicked as all those of the “heathen”, which are the surrounding nations. Then there are the righteous, which are the children of Israel regardless of whether any of them may be sinners, and for them David had prayed.

This same thing is explained in Psalm 125: “1 They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. 2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever. 3 For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. 4 Do good, O LORD, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. 5 As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel.” Those Israelites who turn aside to the ways of the wicked shall be punished along with the wicked, “but peace shall be upon Israel” because in spite of their sins, in spite of their punishment, all Israel is promised mercy and salvation, which is made evident in many other words of both Christ and the prophets.

So there are “good” Israelites, who generally do not sin, and there are “wicked” Israelites who are wicked because they follow the ways of that third group, which are naturally, inherently wicked. By the time of David, most of the other Adamic nations had already mixed themselves together, in whole or in part, with those non-Adamic nations. It was not only the Canaanites which had mixed with them. Rephaim giants ruled over the cities of the Sumerians and Babylonians also, which is evident in ancient writings such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Kenites were always moving and found among the Amorites and other tribes of the east in later Scriptures. The Assyrians defeated and absorbed the Hittite empire into its own, along with the Canaanite Amorites and Babylonians. Babylon itself was initially founded by Canaanites, but conquered by the Adamic Kassites, the Chaldaeans of history. All of the Canaanites and Edomites were part of the later Assyrian and Persian empires. So the people whom the Scriptures considered to be inherently wicked were mingled throughout the wider Adamic world.

This is a phenomenon which Weisman and all mainstream denominational commentators fail to acknowledge, but which is indeed explained throughout Scripture. The distinction between the inherently righteous and the inherently wicked is made through Scripture, and they also all failed to recognize that. The truth has not changed in the New Testament. Rather, it is explained in the same terms, and the churches have purposely refused to recognize it. This is all hard to explain in a single paragraph, but as Christ had explained in Matthew chapter 13, the whole world was being sown with both wheat and tares right from the beginning.

The apostles of Christ, and Christ Himself, sometimes used metaphors contrasting the inherently righteous with the inherently wicked, and now as we proceed with his book on page 34, Weisman attempts to exploit that in order to support his assertion that words such as “father” or “children” are to be interpreted metaphorically in the words of Christ, rather than literally. So he makes a list of such uses where he wrote:

Page 34:

The phrases “children of the devil” or “child of the devil” are similar to:

• Children of wrath (Eph. 2:3).
• Children of light (John 12:36; Luke 16:8).
• Children of the world (Luke 16:8; 20:34).
• Child of hell (Matt. 23:15).
• Children of disobedience (Col. 3:6).
• Son of perdition (John 17:12; 2 Thes. 2:3).

Now he makes his own conclusion and says:

Such phrases are used figuratively to describe the nature or spiritual disposition of the people involved. No implication is intended as to descent or biological parents. No one is literally descended from wrath, or light, or hell or the world, or the devil. “Devil” is simply an idiom or expression for evil, ungodliness, that which is against God, or something abnormal. The phrase “You have a devil” (John 8:48), for example, means only that “you are crazy.” Likewise, the phrase “of the devil” means those who are evil or ungodly in the things they do.

We have already shown that only a few times in the New Testament, men were called by the term devil. First there is the devil of Matthew chapter 4 and Luke chapter 4, who claimed to be able to give the world to Christ. In my opinion, this devil was a man, and not some satanic spirit floating in the sky. But no matter how we wish to interpret it, the Greek word is διάβολος, or false accuser. The next time a man is called a devil is in John chapter 6, and the word is the same, where speaking of His disciples Christ said to them “Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” On both of these occasions, sin being transgression of the law, no sin could be attributed to either of these men. It may be impious to question God, but the devil of Matthew 4 or Luke 4 was only tempting Christ, challenging Him according to what the Scriptures themselves had said about Him, and not really violating the law. Likewise, Judas was called a devil but he was not convicted of any sin. Even his act of betrayal of Christ was not technically a transgression of the law. So these men must have been devils for reasons other than what Weisman asserts here. The third time a man is called a devil in the New Testament is the reference to Cain in John 8:44, and Cain was a murderer.

But many other betrayers and murderers in Scripture were never called devils. In fact, Moses and David were both murderers, and God chose them and blessed them and made them the leaders of His people. David murdered Uriah the Hittite, Hittite in that epithet meaning fearsome, and Moses murdered an Egyptian, but both Uriah and the Egyptian were ostensibly Adamic men. Many other sinners in Israel, who did things far worse than David or Moses, were also never called devils. So Weisman is making a lie with this assertion. The only time men are called devils the term is used of men who can be associated with the enemies of God, and are clearly not of His people.

But in his conclusion, where Weisman said “The phrase ‘You have a devil’ (John 8:48), for example, means only that ‘you are crazy’”, citing for example John 8:48, the word for devil is not διάβολος, but δαιμόνιον, the diminutive form of the word for demon. So Weisman’s comparison is nonsense, as the same word is not used where devil appears in those senses, and it is unfortunate that the King James translation did not distinguish between them, but Weisman himself should have known better.

Now let’s look at the list of passages Weisman used where he attempts to prove this assertion, claiming that because these are allegories, then Christ must have been using an allegory when He told His adversaries that the devil was their father. I will list the citations as Weisman did, but I might include surrounding verses if the context needs to be elucidated:

Ephesians 2:3: “1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation [conduct] in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

Paul is explaining that all of the children of Israel who were taken into captivity or otherwise put out from ancient Israel had gone off into paganism. So they were accounted as wicked because they followed the ways of the wicked, as we have just seen explained in the 125th Psalm where it said “3 For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. 4 Do good, O LORD, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. 5 As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel.” Paul’s message to the Ephesians is consistent with the Old Testament as they were descendants of Israelites who had followed after the ways of the wicked as described in the Psalm.

There are children of disobedience which are children of wrath and have never been offered mercy, who are the objects of the wrath of God and whom God promises to destroy when He takes vengeance upon His enemies. Then there are children of Israel who follow after the wicked and for that they are punished, being disobedient, but they are nevertheless offered mercy. So in Christ, the children of Israel have mercy and a path by which to return to God, and Paul continues to explain in verse four of Ephesians chapter 2 and says “4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” The children of Israel sitting dead in sins, God has mercy upon and saves, but the other races are never promised mercy, only destruction.

The children of disobedience in Paul’s epistle are the other races whom God has rejected, as well as the children of Israel who follow after them, those described in verse 5 of the 125th Psalm. The children of wrath of Ephesians 2:3 are the wicked whom Yahweh will punish, the other races who are offered no mercy or reconciliation to God, the heathen we saw described as the wicked in the 59th Psalm. This is consistent with the purpose of Christ as it is announced in chapter 1 of the Gospel of Luke, “68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, 69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; 70 As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: 71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; 72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; 73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, 74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear… ” In first century Judaea the Israelites were under the hand of the Edomites their enemies. Paul was announcing this same thing to the Ephesians, so in verse 16 of that same chapter he spoke of reconciliation to God through Christ, saying that He “came and preached peace to you which were afar off [scattered Israel], and to them that were nigh [remnant Israel in Judaea]”, which refers to both the Israelites in Judaea and the Israelites scattered in the captivities. That is the same peace mentioned in the last words of the 125th Psalm. Yet in the last words of Isaiah chapter 48 we read “22 There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.”

John 12:36: “34 The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man? 35 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. 36 While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.”

Here Christ was repeating allegories made earlier in the words of the prophet Isaiah regarding the promise of redemption for the children of Israel. For example, we read in a Messianic prophecy in Isaiah chapter 42: “ 5 Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: 6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the [Nations]; 7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.” Then a little further on, still speaking in reference to the children of Israel: “16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.”

So Paul of Tarsus used the same allegory of scattered Israelites turned to Christ in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 where he wrote “ 4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.”

Christ being the “light come into the world” and the “light of men”, as John explained in chapter 1 of his gospel, the children of Israel turning to obedience in Christ are children of light, so long as they are His sheep that hear His voice. That does not mean that anyone else can claim to do good and be children of the light, as they were never invited into the light in the first place. For that reason, as we have explained several times already in this series, we read in Matthew chapter 7 “21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

So we read in Malachi chapter 4: “1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. [All the heathens of Psalm 59.] 2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. [Christ, the light in which the children of Israel shall walk.] 3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts. [Again, all the heathen, the other nations, of the 59th Psalm.]”

Luke 16:8: “And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.”

We have just quoted the King James Version reading of this passage, but we contend with that reading. The phrase “in their generation” is very poorly translated, and the pronoun actually means their own and not merely their. If a generation is understood to mean all men living at the same time, this translation is nonsense, the comparison has no meaning. Furthermore, the word for generation primarily means race. So the Greek of Luke 16:8-9 should properly be read: “8 And the master praised the unrighteous steward because he did wisely, because the sons of this age are wiser than the sons of light are towards their own race. 9 And I say to you, shall you make for yourselves friends from the riches of unrighteousness, that when you should fail they may receive you into eternal dwellings?” Of course, the wicked have no eternal dwellings for anyone, and the parable teaches the children of Israel, the sons of light, to do well rather than enjoy the temporary rewards which the wicked gain in their treachery. Christ is making a comparison and explaining that the “sons of this age” naturally benefit and favor one another, something which the children of light, the Adamic children of God, have always failed to do. We have an entire explanation of our translation in a paper at Christogenea titled Translating Luke 16: 8 & 9: the Unrighteous Steward, which is not possible to repeat here, but we also explain the translation word by word in a podcast in our commentary on The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 16.

Luke 20:34: “ 34 And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: 35 But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage…”

In the allegory in Luke chapter 16, where sons of this age are set in contrast as a race opposed to sons of light, it is clear in the context that two different races are being compared where we see the Greek phrase which we translate as “towards their own race”. But here, in this context, it is clear that the comparison only refers to people born in this present world as opposed to those who are able to take part in the resurrection. Not all allegories are equal. Perhaps the allegories “sons of this age” and “sons of light” in Luke chapter 8 may not be interpreted in a racial sense, only if Christ Himself had not said “towards their own race”. But here in Luke 20, it is clear that Christ is describing people in general who are born into this world, but then where He compares them to people who have a part in the resurrection He narrows that to “they which shall be accounted worthy”, where we see that the “children of this world” can refer to anyone in general.

So we see that the way an allegory should be interpreted depends on the context in which it is spoken. Therefore all of Weisman’s examples are invalid, since each of these phrases are spoken in different contexts, and some of them do indeed make distinctions according to race, and not to mere belief.

Matthew 23:15: “ 15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.”

The word for hell here is not Hades, but γέεννα, or Gehenna, a compound word derived from the Greek word for land, which is γῆ, and a Hellenized form of the Old Testament name Hinnom, so it means “land of Hinnom”. This is the Old Testament Valley of the Son of Hinnom, where, for example in Jeremiah chapter 7, we see that the ancient Israelites had sacrificed their children in the fire to the idol Molech, as the Canaanites had done before them. So in 2 Chronicles chapter 28 we read that when Ahaz became king of Judah: “2 For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Baalim. 3 Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.” Ahaz was a wicked king, but he was never called a devil.

Essentially, by calling them children of Gehenna, Christ is telling these Pharisees that their destiny is in the lake of fire, that they will be destroyed in the fire, and that their proselytes are even worse than they are but also destined for that same fire. In other words, they will not have mercy from God and will not be forgiven their sins, so they must not be true Israelites, as all Israel had been promised salvation and forgiveness. The Pharisees at the time, the same Pharisees who had previously acquiesced to the conversion of the Edomites, were baptizing converts of any race or nation in water, circumcising them and declaring them to be Israelites, contrary to the laws of Yahweh God. So universalism through baptism and magical conversion was begun by the Pharisees, and continued through the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches. In another paper at Christogenea, titled Baptism - In What?, we explain this method of Jewish proselytizing from the writings of John Lightfoot, the 17th century English cleric, in volume 2 on pages 55 to 63 of A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica.

Colossians 3:6: “4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. 5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6 For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: 7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.”

The “children of wrath” are not merely children who do not believe or obey God. Rather, they are the races who have not been promised mercy, forgiveness, salvation, redemption, resurrection, eternal life, and all of the other things promised to the children of Israel and the wider Adamic race. The “children of wrath” are the heathen of the 59th Psalm, the nations which in the end are all going to be destroyed. There are many other Psalms and prophecies where that same promise is made.

The children of Israel, during the time of their disobedience and captivity and before receiving the gospel of Christ, were walking among the children of wrath, practicing the same ancient paganism and engaging in the same immoral pagan practices they had learned from the ancient Canaanites that they failed to exterminate. That is exactly what Paul is describing here. So we read in Jeremiah chapter 31: “11 For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.” Now, in Christ, reconciliation and a cessation of punishment is offered to those same children of Israel, but not to the others, whom Paul called “children of wrath”.

Weisman failed to cite Ephesians chapter 5, where Paul had said “5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. 7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them. 8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.” In the words of the prophets, only the children of Israel were offered that light. If all men sin, then an “unclean person” is a person whom Christ had not cleansed of sin, as He promised only to cleanse the children of Israel. Therefore the other races are all unclean, and the New Testament is entirely consistent with the Old Testament.

John 17:12: “11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. ”

Here Christ is speaking of His Own disciples, and the one which was lost was also a called a devil, which is Judas Iscariot. Here, being referred to as a “son of perdition”, Judas has still not been accused or convicted of any transgression of the law. The act of his having betrayed Christ had not even been completed at this point. The truth is, that at least circumstantially it can be proven that Judas was an Edomite, and not an Israelite, and for that reason Christ chose him, being a devil, that He would be betrayed by one of his enemies. As the Scripture says, and as Christ had cited in John chapter 13, “He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.”

This leaves us with one last passage cited by Weisman, which is 2 Thessalonians 2:3. We will stop here, and discuss that last passage at length after summarizing what we have said in response to Weisman’s lies up to this point. So far we have proven all of his examples to be invalid, as none of them support the assertions he uses them to try to prove. We still have a long way to go before we finish our address of chapter 4 of Weisman’s book.