Christianity in the Old Testament, Part 4, Bertrand Comparet's Sermon, with Commentary

Christianity in the Old Testament, Part 4, a continuing presentation of Bertrand Comparet's Sermon, with our own Commentary

In the first part of this series, we described the meaning and the use of the word catholic by early Christian writers, and we demonstrated that originally the term described the reception and acceptance of the Christian faith, as coming from the Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments, the Scriptures which were handed down by the apostles of Christ. In that original sense, we then asserted that Identity Christians are the true catholics, since of all of the modern Christian denominations, only we understand that both testaments, and both covenants, apply exclusively to ourselves. And of course, saying Identity Christians we include only White Europeans, the only people for whom the apostles intended the Gospel.

Then in parts two and three, we began a presentation and critique of Bertrand Comparet’s sermon on the Christian nature of the Old Testament. Doing this, we hoped to expand somewhat on Comparet’s original sermon, while adding our own opinions and outlining the reasons for our differences wherever we may disagree with him.

One topic we expanded on in part three of this series was the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. While Comparet described it as a foreshadow of Christianity from his own perspective, and said little that we had any serious disagreement with, our Christian faith is often condemned on this account, that a man would sacrifice his own son. So for that reason we were compelled to expand on Comparet’s sermon to a large degree.

Our pagan adversaries often complain that human sacrifice is Jewish in nature. We agree, that human sacrifice is evil. However we took the time to demonstrate that human sacrifice is also pagan, and that ancient pagan literature has many instances of human sacrifice which was looked upon favorably and even blessed by pagan gods. We gave as examples the sacrifice of Iphigenia by Agamemnon, the king of the Danaans, and the sacrifice of nine of his own sons to Odin by the ancient Swedish King On, or Ane. We also illustrated the fact that these heathen kings sacrificed their own children for their own personal gain. But Abraham, sacrificing Isaac, had nothing to gain. Everything promised to him was to come through Isaac, his only heir. So which of these ancient sacrifices are Jewish in nature? In the end we must admit that the heathen sacrifices are worthy to be called Jewish, but Abraham’s sacrifice was selfless, a token of his obedience to his God rather than to his own lusts for money and power.

So in the end, Abraham’s beloved son was spared, and Abraham was greatly rewarded for that obedience which he displayed. This is the essence of Christianity: that we please our God through obedience to His Will and our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for the benefit of our God and our people. Abraham was already promised that his own people would inherit the earth, and he was willing to give anything, even his most-loved son, on their behalf. That is a type which was later fulfilled by Christ, as Yahweh God indeed gave His Own most-loved Son on behalf of His Own people. That was the theme throughout much of Bertrand Comparet’s sermon up to this point, that while a suitable animal was provided to die on behalf of Isaac, ultimately Yahshua Christ Himself was the Lamb of God who died once for all on behalf of His people, as Paul of Tarsus attests in Hebrews chapter 10.

So as we proceeded with Comparet’s sermon up to the point where we had left off, he correctly endeavors to show how the Hebrew feast days all pointed to and served as a type for the ministry of Christ, and in this regard we have discussed the Passover, the First Fruits during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Weeks, which was also called Pentecost. While we had minor disagreements with some of Comparet’s remarks, we certainly agree with him in principle, and for the most part his insight into these things as they correlate with the Gospel has certainly been remarkable.

Here we shall continue with our presentation and critical review of Christianity in the Old Testament by Bertrand L. Comparet, digitized from Your Heritage and prepared with Critical Notes by Clifton A. Emahiser. The Your Heritage volume of Comparet’s sermons is also known under the title The Complete Works of Bertrand L. Comparet. It is still available from Kingdom Identity Ministries. Now, continuing with Comparet from where we had left off in Part 3 of this series:

Have we now completed our review of Christianity in the Old Testament? Far from it, let us now turn to Isaiah 53:3-7, which even our various churches all admit refers definitely to Yahshua [Christ]. I will correct a few errors in translation in it. “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of pains and acquainted with sickness: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our sickness and carried our pain: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: [here I have removed some additional words which seem to be an error in transcription - WRF] the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Yahweh hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter…” [To this Comparet replies:] Indeed, what can the New Testament add which is not found here? Remember, Isaiah wrote this almost 7½ centuries before it was fulfilled!

Here Comparet took two words found in the King James Version, sorrow and grief, and changed them to pain and sickness, and his changes are valid. The Hebrew word which the King James Version translated as grief is actually sickness. So while the word for sorrow may mean that, it can also mean pain, and in this context pain is better, being coupled with a word that means sickness. Clearly, the allusions to pain and sickness elucidate the human aspect of the Messiah. Being God incarnate, He nevertheless felt pain and sickness. Now Comparet responds with an appropriate condemnation of the denominational clergy:

How can clergymen be so blind? Most of them quote this passage from Isaiah at one time or another, they even preach that it is referring to Yahshua. Then they preach that the Old Testament set forth a different and false religion which had to be abandoned, to make way for the New Testament and Christianity.

And this was why we prefaced this presentation of Comparet’s sermon with an exhibition on the original meaning of the term catholic as it was used in the earliest Christian writings. Identity Christians such as Bertrand Comparet are the real catholics, because they accept the entire faith and all of the covenants of God as being applicable to themselves. But of course, only the true children of Israel can do that, so by necessity a real Christian can only be an Identity Christian. Likewise, a real catholic can only be an Identity Christian. Now Comparet turns to the many Christian promises found in the Psalms:

The Psalms make many references to Yahshua and His work of salvation. Psalm chapter 2 contains [a] clear reference to Him. “I will declare the decree: Yahweh hath said unto Me, Thou art My son: this day have I begotten thee. Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the [nations] for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve Yahweh with fear, rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little.”

Not all of the 150 Psalms found in our Bibles were written by King David. However many of those that were written by him contain two important aspects, one relating to David as a man and the events in his own life, and these serve as an example of the attitude towards trials and salvation which all Christians should have. Then there is another aspect relating to David as King as a type for Christ the coming King. Found within this aspect are many statements and prophecies which David did not quite fulfill completely, but which could only refer prophetically to Christ Himself. Later, in the New Testament, according to the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (NA27) this 2nd Psalm is cited in reference to Christ in the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John, in the Revelation, and in the Book of Acts and Paul’s epistles to the Romans, Ephesians and Hebrews.

Now Comparet continues with another of the Psalms:

Psalm chapter 22 is generally admitted to be a prophetic picture of the crucifixion of Yahshua. It is too long for me to quote here, read it for yourself and you will see that it describes the crucifixion.

Here we will take the time to read the most pertinent Christian passages of the 22nd Psalm, which is attributed to David:

Psalm 22: 1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

Now the Hebrew word elohim, or in the singular el, can mean either God (god) or judge. Christ being God incarnate, in my opinion He did not forsake Himself. So He used the term in its secondary sense, as His Edomite judges did forsake Him at His death, where David meant it in its primary sense, in an appeal to Yahweh his God. This passage was quoted in part by Yahshua Christ in reference to Himself as He was about to expire. Another aspect of the Psalm reflects the attitude of those who witnessed the Crucifixion at that same time:

Psalm 22: 6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. 7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8 He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

In respect to these words, we see in Matthew 27:43 words which the apostle attributed to the priests as they mocked Christ: “He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.” A few verses later, the apostle quotes Christ as He cited the opening verse of this same Psalm. Continuing a few verses later in the Psalm:

Psalm 22: 10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly. 11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. 12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. 13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

While these verses seem to describe elements of the Crucifixion, they are not explicitly cited in that respect by the witnesses of the Gospel. We do see moments in David’s own life, in the historical books, which these words do describe. However what follows never happened to David, so as we have said, this aspect of his words must be prophetic of Christ:

Psalm 22: 16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. 18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. 19 But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me. 20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

There is no doubt that these words were intentionally prophetic of the passion of the Christ, and now as we continue with the Psalm, we see a prophetic explanation of the purpose of the Christ, which only applies to Christians from a vantage point of Christian Identity truth:

Psalm 22: 22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. 23 Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. 24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard. 25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. 26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever. 27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. 28 For the kingdom is the LORD'S: and he is the governor among the nations. 29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. 30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord (Heb. adonay) for a generation [properly a remnant - WRF]. 31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.

That prophetic “people that shall be born” were indeed the dispersed children of Israel found throughout the nations of Europe and the East at the time of the apostles, and for that reason, the apostles went to those places in search of the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Now Comparet continues with another Psalm:

Psalm 40:6-10 again prophesies [of] Yahshua, as is recognized in Hebrews 10:5-14. Don’t these New Testament Christians ever read the New Testament? Yahshua certainly did fulfill these words of Psalm 40. “Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; mine ears hast Thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Yahweh, Thou knowest. I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation: I have not concealed Thy loving kindness and Thy truth from the great congregation.”

During His ministry, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 9, Christ actually quoted very similar words found in Hosea chapter 6. So He said: “13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” He referred to that same passage of Hosea with a shorter citation in Matthew chapter 12.

But although it was prophesied in Deuteronomy that Israel would eventually have an earthly king, there was no prophecy concerning David himself in the earlier writings. So where he wrote “in the volume of the book it is written of me”, that too can only be in reference to the coming of Christ, which was prophesied throughout the Old Testament Scriptures. Now Comparet continues to proceed through the Psalms:

Psalm 41:9 is prophetic saying, “Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.” In John 13:18 Yahshua quotes this verse, telling the disciples that the betrayal by Judas Iscariot is the fulfillment of this Psalm.

This was also recorded in Mark 14:18 where Christ Himself had said “Verily I say unto you, One of you which eateth with me shall betray me.” Comparet continues:

Psalm 45:6-7 refers to Yahshua, “Thy throne, O Yahweh, is forever and ever: the scepter of Thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness: therefore Yahweh, Thy God, that anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” This is quoted, word for word in Hebrews 1:8-9, as applying to Yahshua.

Paul applying this prophecy to Yahshua Christ, also informs us that Yahshua Christ is the ultimate inhabitant of the throne which David had once occupied, and only He could have it forever. Again, Comparet continues:

Psalm 68:18 refers to Yahshua’s deliverance of the dead from their previous captivity by the powers of evil saying, “Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men: Yea, for the rebellious also, that Yahweh might dwell among them.” This Psalm is quoted by Paul in Ephesians 4:7-10 explaining its reference to Yahshua.

We can also compare the final verses of Psalm 68 to the Revelation of Yahshua Christ. Where we read:

Psalm 68: 32 Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth; O sing praises unto the Lord; Selah: 33 To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old; lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice. 34 Ascribe ye strength unto God: his excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds. 35 O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places: the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed be God.

Thus we read in Revelation chapter 11: “15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. 16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, 17 Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.” Next, Comparet continues and says:

Psalm 69:9, refers to Yahshua’s single-minded devotion to doing His Father’s will, regardless of the consequences [and] says, “For the zeal of thine house hath eaten Me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon Me.” John 2:17 and Romans 15:3 explain that this verse applied to Yahshua. Why don’t these New Testament Christians read their New Testament? Then they can see that it so frequently refers to the Old Testament for confirmation of its truth?

While this reflects David’s attitude, it was not fully manifest until it was manifested in Christ. Now Comparet quotes a Psalm where David, who had no master in Israel when he wrote these words, must have been writing in reference to Christ:

Psalm 110:1, 4 referring to Yahshua says, “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool” and “Yahweh hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” In Matthew 22:41-45 Yahshua quoted this Psalm in proof of His divine nature and Peter also cited it as such proof in Acts 2:29-36. And in Hebrews 5:6, 6:20 & [throughout] chapter 7, Paul quotes it as an authority [in reference to Christ several] times.

It is our opinion that if we took the time to understand what was the Melchizedek priesthood, we would see that David himself, not being of the first-born line of our Adamic race, was not really qualified to be a priest “after the order of Melchizedek”. So writing these things, David must have been speaking of the coming Messiah, which he calls here his Lord, since when he wrote these things he himself had no Lord in Israel except Yahweh.

Psalm 110:1 contains two different words for “lord”. The first is the Tetragrammaton, YHVH, which is Yahweh. The second is the generic word adon, which literally means lord. So the Psalm should say “Yahweh said unto my Lord, Sit thou at My right hand...” As it is recorded in three of the Gospels, Yahshua did indeed cite this verse referring to the divine nature of the Messiah, who was prophesied to be a son of David, and asked “45 If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?” Properly, a son can never be lord over his own fathers, who are always his superiors. Therefore only Yahshua Christ is Yahweh God incarnate as a man, and therefore only He can be the “root of Jesse” as He is described in yet another prophecy of Christ in Isaiah chapter 11, and the “the root and the offspring of David” as He is similarly described in the Revelation, and therefore He is both David’s son and David’s Lord, and David wrote as much in reference to Him. So Comparet correctly states that Yahshua Christ referred to this Psalm as proof of His Own divine nature.

Concluding his exhibition from the Psalms, Comparet says:

There are also several other identifiable references to Yahshua in other Psalms, but we have covered that field enough.

And we agree, that these Psalms alone should be a sufficient proof of the Christian nature of the Old Testament, which should cause anyone who was truly in pursuit of truth to further investigate our Christian Identity assertions. The 27th edition of the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece has an appendix listing New Testament references to passages in the Old Testament, and in this regard it lists cross-references to passages in roughly 127 of the 150 Psalms. While we would probably not count them all, since some of the connections are pretty vague, the list is nevertheless a lot longer than the several significant instances which Comparet made examples of here. Now he continues and says:

Before we leave this point, let us note how thoroughly it is explained in the book of Hebrews 9:1-12. “Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and an earthly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick and the table and the shewbread, which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the holiest of all; which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded and the tablets of the covenant; and over it the cherubim of glory, shadowing the mercy seat; Now these things were thus ordained, and the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of Yahweh. But into the second went the high priest alone, once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people: Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience. But Christ being come, an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”

And indeed, the entire purpose of Paul’s epistle to the Hebrews was to serve as a proof that the Messiah had come, and had done away with the need for the Old Testament rituals and the Levitical priesthood, which were the remnant trappings of a covenant that by necessity on account of the failures of the people, had been replaced with a greater revelation from God, a revelation which had been promised throughout the Old Testament itself. So Comparet continues in response to the passage in Hebrews and he says:

The religious ordinances of the Old Testament were all symbolic of the true redemption which would be accomplished by Yahshua at His first coming. Now do you see why Paul said in Galatians 3:24, “The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.” The first three major parts of the law, are the commandments, the statutes and the judgments, established rules of conduct which one must follow if his conduct is to be righteous. We all fall short of such good conduct and do not gain righteousness by our own actions, and the law condemns us for this. The fourth division of the law, the ordinances which set up all the religious rituals and ceremonies, points out that righteousness can be gained only through the death of another in our place, paying the penalty for our sins. As we have seen, this clearly symbolized that the real sacrifice, not the mere symbol of it, was that which would be made by Yahshua at His first coming, in His crucifixion and resurrection.

While I have not yet developed a full thesis on the subject, I would divide the laws slightly differently than the way Comparet divided them here. The terms commandment and statute are often used interchangeably, and describe both moral laws and the laws that pertain to dress and general conduct, as well as the religious laws that refer to the conduct of the priesthood, things which are done away with in Christ. The Old Testament seems to distinguish only three categories, called “statutes and judgments and laws” in Leviticus 26:46, but only “statutes and judgments” in Leviticus chapter 18, and often in Deuteronomy only “statutes and judgments” but sometimes “the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments”. I have yet to notice a verse which explains that there are four distinct categories. The same word translated in the King James Version as statute is also often also translated as ordinance, so that lends to a confusion which is not easily sorted out. My own division of the law would seek to distinguish between moral commandments, which transcend the Levitical priesthood and the Old Testament dispensation, and the laws which were designed to maintain Israel as a distinct kingdom, regulating dress and certain aspects of civil conduct, and the ordinances of the priesthood related to the maintenance of that kingdom, which includes all of the sacrifices and ceremonial rituals.

Comparet calls this last group “religious ordinances”. Christians should understand that it was the design of Yahweh God from the beginning to redeem man from sin, coming Himself as the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, and the first promises of that redemption are found in Genesis chapter 3. So when the seed of Abraham through Jacob Israel was chosen so that Yahweh could manifest His Will in the world, the Old Covenant kingdom was formed and regulated in a manner which would make evident His purpose and express His plan of redemption in Christ. This is evident, as Comparet has already explained, in the substance of the sacrifices as well as in the organization of the feast days. The feast days revolve around the agricultural calendar, however their assigned significance is a definite pattern of the stages of the redemption and the manifestation of Christ as it is described in the Gospel and in the prophets. Therefore the feasts themselves comprise a prophecy of Christ, which Comparet is about to continue explaining. So he continues and says:

We cannot go on forever with our discussion of Christianity in the Old Testament, however there remains one part of it which is as important as all that we have studied this far. These are the three fall festivals, the Hebrew new year (Rosh Hashanah), the day of atonement (Yom Kipper) and the feast of the tabernacles, all symbolize the second coming of Yahshua. Let us now examine these in detail.

Actually, we can seemingly go on forever with such a discussion of Christianity in the Old Testament, however what Comparet means is that this is a very long sermon, one of his longest, and if he wanted to he could have continued it for a much longer time. As he had presented in the earlier parts of this sermon, the first festivals of the year, Passover, Unleavened Bread and Pentecost, were all related to stages of Yahweh’s plan for the redemption of Israel in Christ, as well as to the ministry of Christ. Now he continues with the calendar and explains that:

The Hebrew day began at sunset, each month was a lunar month, always beginning with the new moon. Today, we calculate the time when the moon is exactly opposite from its position at the full moon and this is the astronomical new moon.

Here I must interject the opinion, that this is how we in modern times determine when the phase of the new moon begins, but that is not necessarily how it was in ancient times, as it is not explained in Scripture. However Amos chapter 8 indicates to us that we should be able to see a new moon, where it says “4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, 5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?” If one cannot see a new moon, as it is reckoned in modern times, then one cannot really ask “when will the new moon be gone”, and to us it makes more sense that the ancient new moon was the first sight of the waxing crescent. So we would agree with Comparet where he continues to speak of the modern “new moon” and he says:

However, the moon is not visible at all on that day, it is too close to the sun to be seen even at sunset. The Hebrews counted as new moon the first day that a thin crescent could be seen just after sunset and this comes on a day later than the day marked new moon on your calendar. Sunset of the day of the new moon, of the first month of the year, was their new year’s day. They posted watchers on nearby hilltops or on towers in the cities, to watch for the first glimpse of the thin crescent new moon. When the watchers saw it, they notified the people of the town by loud shouts and the people joined in the shouting and blowing horns. In fact, we still do something much like this, but we delay our new year’s shouting and horn blowing until midnight.

The Israelites in the Old Testament actually celebrated Actually watchers in towers and on the walls of towns were employed rather consistently throughout the ancient world, and they had multiple functions, another which was to actually watch for invading enemies. But here concerning the date of the beginning of the year, I cannot agree. If the year began on the date of the first new moon, then there would be a swing of several weeks from year to year in the agricultural calendar, enough to make it impossible to plant in time for the Feast of Weeks, or to harvest at a time agreeable to the Feast of Tabernacles. This is also why the errant Easter calculation of the modern churches swings by as much as 35 days each year.

There is no verse in the Old Testament that tells us exactly what day on which the first month of the calendar begins, but from earliest times the Greek writers distinguished a difference between the civic month and the lunar month. The Israelite society being an agrarian society, we would assert that the Vernal Equinox, and not the phase of the moon, determined the first day of the year, and that way a calendar consistent with the agricultural phases could be maintained. There is a longer article at Christogenea which explains this which is titled Dating the Passover, as well as an older article titled On the Passover. Comparet continues:

We find the ordinance governing it in Numbers 29:1, “And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work: it is day of blowing the trumpets unto you.” If you are wondering about this reference to it as the seventh month, the answer is that the Hebrews had two separate calendar years. One was the civil year, commencing with the month Nisan in the spring. The other was the sacred year, commencing with the month Tishri, which was the seventh month in the civil year.

Here Comparet makes an assertion, but he does not support it with Scripture. The feast he speaks of is commonly called the Feast of Trumpets, it is literally the Day of Shouting, or Day of Blasting, etc. Leviticus chapter 23:24 describes it as the “memorial blowing of trumpets”. While the modern Jews count it as their so-called “new year’s day”, there is no evidence in Scripture, so far as I know, that it marked a new year, or the beginning of any civic year. Comparet only seems to assume that the modern Jewish celebration is consistent with some ancient calendar, but that is not necessarily true.

The seventh month corresponded approximately with our October, and that was the time of the fall feasts as well as the main harvest of the agricultural year. As he continues, we should bear in mind that all of the stone circles of the ancient world apparently had a way of determining the Vernal Equinox, which we consider to be the first day of Spring. The original Roman calendar also celebrated the first day of the year with the coming of Spring. But here he says:

On a small scale, the new year ritual was watchers scanning the heavens, looking there for the sign of the end of one period of time, a year, and the beginning of another. What is symbolized on the great scale is that we are to watch for the sign in the heavens marking the return of Yahshua, ending this age and beginning the next.

As we explained, we would not consider this feast the beginning of a new year, but it was the Feast of Trumpets.

Yahshua explained this for us in Matthew 24:30-31, “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

It does seem very plausible, as the Spring feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread and Weeks, or Pentecost, fit very appropriately into the events of the first advent of Christ, that the Feast of Trumpets and the other Fall feasts will fit into the events of His second advent. Continuing with Comparet:

As they watched anxiously for the sign of the end of a year, so we watch hopefully for the sign in the heavens which will show us that Yahshua is on His way and nearly here, leading the vast armies of heaven, come to overthrow all wickedness and set us free from its power. This will end the sinful age in which we have been living and beginning the next age of true and complete righteousness when Yahshua shall rule all the earth as King of Kings.

We would agree, that the Feast of Tabernacles also looks forward to the day when Yahweh our God sets His tabernacle among men, and that is the return of Yahshua Christ. That is the Christian expectation, which is first seen in Leviticus chapter 26: “11 And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.” The promise is repeated in Ezekiel chapter 37, in regard to a New Covenant with the houses of Israel and Judah: “26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 And the nations shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.” Now Comparet continues and says:

Today, we who really believe His words remain alert to perceive the signs of His second coming, in accordance with His warnings in Matthew 24:42. “Watch therefore: for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh.” The importance of this sign cannot be overrated, so strongly and repeatedly does the Bible state it. In Matthew 25:1-13 Yahshua tells the parable of the ten virgins and their lamps, five of them being wise and keeping their lamps not only trimmed but also filled with oil, in readiness for their master’s return from His wedding supper. The other five were foolish and had no oil for their lamps. He concludes this parable by saying, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.”

The oil of the lamps signifies a knowledge of God, as oil allows the lamp to be lit and to emit light, and Christ is the light of the world. Continuing with Comparet:

In Luke 21:34-36 Yahshua also said, “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of man.” Paul tells us in Thessalonians 5:4-6, “But ye brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of the darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” Remember, all of this was symbolized by the Hebrew new year ritual in the Old Testament.

Again, this was symbolized by the Feast of Trumpets, but that did not mark a new year, for which there is no evidence in Scripture.

The return of Yahshua, which is the dearest hope of the Christian, will not be a source of joy to those who hate Yahshua. Both Old and New Testaments alike tell us of His enemies’ terror as they see their judgment and punishment coming. Zechariah 12:10-11 says, “And they shall look upon [Him] whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him as one is in bitterness for his first born. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem.”

In light of the depiction of the return of Christ in Revelation chapter 19, it is likely that the trumpets represent a call to war, as trumpets were used in the ancient world to call men of a nation to war.

John in his gospel, in chapter 19, cited that very passage in Zechariah in reference to Christ where he wrote “37 And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.” Then in Revelation chapter 1, describing the imminent return of Christ, we read: “7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.” The clouds may well represent clouds of people, the armies of heaven as the children of Yahweh are called to “arise and thresh”. There should be no doubt that Zechariah was also speaking about the day of the wrath of Yahweh and the ultimate advent of the Christ.

The phrase “day of the Lord” appears 18 times in the Old Testament prophets, and it most often refers to the same day described in the New Testament as the return of Yahshua Christ, which is described in the very same manner. In many additional references in either Testament it is also referred to as the Day of Wrath, the Day of Vengeance, the Day of the Lord’s anger, or the Day of Judgment. Now Comparet describes it from the New Testament, in a prophecy parallel to what we have seen in Zechariah in the Old Testament, so they are indeed parts of the same book which express stages of the same Christian faith:

Revelation 6:15-16 adds, “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondsman, and every freeman hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.”

In our own interpretation of the Revelation, in Christreich, I esteem that Revelation chapter 6 was fulfilled in the fall of Rome. However the pattern would nevertheless be repeated at the fall of mystery Babylon in modern times, when the event occurs, so Comparet’s analogy is still valid. Now Comparet explains this passage and says:

As the Book of Revelation is entirely symbolic, the mountains and the rocks of which he speaks, are nations and the communities into which the enemies of Yahshua have infiltrated. In calling upon these nations and cities to fall on them and hide them, they will be seeking protection by trying to pass as just ordinary members of these nations and communities, denying any double allegiance to another nation, race, or religion. Some of these Canaanite Jews have deceived us by this means and they will try also to deceive Yahweh, but without success.

In spite of our disagreement with Comparet’s view of the fulfillment of this passage, we will answer from his viewpoint. Of course, Comparet is correct in identifying the enemies of Yahweh our God, but the prophecy of Obadiah forebodes the destruction of all other aliens who have infiltrated the nations of Israel, as well as the Jews, in verses 15 through 18.

First it prophecies the destruction of all of the non-Israelite peoples:

Obadiah: 15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head. 16 For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been. 17 But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

Then it describes the destruction of the Edomite-Canaanite Jews:

Obadiah: 18 And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken it.

There are other scriptures which inform us that all non-Adamic nations shall be destroyed on Yahweh’s great Day of Wrath at the return of the Messiah. In agreement with our assessment of Obadiah and these other prophecies, Comparet himself admitted that all of the beast nations, as he called them, shall be destroyed in the same judgment as the judgment against the tares, which he perceived as describing the Edomite Jews, in his sermon Gathering the Tares. There he said in part:

This gathering of the individual tares among us is exactly parallel to the similar gathering of the beast nations in this same judgment. Yahshua prophesied it in Matthew 25:31-34, 41. “When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and He shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…. Then shall He say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Of course there must be a division, separation, and discrimination, to say it plainly. This is the purpose for which Yahshua came. In Luke 12:51 Yahshua says, “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you nay: but rather division.”

Now he continues with the next feast on the Hebrew calendar:

The next fall festival was the day of atonement, on the tenth day of the Hebrew month Tishri. It was the most solemn of all the festivals and it carries the deepest symbolism in the entire Bible. Before we can consider it in detail, we must learn the identity of a fallen angel named Azazel (Aw-zaw-zale).

You will not find Azazel’s name mentioned in the King James Bible, although it is there in the original Hebrew. The entire story is not given in the books of the accepted canon of the Bible. So, we must turn to the book of Enoch for many of the details. We start with Genesis 6:1-4 as it reads in the Hebrew. “And it comes to pass that mankind (Adamites) have begun to multiply upon the face of the earth, and daughters have been born to them; and sons of God see the daughters of men, that they are fair, and they take to themselves women of all whom they have chosen.

While, as we shall see, Comparet will cite the Ethiopic Book of Enoch to substantiate his claims. We do not promote that text as being canonical, since it contains many interpolations and is actually several books concatenated into a single work. However his assertions here are substantiated in the fragments of Enoch found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which we hold in much higher esteem. Comparet shall elaborate on this topic as his sermon nears its conclusion, and for that will have to wait until our next, and final, presentation. For now, Comparet says:

The fallen ones (Nephilim) were in the earth in those days, and even afterwards when sons of God (sons of God is mistranslated from the word nephilim meaning fallen angels) came in unto the daughters of men and they have children born to them, they are the heroes who, from of old, are the men of renown.” The fallen angels who followed Satan into rebellion were the ones who left their first estate (or condition), as we are told in Jude 6. The King James Bible says, “There were giants in the earth in those days,” but this is a pure mistranslation, as the Hebrew says “The nephilim were in the earth in those days.” The meaning of nephilim is, the fallen ones, obviously the fallen angels who had gone into rebellion under the leadership of Satan.

Here Comparet makes a serious error. While he is correct that the word giants in Genesis chapter 6 is indeed nephilim, a Hebrew word which can literally mean fallen ones, he is wrong on the phrase “sons of God”. For that the Hebrew of the Masoretic Text has a phrase which literally means just that, beni elohim, or “sons of God”. No manuscript that I am aware of has nephilim in place of “sons of God”.

However it is evident in the Codex Alexandrinus manuscript of the Septuagint, which has “angels” rather than “sons of God”, and in the Genesis Apocryphon in the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as in certain Enoch literature, which have “sons of heaven”, that where it has “sons of God” in Genesis chapter 6 the original text may indeed have read “sons of heaven”, and that the phrase as we know it is corrupted. This we explained in detail in an essay at Christogenea titled The Problem With Genesis 6:1-4. Reading “sons of heaven” as a reference to the previously fallen angels, who are called the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” in Genesis chapter 3, all confusion regarding the meanings of this chapter of Genesis is removed.

We shall return to this point as we finish with Bertrand Comparet’s sermon in the near future, Yahweh God be willing.