TruthVid's 100 Proofs that the Israelites were White, Part 64: 85, The Scope of the Covenant; 86, The Family of the Faith

TruthVid's 100 Proofs that the Israelites were White, Part 64

Once again, over our last few presentations here we have been discussing themes found in the ministry and epistles of Paul of Tarsus which help to establish that the White European nations to whom he had brought the gospel were indeed the same nations which had descended from the ancient children of Israel. So we have already discussed Paul’s commission from Christ, how Paul had applied that commission, the subjects of Biblical redemption, Israel having been estranged from the covenants, the adoption of Israel and the ministry of reconciliation. All of these things prove that Paul of Tarsus was taking the Gospel of Christ to Israelites, descendants of ancient Israel who were by that time known by many other names, as he toured Europe. Now we shall continue with Paul’s explanation of the scope of the covenants, and his references to the family of the faith, which is not a reference to mere believers joining some church.

85) The Scope of the Covenant

We discussed this subject in Proofs 35 and 36, in Part 12 of this series, in relation to both Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Now we shall speak of them again, but this time from the perspective of the ministry of Paul because his confirmations of these prophecies stand as a proof as to why he had taken the Gospel of Christ to the White nations of Europe.

Speaking of the adoption of Israel, which we had discussed at length in our last presentation, we had cited Jeremiah chapter 33 where we read: “23 Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 24 Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.” The question is rhetorical, and in context it is asked by the Babylonians. The truth is that Yahweh had not cast off Israel and Judah, so continuing we read: “25 Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; 26 Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.”

So the children of Israel continued to be the exclusive people of God, but they were put off in punishment, for reasons explained in Amos chapter 3, for example, where we read: “1 Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, 2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. 3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” But as we also cited in our last presentation, the limits of that punishment are described in Hosea where it says: “10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. 11 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head [Christ], and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.”

Those same limits are also mentioned in Jeremiah, in chapter 30: “10 Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. 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.” The same statements are repeated again in a nearly identical passage in Jeremiah chapter 46.

Then, a short time later, there is a promise of a New Covenant found in Jeremiah chapter 31: “31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Paul of Tarsus cited these very same verses verbatim from the Septuagint, in chapter 8 of his epistle to the Hebrews.

Accompanying the promise of the new covenant with Israel and Judah, there is another promise which professes that so long as there are a sun, moon and stars, the children of Israel would always be a nation. So reading a little further on in the chapter: “35 Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: 36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.” So we see in prophecy that Israel would always be a nation, a single nation, and not a church composed of many different nations – even if at the same time, Israel would become many nations, they must all be of the same general race, the same original nation. It cannot be one or the other. Both circumstances must be true.

Comparable to the promise we have read earlier, from Jeremiah chapter 33, there is another prophecy of the reconciliation of Judah and Israel found in Ezekiel chapter 37: “15 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions [the rest of the ten tribes]: 17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand. 18 And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these? 19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. 20 And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. 21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the [nations], whither they be gone [Assyria, Persia, Medea and some others], and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land [not necessarily Palestine]: 22 And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel [i.e. 2 Samuel 7:10]; and one king shall be king to them all [Yahweh as Christ]: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. 23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. 24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd [Christ]: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. 25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. 26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them [the New Covenant]: 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.” Therefore it is only Israel being sanctified in Christ and not any other people or nation.

The people of Israel and Judah did become one stick in Christendom, but that has nothing to do with Jews. The Assyrians took much of Judah into captivity not long after they took most of Israel. The Christian people of Europe may not have understood that they were Israel and Judah, but they did not have to be conscious of that in order for it to be true. Many Israelite Judaeans also joined the Christians of Europe in the early centuries of Christianity.

There are further promises of a new covenant with the house of Israel, which also includes Judah, in Ezekiel chapters 16, 20 and 34. So in chapter 20 we read, in part: “33 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you: [Christ as King, as Christ is Yahweh God incarnate] 34 And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. [The hand of Yahweh apparent in the migrations of the Israelites into Europe.] 35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.” We discussed the children of Israel in the wilderness in Proof 68 in Part 57 of this series, citing Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Revelation, among other Scriptures. So now as it continues, Yahweh once again discusses the punishment of Israel and the reconciliation in the Gospel: “36 Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD. 37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: 38 And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” That was around 600 BC, and in Ezekiel, Yahweh was describing something which would develop over many centuries.

As we have already discussed at length in Part 63 of this series concerning the adoption of Israel in Proof 78, in Romans chapter 9 Paul of Tarsus had attested that the covenants and promises, among other things, are for Israelites, and in that same place he had defined Israelites as his “kinsmen according to the flesh”, and not Israelites according to some mere profession or claim of belief or because of some church membership. Then, in Hebrews chapter 8 Paul wrote, comparing Yahshua Christ to Moses: “6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. 13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”

Paul of Tarsus, having said these things concerning Jeremiah’s prophecy of a new covenant in reference to Christ, reinforces the fact that the covenant confirmed in Christ is confirmed along the same lines as it had originally been promised in Jeremiah: to fulfill the promises made to the fathers concerning their seed, the house of Israel and the house of Judah, which at the same time would be made into one stick, as the prophecy in Ezekiel explains in relation to that same new covenant. The house of Israel was not in Judaea at the time of Christ, except that ostensibly, many of the Greeks, Romans, and Samaritans had indeed descended from ancient Israelites. Rather, the house of Israel, and a great portion of the house of Judah, were scattered across the nations of Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Europe. The apostles only took the Gospel to those places, and therefore that is how we should understand Paul where he had written in Romans chapter 15: “8 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: 9 And that the [Nations of Israel] might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the [Nations], and sing unto thy name.”

So the promises made to the fathers being confirmed in Christ, this lays an appropriate foundation for us to discuss what Paul had meant where he referred to the “family of the faith”.

86) The Family of the Faith

The same scriptures which we have just cited concerning the scope of the covenants are relative here. We first noted from Jeremiah chapter 33 that Yahweh had promised that the two families He had sent into captivity were not cast off, but that they would always be a nation before him. Then we cited Amos chapter 3 where Yahweh had told the children of Israel that “you only have I known of all the families of the earth”, and then explained that He was going to punish them for their sins. Then we cited Jeremiah chapters 30 and 46, where Yahweh promised to make a full end of all nations except Israel, and chapter 31 where he promised to make a new covenant with both the house, or family, of Israel and the house, or family, of Judah. That chapter also included another promise that Israel would always be a nation. So then we read in Ezekiel chapter 37 another prophecy that Israel and Judah would be reunited into one nation, and a promise of another covenant wherein Yahweh God would be their God, and David as a type for the Messiah would be their prince, or ruler, forever. That is the one head which Israel would appoint themselves, prophesied in Hosea 1:11, as they voluntarily proclaim the Christ of the Gospel as their king.

All of these prophecies were made explicitly for one particular family, house or nation. A house could be a literal house, but it is also defined in the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew lexicon as a “home, house as containing a family… household, family… those belonging to the same household… [or a] family of descendants, descendants as organized body”. A nation, as the Greek word ἔθνος was used in the time of Christ, is properly a people of a particular tribe, and therefore a nation is a nation whether or not it all occupies the same contiguous geographical area. In Roman times, Romans had lived in all parts of the Empire, and so did Greeks, but they never lost their national descriptions of Dorian, Athenian, Macedonian or Roman, or even Judaean, as in the case of Paul of Tarsus. Israelites scattered abroad would always be of the house of Israel regardless of how long they were scattered, and regardless of whether or not they remembered from whence they came.

As we have observed in all the passages presented here, at every turn in the Old Testament where we see Messianic prophecies, which are prophecies of the coming of Yahshua Christ, or where we see allusions or promises of the gathering of the sons and daughters of God or the gathering of Israel, it is always the twelve tribes, the children of Israel, the two families or two houses, referring to Israel and Judah, which are the explicit subjects and recipients of those promises.

So where Paul of Tarsus used words such as οἰκεῖος, which is a household, or οἰκονομία, which is the management of a household, how could we possibly imagine that he was referring to the management of some church organization or mere body of believers which is made up of some substance other than those subjects of the original promises and prophecies? In chapter 8 of his epistle to the Hebrews, Paul of Tarsus quoted the promise of a new covenant from Jeremiah chapter 31 verbatim, and there is no indication that he used the words of Yahweh to signify of describe anything other than what Jeremiah understood and intended when he recorded those words. Paul must have been using the words in the same sense in which Jeremiah recorded the promnise. Neither would Paul have had the authority to change the meaning of the promises, even if he intended to do so, but Paul’s own words demonstrate that he never had such an intention. Therefore we shall examine Paul’s use of the terms οἰκεῖος and οἰκονομία.

First, from Galatians chapter 6, from the King James Version: “9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. 10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” Clearly, all men are not of the household of the faith if there are some who are especially of the household of the faith. Just as Paul had prayed in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 to be saved from certain disgusting and wicked men, as the faith is not for all, which he attested in that prayer.

In the Christogenea New Testament we wrote “family of the faith”. The word for household or family here is the Greek word οἰκεῖος (Strong's # 3609). According to Liddell & Scott, οἰκεῖος means “in or of the house” and, ostensibly for that very same reason, they add that “of persons, [it means] of the same family or kin, related” and also “belonging to one's house or family”. The faith being according to the promises to Abraham, as Paul had explained in Romans chapters 4 and 15 and elsewhere, the family of the faith can only be the seed of Abraham through Jacob, which had become many nations according to that same promise. This is also the “household of God” as Paul used the same word, οἰκεῖος, in Ephesians chapter 2. Paul described that household as being the seed of Abraham in fulfillment of the promises of God in his epistles in Romans chapter 4 and in Galatians chapter 3, and explained that they were also at one time subject to the Levitical ordinances and to the laws of God in Galatians chapters 3, 4 and 5. That is the context in which he made this statement concerning the “family of the faith” here in Galatians chapter 6, where he had already explained that Christ had come to redeem those who were under the law in Galatians chapter 4

Going back to the promise of a new covenant found in Jeremiah chapter 31, where it states that the covenant would be made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, in the Septuagint version of Jeremiah, which is what Paul was quoting in Hebrews chapter 8, the word for house in that passage is οἶκος, which is literally a house, but also a household, or family, the sense in which the equivalent Hebrew word appears in that same passage in the Masoretic Text. From that word οἶκος the words οἰκεῖος and οἰκονομία are derived, for family and management of a family.

So for that same reason, twice in chapter 3 of his epistle to the Ephesians (vv. 2 and 9) Paul had used the similar Greek word οἰκονομία, which according to Liddell & Scott is “the management of a household or family”. He also used it in 1 Timothy 1:4 and 1 Corinthians 9:17 where he said that he “had been entrusted with the management of a family”. But on every occasion the King James translation absolutely ignores the primary meaning of οἰκονομία, and translates it in some general manner. Here we will read the pertinent verses. But we shall read them from the Christogenea New Testament, as we took serious issue with the King James translations of each of these verses, which we already described at length in Proof 45 of this series, in parts 25 through 31 of this series.

First, from Ephesians chapter 3, “1 For this cause I, Paul, captive of Christ Yahshua on behalf of you of the Nations, 2 if indeed you have heard of the management of the family of the favor of Yahweh which has been given to me in regard to you, 3 seeing that by a revelation the mystery was made known to me (just as I had briefly written before [so we also see that there seems to have been an earlier epistle to the Ephesians which is long missing], 4 besides which reading you are able to perceive my understanding in the mystery of the Anointed,) 5 which in other generations had not been made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed in His holy ambassadors and prophets by the Spirit [so we must look to the prophets to find what Paul had meant by using the term οἰκονομία, which means management of a family, and for that same reason he now says:], 6 those Nations which are joint heirs and a joint body and partners of the promise in Christ Yahshua, through the good message 7 of which I have become a servant in accordance with the gift of the favor of Yahweh which has been given to me, in accordance with the operation of His power. [So the nations which are the intended recipients of the Gosepl must also be identified in the prophets.] 8 To me, the least of all saints, has been given this favor, to announce the good message to the Nations - the unsearchable riches of the Anointed, 9 and to enlighten all concerning the management of the household of the mystery which was concealed from the ages by Yahweh, by whom all things are being established.”

The issue we have with the King James Version in translating this passage is made more complicated because the late manuscripts upon which it was based have κοινωνία in verse 9 here, for fellowship, in place of οἰκονομία, but all of the early manuscripts have οἰκονομία. The error is found beginning from the 16th century, as far as I can determine, with Elzevir’s so-called Textus Receptus, and apparently no earlier. But aside from minor problems with the manuscripts, changing the translation of just a few words to use more literal definitions of their meanings, the words of Paul are seen to correlate precisely with the words of the prophets, and we also see that God does not change.

As for the household of the mystery: The children of Israel were sent into captivity. They were taken into the wilderness. They were to dwell in allegorical blindness, and in metaphorical prisons, until they received the Gospel of Christ, which is also the Gospel of reconciliation, as Paul himself had called it. Several Greek words can mean administration, or dispensation. But οἰκονομία, which appears in both verses 2 and 9 here, is precisely the management of a family. So how can we imagine that where Paul uses this term, that it is only in a general meaning that does not accord with, and even contradicts, the promises of a covenant which were made to a particular family? When Paul himself attests that the purpose of the Gospel is to confirm those same promises? So translations such as that which are found in the King James Version attempt to rob God, and to dilute His promises.

Now we shall move on to 1 Corinthians 9:16-18: “16 Therefore if I announce the good message, it is not a subject of boasting to me; in necessity it is laid upon me, since woe to me it is if I would not announce the good message! 17 For if I do this readily, I have a reward; but if involuntarily I had been entrusted with the management of a family, 18 what then is my reward?…” The end of verse 18 refers to Paul’s main subject of discussion, which is a different topic that is not relevant here. But once again, the King James Version translated οἰκονομία in a general manner. However in chapter 10 of that same epistle, Paul went on to explain to the Corinthians that their own ancestors were with Moses in the Exodus, and that they and the surrounding nations of the Greeks were “Israel according to the flesh” who were practicing the worship of idols and pagan rituals in disobedience from God.

Paul uses this word in the same manner on one other occasion, in Colossians 1:25, where he wrote in part: “I have become a servant in accordance with the administration of the household [οἰκονομία] of Yahweh which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of Yahweh, 26 the mystery which has been concealed from the ages and from the races, but now has been made visible to His saints…” Here once again, the King James Version and others only translate οἰκονομία in a general manner. But the administration which Paul had, he certainly thought was the administration of that same family which was promised a New Covenant in Jeremiah chapter 31, as he said here that it was meant “to fulfill the Word of God”. Going back to what Paul was given, as we translate Acts 9:15, he was instructed by Christ to “bear My Name before both the Nations and kings of the sons of Israel.”

There is no promise of a New Covenant for anyone but the children of Israel. They are the family which Paul was managing by bringing them the Gospel and organizing them into local Christian assemblies. There are other words which mean administration or dispensation. For example in 2 Corinthians 9:12 Paul used the term διακονία, where the King James Version wrote administration. A διακονία is a general administration, but an οἰκονομία is the administration of a family, or household.

So, as we have also already frequently discussed here, in Acts chapter 26 Paul described the purpose of his ministry where he said: “6 And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: 7 Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.” Then, after having been sent to Rome and perhaps not quite two years later, once again in Acts chapter 28, speaking to the elders of the Judaeans at Rome, he said: “20 For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.”

In the Septuagint the same word οἶκος appears repeatedly, of the ancient people of Israel taken captive, in Ezekiel chapter 39, where the history of the people of Israel ever since the captivity is summarized in a prophecy: “23 And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword. 24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them. 25 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; 26 After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid. 27 When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; 28 Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the nations: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. 29 Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.” We still have that promise, and await its fulfillment.

There are even many more passages than what we have presented here which serve to show that the message of the Gospel of Christ was intended for a particular house, or family, which is the ancient family of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. Those twelve tribes are the household, or family of the faith, and there are none others.