The Epistles of Paul

The Epistles of Paul - Ephesians Part 2: The Foundation of the Prophets

Opening our presentation of this epistle to the Ephesians, we saw Paul of Tarsus begin to describe the purpose of the will of Yahweh God in relation to His plan for the ages: that He has had a particular people who were chosen from the “foundation of the society” who were preordained for the position of sons of God. Because of that predestination, in Christ these particular people have redemption and the dismissal of their transgressions. Paul then asserted that with this understanding, the mystery of the will of Yahweh God had been made known, and that through that redemption, those same people have obtained an inheritance for which they were preordained according to the purpose of Yahweh and in accordance with the design of the will of Yahweh. Paul then explained that this is all relevant to those particular people “who before had expectation in the Christ” and accepting the Gospel that those same people, among whom were the Ephesians, “have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise, which is a deposit of our inheritance, in regard to redemption of the possession, in praise of His honor.”

The Epistles of Paul - Ephesians Part 3: The Household of the Mystery

Many of the things which we shall say here in our introduction to Ephesians chapter 3, we have already said in our other commentaries on Paul's epistles. This is because because Paul was teaching Covenant Theology throughout his epistles, and we are merely following along. Covenant Theology is the only true theology, and for as long as we are expositing Paul's letters, we shall be repeating many of these things over and again as often as Paul made reference to them.

But Covenant Theology is really just a belief in one simple concept: that Yahweh God actually keeps the promises which He had made to the forefathers of the Old Testament Israelites. Paul himself had said in Romans chapter 15 that it was the objective of Christ “to confirm the promises made unto the fathers”. With that acknowledgment, we have an obligation to study history and archaeology in order to find the correct identity of the Old Testament Israelites. Zacharias the priest prophesied of the purpose of the Messiah as it is recorded in the Gospel of Luke and he said “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”. Rather contrarily, Yahshua (Jesus) Christ Himself had told the Jews of His time that “ye are of your father the devil” and that “you are not My sheep” while also proclaiming that He had come only for the “lost sheep”, so at least many of the Jews of His time could not possibly have been Old Testament Israelites. In Romans chapter 9 it is learned that those many were actually Edomites, and that fact is corroborated in the histories of Flavius Josephus.

The Epistles of Paul - Ephesians Part 4: The Restoration of the Saints

As we have already explained at length, for the first three chapters of this epistle Paul has been teaching Covenant Theology, and explaining to these Ephesians both how and why they should choose to follow Christ. So, for example, Paul has told them that they were chosen in Christ from the foundation of Society, preordained for the position of sons, redeemed, forgiven for their sins, and given an inheritance, since they had before had an expectation in Christ. Among other things, he also told them that they were indeed the Nations in the flesh, who had at one time been alienated from God but who are now reconciled, that they are of the family of the favor, and that they are of the Body of Christ which is built upon the apostles and the prophets. As we have seen, all of these things can pertain only to Old Testament Israelites.

Therefore in chapter 3 of this epistle Paul also explained that a mystery had been revealed to him, which is the mystery of the anointed that is found in the identity of the nations of the promises of Yahweh God which God had made to Abraham. We have seen that the “mystery of the anointed” is also that “new thing” which Yahweh had promised to do in Isaiah chapter 43, having brought the deported Israelites through a “way in the wilderness”, and having created many nations from Abraham’s seed. While there were a few other White nations in Europe before that time, those many nations descended from Abraham began to spring up in Europe after 1600 BC, and especially after the Assyrian deportations of the late 8th century BC, and we were informed by Isaiah as to exactly where those latter nations would be in Isaiah 66:19. This is the only historically legitimate view of modern White identity. This is also described in the “marvellous work” of Isaiah chapter 29 whereby Israel would be made to say “Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?” and they would not even know that they were the very vessel formed in the hands of the Potter (Isaiah 29:14-15). This being revealed to Paul through the writings, Paul was then able to conduct his ministry of reconciliation to the “family of the faith”, which are the nations descended from Abraham through Jacob Israel. We have seen that Paul had previously explained these same things in diverse ways to the Romans, the Corinthians, and the Galatians, all of whom were also nations which had descended from Abraham through Jacob Israel.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1 About the same time Philip, king of the Macedonians, who had been victorious over the Illyrians in a great battle and had made subject all the people who dwelt there as far as the lake called Lychnitis, now returned to Macedonia, having arranged a noteworthy peace with the Illyrians and won great acclaim among the Macedonians for the success due to his valour. 2 Thereupon, finding that the people of Amphipolis were ill-disposed toward him and offered many pretexts for war, he entered upon a campaign against them with a considerable force. By bringing siege-engines against the walls and launching severe and continuous assaults, he succeeded in breaching a portion of the wall with his battering rams, whereupon, having entered the city through the breach and struck down many of his opponents, he obtained the mastery of the city and exiled those who were disaffected toward him, but treated the rest considerately. 3 Since this city was favourably situated with regard to Thrace and the neighbouring regions, it contributed greatly to the aggrandizement of Philip. Indeed he immediately reduced Pydna, and made an alliance with the Olynthians in the terms of which he agreed to take over for them Potidaea, a city which the Olynthians had set their hearts on possessing. 4 Since the Olynthians inhabited an important city and because of its huge population had great influence in war, their city was an object of contention for those who sought to extend their supremacy. For this reason the Athenians and Philip were rivals against one another for the alliance with the Olynthians. 5 However that may be, Philip, when he had forced Potidaea to surrender, led the Athenian garrison out of the city and, treating it considerately, sent it back to Athens — for he was particularly solicitous toward the people of Athens on account of the importance and repute of their city — but, having sold the inhabitants into slavery, he handed it over to the Olynthians, presenting them also at the same time with all the properties in the territory of Potidaea. 6 After this he went to the city of Crenides, and having increased its size with a large number of inhabitants, changed its name to Philippi, giving it his own name, and then, turning to the gold mines in its territory, which were very scanty and insignificant, he increased their output so much by his improvements that they could bring him a revenue of more than a thousand talents. 7 And because from these mines he had soon amassed a fortune, with the abundance of money he raised the Macedonian kingdom higher and higher to a greatly superior position, for with the gold coins which he struck, which came to be known from name as Philippeioi, he organized a large force of mercenaries, and by using these coins for bribes induced many Greeks to become betrayers of their native lands. But concerning these matters the several events, when recorded, will explain everything in detail, and we shall now shift our account back to the events in the order of their occurrence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At first, the Puritans sought to purify the Church of England of the idolatry and rituals and other things considered Catholic and which have no foundation in Scripture. However numbers of them, realizing that the established churches could never be reformed, broke from the Anglican church and established their own churches. Many of these, being persecuted, fled to America or Holland, and among the first Pilgrims were a large number of separatist Puritans, but there were also some non-separating Pilgrims, Puritans and others who remained within the Anglican church.

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

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

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

Paul then advised his readers to “let no one find you unworthy of reward”, where he must have been referring to earthly rewards, making reference to those who would tell them that “One should not hold, nor should one taste, nor should one touch, (things which are all for corruption in their misuse,) according to the commands and instructions of men?” So we see that Christians should not seek to bar their brethren from anything which may give them refreshment or relief, even though that particular substance may be abused. Discussing this, we made examples of substances such as wine, marijuana and poppy, things which can certainly be abused, but which also have many legitimate uses. Conceding to the idea that the potential for the abuse of a substance is a good reason to proscribe the use of the substance actually isolates us from many of the wonderful and important resources provided for our use by the Creation of God, and in the long run often causes us more harm than good.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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