The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 8

Satan is NOT in Heaven! Last week I had a conversation with Don Spears. Don is a dear friend and a good brother, and I really and honestly did not want to try to beat up on him in a debate, especially since I would have had to out-yell him in his own home just to get a word in, something which I did not desire to do. So I basically left it to him to convince me that Satan was in heaven, which he believes, and in the end I am not convinced. Don's highly charged emotional arguments are not enough to persuade me, especially when all of his Scriptural references offer only inferences and not one clear indisputable witness to prove his point. Don insists that Satan is in heaven, and he says that if I do not understand that, then, as he insists, I do not understand the spiritual things of God. Yet in the passage he referred to, Paul was talking about the things of God, and not about the things of Satan which are opposition to God.

Don really and truly believes in the divine inspiration of what he calls the “English bible”, ostensibly the King James Version, and only looks at and observes the Greek when it is convenient for him to do so. That attitude allows Don to define which of the English understandings he likes and which ones he does not like, in spite of the meanings of the Greek words or the Greek grammar in the readings he likes. His defense of this is accompanied by cries for conformity, but conformity means nothing if it is a forced conformity which in any place in Scripture leaves ideas that are contrary to the language at the time when the words were written. For instance, Don made a point of discussing an obscure topic, the Greek word οἰκητήριον as it appears in Jude and in Paul. Both writers used this Greek word to describe a habitation, so Don insists that they must be talking about habitations of an identical nature. Yet Don would not let me define the Greek word for air as it applies in the understanding of first century literature, because it is convenient to his Satan-in-heaven theory not to define it, since the Adversary was called the “prince of the power of the air” by Paul. Don wants to equate the air with the heaven, or some part of the heaven, although the Greek words are clearly different. In the Greek cosmology there are three layers of atmosphere, the ἀήρ, the αἰθήρ, and the οὐρανός. The air is the immediate atmosphere, and the οὐρανός is the heaven. The word αἰθήρ describes the bright upper ἀήρ and the words are sometimes interchangeable. But the air is not the heaven. If Satan is the prince of the power of the ἀήρ, and not of the οὐρανός, then Satan is not at all in heaven! In Don's world, two habitations must be identical, because they are described by the same word, and yet air and heaven, or some part of heaven, must be identical and it is useless to see that they are described by different words, but in reality they do indeed mean two different things. While this is all merely semantics, it is Don who raised these points, but his view on the issue contains some strange logic, which does not prove his case upon close inspection.

The entire argument that there is still a Satan in heaven, contrary to the words of Christ in the Revelation, rests on three premises, and yes, they are premises. The first premise is that the phrase “the host of the high ones” in Isaiah chapter 24 refers to satanic spirits in heaven. If we have to misapply the so-called “law” of first mention to phrases, rather than to doctrines, then the first time the phrase “high ones” is used in Scripture is in Isaiah chapter 10, where it apparently applies to people, and not to angels in heaven. Here in Isaiah chapter 24, the word would only apply to angels in heaven at anyone's insistence, and there is nothing which compels me to follow such an insistence when interpreting the phrase. I would instead interpret it to refer to the wealthiest merchants, bankers and king-makers, which are those who really rule over Society.

The second premise is that the reference to gods in the 82^nd Psalm refers to angels in heaven. Don Spears insists this is true even though Christ Himself tells us explicitly at John 10:34-35 that this applies to those men to whom the Word of God came. When I pointed this out to Don, he called this the “Judeo-Christian interpretation”, which is an ad hominem statement attempting to discredit the plain word of Scripture. In truth, even Judeo-Christianity is not wrong about everything, and I will accept the plain word of Scripture over the insistence of men. If Don had really wanted to discuss these Psalms, rather than try to run over me with them, he would have slowed down and listened to my explanations. For instance, where the King James has “men” in Psalm 82:7, in Hebrew the word is singular not plural, and it should be read “Adam”. As Paul says, it is appointed for man once to die, and then the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). In Romans 8:17, where Paul says that “in the transgression of one, death has taken reign through that one”, he spoke of that same Adam. Don's further arguments concerning the phrase “sons of the mighty”, or “sons of God”, in the 89^th Psalm are directly related to this one. The plain word of Scripture is that Adam is the son of God (Luke 3:38) and that the children of Adam, and of course the children of Israel, are indeed the children of God (Deuteronomy 14:1, Acts 17:28). Therefore the phrase “sons of God” in the Psalms applies to the children of Israel, and not at all to angels in heaven, as Yahshua Himself has told us in John chapter 10 where He said “Is it not written in your law that ‘I have said, Ye are gods’? 35 If He spoke of them as gods to whom the Word of Yahweh had come, and the writing is not able to be broken, He whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the Society, you tell that ‘You blaspheme’, because I said I am a son of Yahweh?” Likewise, the assembly of the “sons of God” in chapter 1 of the Book of Job was not in heaven, but on earth, where both Satan and Job were, as the book also tells us explicitly.

 Now there are in Scripture little-discussed and little-understood correlations between the children of Adam and the angels in heaven, in that there were, ostensibly, children of God existing in heaven before the foundation of the world – as Job 38:7 seems to reveal. However this alone does not refute the perspective supplied here, nor prove anything concerning the 82^nd or 89^th Psalms or Job chapter 1, and none of it has anything at all to do with angels cast out of heaven following their rebellion against God. Christ says in Matthew 22:30 that the children of the resurrection shall be as the angels, or like the angels, not that they will be angels. Paul later says that the Saints shall judge angels, not that they will be angels. So there must remain differences between men and angels. If there were not, then the event of Genesis chapter 6 may hardly have been seen as a violation of the law of kind after kind, and cannot have been compared by Christ to the race-mixing of modern times.

In light of the plain word of Scripture which tells us explicitly who the sons or children of God are, which has many Scriptural witnesses (Deuteronomy 14:1, Luke 3:38, Acts 17:28, Isaiah 43:6), we can then examine the third premise: that the Masoretic Text is correct in its reading of Genesis 6:1-4, which calls those angels who mingled with the daughters of Adam (who is the son of God) the “sons of God”. Rather, as we have pointed out in the past here and in our papers at Christogenea, it is likely that the correct reading of Genesis 6 as it is in some Septuagint manuscripts and in the Enoch literature which Don Spears himself likes to cite, may indeed be “sons of heaven”, and not “sons of God”, and once that is realized then any apparent conflict which that verse has with all of the plain statements concerning the identity of the “sons of God” in scripture simply disappears.

Now I have no doubts that Don Spears is a good man, and that he means well, and that he has pure intentions. However on Saturday he did make some ad hominem assaults on both my spirituality and upon my methods of Scriptural interpretation, which I must now address. I am certain that he did this with no ill intention towards me, and I do consider him a good and beloved brother, however he did it nonetheless.

Don apparently believes that I free-wheel my interpretations of Scripture, in spite of the fact that I have indeed outlined my methods of interpretation in papers in my writings. For example, there is the paper I wrote for the Christogenea forum some time ago entitled On Biblical Exegesis, which I also presented in a program here a year ago. As I also said several weeks ago here in my Luke chapter 4 presentation, Christ came to reveal things kept secret since the foundation of the world. In addition to this, the scribes having turned the Word of God into a lie as we read in Jeremiah 8:8, referring to at least some places in the Books of the Law, therefore the words of Christ and the apostles in the New Testament must be the lens through which we examine the Old Testament. While passages in the New Testament cannot be taken out of context in order to refute the Old Testament, on the other hand we cannot not use any understanding of Old Testament ideas, inferences or allusions to refute plain statements in the New Testament. This in some places may defy the so-called “law” of first mention, but that law is a law of man, and not of God. It may work in a world which has a perfect Bible, but our Bible itself mentions its own imperfection and its own incomplete state. I do not build doctrines on inference and premise. Rather, I strive to build doctrine on plain and explicit statements, with two or three witnesses, and from there interpret the parables and prophecies which align with those statements, and not the other way around. So, for example, if there are two or three explicit statements which tell me that the children of Adam are the children of God, then no other reference to the “sons of God” in any context will convince me that it is talking about angels rather than about the children of Adam. There are actually at least three explicit statements to that effect in each testament, which proves that the children of Adam are the sons and daughters of God. There is not one explicit statement in any Scripture which states that angels and fallen angels are the “sons of God”, as Don Spears would like to read Psalms 82 and 89, which he claims reference a Satan still in heaven. Doctrines are not based on inference alone.

Don talked at length on Saturday about the need to follow the traditional methods of Scriptural interpretation. Yet Don himself also claims that Christian Identity truth is discovered with those traditional methods of interpretation from the King James Version alone, without any necessity to learn other languages and to inspect the source documents. If any of the early Christian writers, and if any of the major schools of recent times had ever arrived at the truth using those traditional methods of interpretation which were devised by scholars, then perhaps I would see merit in them. But they have never arrived at the truth through those methods, and they reject that truth today even when it is shown to them. Rather, those methods bind men to laws which have been devised by man, not by God, and I see them as the systemization of deception. I shall not be bound by the laws of man respecting the Word of God. Don has learned the Israel Identity truth, yet he clings to those old ways which have never discovered the truth. He insists upon pouring new wine into old bottles.

Criticizing his estimation of my spirituality, Don claims that I do not want to believe anything which I cannot perceive with my fleshly senses. That is likewise his own fleshly perception of my spirituality. I believe in all things Spiritual which are described by the Word of God. And I also believe that the Spirit operates in us, as the Word of God says, and that how we perceive the physical world and what we do in it is driven by the Spirit in us, when we put away the deeds and desires of the flesh. Although I may fail, I strive to reflect the things of my spirit into the physical world, but I do not imagine the Spiritual world to be like the physical. The prayer we are taught to pray is that things be on earth as they already are in heaven, and that is my prayer indeed – so I cannot believe that there is a Satan in heaven! If there is a Satan in heaven, then God is a failure, because His Word states that “neither was their place found any more in heaven” and He asks us to pray that things may be “on earth as they are in heaven”. If I cannot apply the things of my Spirit in order to understand and evaluate the world around me, what I see and feel and hear and touch, then the Word of God is of no use to me in this world.

This leads me to the next item which requires discussion. It amazes me, and I have seen this same thing happen many times, how two men can read the same Scripture and understand plain words in an entirely different manner. On Saturday Don cited Titus 3:5 insisting that our Adamic Spirit is not with us from birth, in refutation of what I understand and expressed when reading the plain words of 1 Corinthians 15:44, in conjunction with Genesis 2:7, 2 Corinthians 4:7 and other passages. Don stated, and I will only paraphrase, that it is the Holy Spirit in us which receives the washing of regeneration and renewal that Paul describes in his letter to Titus. Yet I read Titus 3:5 and understand that it is the Holy Spirit which is performing that washing of regeneration and renewal! If the Spirit is Holy, it has no need of washing! It is the Holy Spirit which performs the cleansing of our Adamic spirits, and the Holy Spirit itself does not need to be cleansed. From the Wisdom of Solomon, 2:23: “For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.” As Paul says, speaking of Israel, if there is a physical body, which we are sown, then there is a spiritual body, which we are raised – and those are his words. Even the spirits of those who sinned before the flood were never extinguished, as Peter tells us that Christ during His three days in the earth proclaimed the Gospel “to those spirits in prison, who at one time had been disobedient”. We must dispense with the old leaven, and reconcile all of Scripture.

In the presentation of Luke chapter 4 given here several weeks ago, I made the comment that I have never seen any Scriptural evidence of a wicked demon spirit interacting with men unless the spirit was embodied, and I offered to be shown such evidence. That offer still stands. Don Spears attempted to meet my offer by citing 1 Kings chapter 22, a story recounted in 2 Chronicles chapter 18. The following account is lengthy, but it must be read in context.

1 Kings chapter 22:13-25: “ 13 And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good. 14 And Micaiah said, As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I speak. 15 So he came to the king. And the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, Go, and prosper: for the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king. 16 And the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the LORD? 17 And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace. 18 And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil? 19 And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. 20 And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. 21 And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him. 22 And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. 23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee. 24 But Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near, and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the LORD from me to speak unto thee? 25 And Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see in that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself.”

It is evident that Yahweh God communicated to the prophets in visions, and while those visions had meaning, they were not to be taken literally. In the passage from 1 Kings chapter 22 above, the personification of the lying spirit is an allegory used as a rhetorical device, just as Wisdom is personified in the Proverbs (i.e. 1:20). The personification of the lying spirit is no more literal than the “sheep that have not a shepherd” in the preceding verses. In truth, this is fully evident in verse 23 where the allegory is summarized and it says “the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets”. The evil spirit is not one of the fallen angels, nor is it one of the demons. Rather, it is an evil spirit sent upon these particular men from God Himself. Another instance of such an occurrence is found in 1 Samuel 16:23: “And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.” Don Spears failed to notice the difference between an evil spirit - a spirit which is evil in the eyes of men and which is sent by God to accomplish the will of God - and a Satanic angel or demon spirit which is in a state of rebellion and which is opposed to God, and there is a huge difference indeed. Evil spirits from God are not Satanic spirits adversarial to God.

Don also mentioned that the laying on of hands was not prophesied in the Old Testament, and he is right. But there is a type for it in the Old Testament, for instance in Leviticus 4:15 where it says “And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands upon the head of the bullock before the LORD: and the bullock shall be killed before the LORD.” Now there is no longer any sacrifice for sin, except that the individual members of the Body of Christ should sacrifice themselves for their kinsmen by serving their kinsmen, as Christ sacrificed Himself for our sakes. Therefore we lay our hands no longer upon the bullock to be sacrificed, but upon each other because we should dedicate our lives to one another, for we are the body of Christ. At least that is my opinion, for what it is worth.

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 8 – July 13th, 2012

1 And it came to pass thereafter, that He was passing through each city and town proclaiming and announcing the good message of the Kingdom of Yahweh, and the twelve were with Him, 2 and there were certain women, who were healed from evil spirits and illnesses: Maria who is called Magdalane from whom seven demons were expelled, 3 and Iohanna wife of Chouza a trustee of Herodas, and Sousanna and many others, who had been ministering to them from their belongings.

The Codex Sinaiticus (א) has the women having been healed from “unclean spirits” rather than “evil spirits”. The word Magdalane, is not a name. Rather it means to describe a woman from Magdala, a town on the western coast of what we call the Sea of Galilee. The label was obviously expedient, there being several women named Maria, or Mariam, among the intimates of Christ.

The Codices Sinaiticus (א) and Alexandrinus (A) have “ministering to Him from their belongings.” The text follows the Codices Vaticanus (B), Bezae (D), and Washingtonensis (W). These women, while not always mentioned, were probably in the immediate company of Christ very often. In Luke chapter 23, and also in Matthew 27 and Mark 15, we see that these women witnessed the crucifixion, who were said to have “followed Him from Galilee”, even though they are not mentioned explicitly as being in His company in many of the intermediate events which were recorded. During their travels following Him, these women were ministering to Christ from their belongings, meaning that they were women who had property and money, perhaps in their widowhood, and from their wealth they were seeing to His daily needs. So we see that even Christ Himself was sustained by those people whom He blessed with the ability to be in such a position, that they could do so.

The word ἐπίτροπος (2012), which is a trustee here, may be “...one to whom a charge is entrusted, a trustee, administrator...a governor, viceroy...a guardian” (Liddell & Scott). Here the King James Version has “steward”. The word also appears at Matthew 20:8 where in the King James Version it is also “steward”, and in Galatians 4:2 where in the plural it is “tutors”. Of course, Herod himself was an Edomite, as were many of the rulers of Judaea at this time. However that does not mean that in the mixed-race society of Judaea that all of those who worked for the establishment were Edomites, and in fact, just as we see in our own Edomite-controlled government of today, many of them were indeed good Israelite people caught up in the “world”, so to speak.

The Kingdom of Heaven was preached by Christ during His ministry, however His followers thought that He Himself was going to usher it in at that time, to restore the Kingdom of God of earth.

In Daniel 2:44 we see the promise of the coming Kingdom of God which was to follow the beast kingdoms of history which were also prophesied, where after describing four great beast empires, Daniel wrote: “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”

In Daniel chapter 7 we see a prophecy concerning the coming Kingdom of heaven which is also a part of a much broader tapestry of prophecy which was for the most part yet to be fulfilled in the first century. Here is Daniel 7:21-22: “21 I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; 22 Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” This “Ancient of Days” is portrayed in much the same way that Christ had portrayed Himself in the Revelation. Christ is indeed the “Ancient of Days” because He is Yahweh God incarnate.

However in Daniel chapter 9 the prophet is given a vision which dates 69 weeks of years from the rebuilding of the city Jerusalem until the coming of Messiah, and says that in a 70^th week that “Messiah [would] be cut off, but not for himself”, which describes perfectly the ministry of Christ. Understanding that the first advent of Christ was not the time when the kingdom would be restored to Israel – who are indeed the Saints of Daniel 7:22 - was a point misunderstood even among the apostles. At Acts 1:6 we read that “When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” Of course, from the Revelation of Yahshua Christ we know that we still await that final restoration, and we pray that it comes soon.

4 And a great crowd coming together and upon their traveling to each city with Him, He spoke in a parable: 5 “The sower has come out to sow his seed: and in his sowing, while that which fell by the road was then trampled and the birds of heaven devoured it, 6 then others had fallen upon the bedrock, and sprouting it withered because it did not have moisture. 7 And others had fallen in among the thorns, and growing together the thorns strangled them. 8 Yet others had fallen onto the good earth and sprouting produced fruit a hundredfold.” Saying these things He cried out “He having an ear to hear must hear!”

Matthew's version of the conclusion of the parable reads (13:23): “But that having been sown upon the good earth, this is he hearing the Word and understanding, who surely bears fruit and makes then some a hundred fold, but some sixty, and some thirty.” The explanation of this parable is not found in Matthew chapter 13, where Christ is recorded as having set forth the parable of the Wheat and the Tares and explaining that instead.

9 Then His students enquired of Him: “What could this parable be?”

Note that while to His students it was given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom, Yahshua nevertheless had to explain to them the meaning of several of the parables, as they asked Him to do both here and with the parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew chapter 13.

10 And He said “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Yahweh, but to the rest in parables, that seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not understand.

The only difference between the apostles and most of the Israelite people of Judaea is that Yahshua chose the apostles to understand and to come to know the mysteries of the Kingdom. God Himself determines which of us have open eyes, and which of us remain blinded. Of course, there were also non-Israelites in Judaea, Edomites and other Canaanites, who were and are always to remain blind.

[Because I believe this is quite important to point out, I am going to repeat much of what I said in reference to the Parable of the Sower when Matthew chapter 13 was discussed here last year.]

Many Identity Christians, in order to make a point to the uninitiated, or to the newly initiated, at times tend to oversimplify certain aspects of Scripture. I myself have also been guilty of doing so, and will probably not be able to avoid doing so again in the future. Reading this passage, many explain that Christ did not want the Canaanite-Edomite Judaeans to understand Him, and that is true – but it is only partially true. Going back to the original passage that Christ is quoting, let us read that first, from Isaiah chapter 6:

Isaiah 6: “1 In the year that king Uzziah [king of Judah] died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. 6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. 8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. 9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. 13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.” [As an aside, I would translate verse 13 differently, where it is speaking about the remnant of Judah returning to the land: “Yet a tenth will return and be kindled: a pillar of oak, in order to be a monument. Because of their felling the holy seed will be a monument.”]

We know from Jeremiah (for instance from chapters 2 and 24) and from Ezekiel (for instance from chapter 16), that Jerusalem at the time of these prophets was also a mixed-race population, with at least some mixed-race individuals, much like first century Judaea was also mixed, and for that reason Judah was deemed by Yahweh to consist of both good and bad figs. Yet Isaiah in giving this prophecy concerning blindness was talking to the people in general, and not to any specific group among the people. There are races of people here who do not belong in the kingdom of heaven at all – as we learn from the parables of the net and of the the wheat and the tares later in this chapter of Matthew. Certainly Yahshua does not care for them to understand His words, but the words here are not intended for them. In our own uncleanness we ourselves do not deserve the Truth of the Word of God, as we see in Isaiah chapter 6 verses 5 through 7 that even he did not deserve that truth, having what he considered to be “unclean lips”. Therefore it is clear that a lot of us, as well as those of our enemies, are to remain blind as to the purposes of our God. The example here is primarily that Yahweh Himself chooses out from among His people those who shall see and hear and who shall learn His truths. The rest of the people – whether they be His or not, Israel or not, they remain blinded for as long as it is determined by Him. As for the children of Israel who do not heed the Word of Yahweh, He relinquishes them to the enemy. For that reason Paul, speaking of unrepentant sinners, instructs us to turn such as them over to Satan for destruction of the flesh – that the Spirit may be saved in the day of Christ.

11 “This is the parable: The seed is the Word of Yahweh, 12 and they by the road are those hearing, then comes the False Accuser and he takes the Word from their hearts, lest believing they would be preserved.

The False Accuser or Devil, the “Evil One” as he is called in the corresponding passage in Matthew – is indeed the jew and his fellows and all of their false doctrines and calumnious lies. Those who do not grasp the truth of the Word are most susceptible to these things. The devil walks about seeking whom he may devour.

13 And those upon the bedrock, when they heard they received the Word with joy, but these do not have roots, who for a time believe and in time of trial they withdraw.

Root in the Word comes only through study of the Word itself. If your knowledge is deep, you will not be easily shaken. If you merely believe the message, but your knowledge is shallow, you are easily entrapped when confronted by the schemes of the adversary, not knowing how to answer and therefore being caught in a seeming contradiction, which is no contradiction if only you had studied. The enemy loves best to try to catch us in his own false premises.

14 And those having fallen into the thorns, they are those hearing and going off are strangled by the cares and riches and pleasures of life and are not brought to perfection.

Read your Bible on Sunday morning, and forget every word of what you have heard or read because you are watching football for the rest of the day. That is only one example. We either care for the Word, and pursue the things of Yahweh, or we care for the world and pursue worldly things. No man can serve two masters, God and mammon.

15 But that which is in the fair earth, they are those who are fair and good in heart, hearing the Word, continuing they then bear fruit in patient endurance.

So we see that those who are fruitful in the Word are the minority of the seed – although the seed being sown here must all be good seed because Yahweh's law is “thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed”. So the seed is a single kind, and not many kinds. It is all good seed, but some of it lands in bad places. Comparing ourselves to the seed, we have no control over where we should land, and for that reason alone Yahweh shall have mercy on all of Israel – and therefore we should not judge good seed to be bad. As Christ Himself has told us, a good tree cannot produce bad fruit!

16 “Now no one lighting a lamp conceals it in a vessel or sets it under a couch, but sets it upon a lampstand, that those entering in would see the light. 17 For there is nothing secret which shall not become evident, nor hidden which shall not be known and brought to light.

Both the 3^rd century papyrus known as P75 and the Codex Vaticanus (B) want the phrase rendered “that those entering in would see the light.” The words light and evident in verse 17 are from the same Greek word, φανερός (5318), “open to sight, visible, manifest, evident...known...” (Liddell & Scott).

Christ is talking about the good seed here also, for He has not changed the subject from that which is in the explanation of the parable of the sower. Rather, He is continuing His explanation of that same subject. The people of God are fully manifest in the earth and have been for centuries, as those who have produced the fruits of the Kingdom of God. While many seed fell upon the rough ground, and while some of that seed flowered at diverse times, it is primarily the Saxon and related peoples of Northern Europe who have instituted Christian governance throughout the world - for better or worse.

18 “Therefore you watch how you hear. Indeed whoever has, it shall be given to him, and whoever has not even that which he supposes to have shall be taken from him.”

As Paul explains in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, if a man builds upon the foundation of Christ gold, silver, and precious stones, he shall receive a reward. However if a man builds wood, hay and stubble upon that foundation, he will receive no reward, and those things which he has he shall lose because they burn easily in the fire. However he himself shall be saved through those trials of fire.

19 Then His mother and brethren came near to Him, yet were not able to meet with Him because of the crowd. 20 So it was announced to Him: “Your mother and brethren stand outside wishing to see You!” 21 And replying He said to them “My mother and My brethren are those hearing and doing the Word of Yahweh!”

Here we see that Christ had literal brethren, meaning brothers with the same mother. If that is not so, then these brethren would not have been traveling about with their mother, and if they too were merely fellow believers then the entire episode would be meaningless, and the response of Christ in reference to those doing the will of God would be unnecessary. Mary clearly had more children after she had given birth to the Christ, for which reason Luke (2:7) calls Him her “first-born son”. If He were her only son, then the Greek word μονογενής, which was discussed here last week when we presented Luke chapter 7, would have been appropriate. At Luke 2:7 he used the term πρωτότοκος, which is absolutely and literally “first-born”. (πρωτότοκος appears in the Majority Text and some other manuscripts at Matthew 1:25 as well, where in the King James Version Christ is also called Mary's “firstborn”.)

22 And it happened in one of those days that He and His students boarded into a vessel, and He said to them: “We should pass through to the other side of the lake”, and they set out. 23 Then most of them had fallen asleep, and a furious storm of wind descended upon the lake, and being filled with water then they were endangered. 24 So drawing near they aroused Him saying “Master, Master, we are being destroyed!” And awakening He censured the wind and the waves of water, and they stopped, and it became calm. 25 Then He said to them “Where is your faith?” But being fearful they wondered saying to each other “So who is this that He even commands the winds and the water, and they obey Him?”

The word συμπληρόω (4845) is here “II. to fill up or completely” (Liddell & Scott). Here where water is clearly the intended subject of the verb, “with water” is added to the text. In the Greek of verse 24, waves is actually in the singular.

From the Septuagint version of Psalm 89: “8 O Lord God of hosts, who is like to thee? thou art mighty, O Lord, and thy truth is round about thee. 9 Thou rulest the power of the sea; and thou calmest the tumult of its waves.”

26 Then they came ashore in the region of the Gadarenes which is opposite the coast of Galilaia.

The account of this voyage, and of the events concerning the possessed man and the swine, is also given at Matt. 8:23-34 and at Mark 4:35-5:20. The order of events here in Luke agrees with the gospel of Mark. However in the gospel of Matthew the encounter with the Gadarenes is recorded as having occurred before many of the events that Luke and Mark place it as having followed, such as the chastisement of the disciples of Christ by the Pharisees for plucking grain on the Sabbath, and the healing of the man with the withered hand, among other things. For instances, compare Luke chapter 6 with Matthew chapter 12. The name of the district in which this event took place is a matter of much dispute and speculation, even in the earliest times. Among the manuscripts five different names for this district appear, and each of these will be discussed briefly here, relying upon comments from Thayer’s lexicon.

• Γαδαρηνός (1046), “of Gadara, a Gadarene. Gadara was the capital of Peraea (Joseph. b. j. 4, 7, 3), situated opposite the southern extremity of the Lake of Gennesaret to the south-east, but at some distance from the lake on the banks of the river Hieromax (Pliny h. n. 5, 16), 60 stadia from the city Tiberias (Joseph. vita 65)...” (Thayer). The references from Josephus’ Wars and Pliny’s Natural History, and Thayer also cites Josephus’ Antiquities further on, show that Gadara is a likely candidate, and so it appears in the text here.
• Γαζαρηνός, “of Gazara, a Gazarene”, the word is not treated by Strong or Thayer, since it appears nowhere in the King James Version. It is the name of a town in Ephraim, far from the Sea of Galilee (Lake of Gennesaret), and appears often in the Septuagint (Joshua 16:5 and 21:21; 1 Chronicles 14:16; 1 Maccabees 9:52 et al.).
• Γερασηνός, (which has no Strong # but is given an entry in Thayer’s:) “Gerasene, i.e. belonging to the city Gerasa (τὰ Γέρασα, Josephus b. j. 3, 3, 3): Matthew viii. 28 … Mark v. 1... Luke viii. 26 and 37 ... according to very many codices seen by Origen. But since Gerasa was a city situated in the southern part of Peraea (Josephus 1.c. [passage cited], cf. 4, 9, 1), or in Arabia...that cannot be referred to here” (Thayer). And Thayer also cites an edition of Origen’s writing, which shows the antiquity of the uncertainty concerning this location, which shall also be evident below.
• Γεργεσηνός (1086) “Gergesene, belonging to the city Gergesa, which is assumed to have been situated on the eastern shore of Lake Gennesaret : Matthew viii. 28...But this reading depends on the authority and opinion of Origen, who thought the variants found in his manuscripts Γαδαρηνῶν and Γερασηνῶν … must be made to conform to the testimony of those who said that there was formerly a certain city Gergesa near the lake. But Josephus knows nothing of it, and states expressly (antt. 1, 6, 2), that no trace of the ancient Gergesites [A.V. Girgashites ...] (mentioned Genesis xv. 20; Joshua xxiv. 11) had survived, except the names preserved in the O.T. Hence in Matthew viii. 28 we must read Γαδαρηνῶν … and suppose that the jurisdiction of the city Gadara extended quite to the Lake of Gennesaret ...” (Thayer).
• Γεργυστηνός, or “Gergustene, of Gergusta”, is found nowhere but in one manuscript of Mark, and therefore it is not treated by either Strong or Thayer.

Manuscript support for these various names is as follows:

P75 (𝔓⁷⁵) - formerly Papyrus Bodmer XIV–XV, now Hanna Papyrus 1 ; א - Codex Sinaiticus; A - Codex Alexandrinus; B - Codex Vaticanus; C - Codex Ephraemi Syri; D - Codex Bezae; W - Codex Washingtonensis; P - Codex Guelferbytanus A; Ξ - Codex Zacynthius; MT - Majority Text. 

Based upon manuscript support, and the antiquity and perceived reliability of the manuscripts, I would be obliged to follow the NA27 in each instance. However, I have chosen to follow the opinions of Thayer in this matter, based upon the historians’ records. There are several names in the Old Testament similar to Gadara, such as Geder and Gederah, yet none of them can be connected to this place, and all seem to be far to the south, in Judah.

27 And with His coming out upon the land He met a certain man from the city having demons, and for considerable time who had not worn a garment, and has abode not in a house but among the tombs.

The word ὑπαντάω (5221), which is simply “to meet” here, implies a stronger meaning, to go to meet (Liddell & Scott), signifying that perhaps the meeting was by design, and not by chance.

28 And seeing Yahshua, crying out he fell down before Him and in a loud voice he said “What is there with me and with You, Yahshua Son of Yahweh the Highest? I beg You, do not torment me!” 29 Therefore He commanded the unclean spirit to come out from the man. For many times he had seized him, and being guarded he was bound in chains and shackles, yet breaking through the bonds he had been driven by the demon into the wilderness. 30 Then Yahshua questioned him, “What is your name?” And he said “Legion”, because many demons had entered into him. 31 And they exhorted Him that He would not command them to depart into the abyss. 32 And there was a considerable herd of swine there feeding on the mountain, and they exhorted Him that He would allow them to enter into them, and He allowed them. 33 Then the demons departing from the man entered into the swine, and the herd rushed headlong down the bank into the lake and drowned.

So far as I have found in writings that may be esteemed to be Scripture, it is only seen in the writings known as 1 Enoch, from both the Ethiopic and from those parts of the work found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, that wicked demon-spirits come from the spirits of bastards. Yet the sectarian literature of the Qumran sect which was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls also reflected this belief, ostensibly from the Enoch literature. From The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, from Volume 2, pages 1027 and 1028, translated by Martinez and Tigchelaar, from the scroll designated 4Q510, a fragment of what is called the Songs of the Sage, a part of Fragment 1: “...declare the splendour of his radiance in order to frighten and terrify all the spirits of the ravaging angels and the bastard spirits, demons, Lilith, owls and jackals … and those who strike unexpectedly to lead astray the spirit of knowledge, to make their hearts forlorn. And you have been placed in the era of the rule of wickedness and in the periods of humiliation of the sons of light, in the guilty periods of those defiled by iniquities; not for an everlasting destruction but rather for the era of the humiliation of sin. Rejoice, righteous ones, in the wonderful God.”

From The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, from the scroll designated 4Q511, also a part of the same work, Songs of the Sage, from fragment 35, “... I spread the fear of God in the ages of my generations to exalt the name … and to terrify with his power all spirits of the bastards, to subjugate them by his fear, not for all eternal times, but for the time of their dominion....” From The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, from the scroll designated 4Q204, “Exterminate all the spirits of the bastards and the sons of the Watchers”, which seems to have been speaking prophetically. That “Watchers” is a word used of certain angels is evident from the Biblical book of Daniel at 4:13, 17 and 23, where it is without doubt used of angels. Christ said, as it is recorded at Luke 10:18-20: “I beheld the Adversary falling as lightning from heaven! Behold! I have given to you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy, and no one shall by any means do you injustice. But in this you must not rejoice: that spirits are subject to you. Rather, rejoice that your names are inscribed in the heavens.” Here in the New Testament there is a direct connection between these demon spirits, the allegorical serpents and scorpions which represent people in our modern world, and that Satan whose fall is depicted in chapter 12 of the Revelation, which is also “that old serpent” whom we know from Genesis chapter 3.

Apparently, the demon spirits were not comfortable being cast out of the man, where they would evidently be out-of-touch with the physical world. Such is evident in the words of Christ in that parable given at Luke 11:24 where the King James Version reads “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out.”

34 And seeing what happened, the swineherds fled and announced it in the city and in the fields.

The Greek word for swineherds here is literally only feeders.

35 Then they came out to see what happened and they came to Yahshua and found the man from whom He had expelled the demons sitting at the feet of Yahshua dressed and of sound mind, and they feared. 36 And those seeing it reported to them how He had saved him being possessed by demons. 37 And the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them, because they were stricken with great fear. Then He, boarding into a vessel, returned. 38 But the man from whom the demons were expelled had begged Him to be with Him. But He dismissed him, saying: 39 “Return to your house and describe what things Yahweh has done for you.” And he went out through the whole city proclaiming what things Yahshua had done for him.

There is nothing in Scripture or in history that we can ascertain about the race of these people. Luke tells us in verse 26 here that this district was adjacent to Galilee. There were many settlements of Greeks, Romans, White Syrians (as Strabo tells us that the Syrians were White) and possibly even some remnant Israelites in this area. An examination of the Old Testament reveals that there were children of Israel who escaped the Assyrian captivity, who were not taken by the Assyrians, although they were nevertheless cut off from their relationship with Yahweh, as they had adopted paganism long before even the time of the Assyrians. Christ did want the man to announce his blessings to his kin.

What is obvious here, however, is that these people who asked Christ to depart from them would rather continue to suffer with the status quo, than to see change come even if it were for the better. They preferred the world – and their swine – to the Word of God. That, to me, is a very good portrait of most of our own race today. Most so-called Christians would never trade in their swine for any amount of the Truth. Most so-called-Christians would also never exchange their current level of comfort – no matter how miserable they truly are – for any Truth which may make them feel less comfortable than their current perceived condition.

40 And upon the returning of Yahshua the crowd received Him, for they were all expecting Him. 41 And behold, there came a man with the name Iahiros, and he was a leader of the assembly hall, and falling by the feet of Yahshua he invited Him to come into his house, 42 because his best-loved daughter, about twelve years old, was in it and she was about to die. And upon bringing Him the crowd constrained Him.

The name Iahiros is spelled in Greek either Ἰάειρος, or Ἰάϊρος. The name appears often in the Septuagint, in the form Ἰάϊρ (for Jair the son of Manasseh and others) - if indeed this is the same name, which is apparent on the surface, and which Strong and Thayer maintain. See Strong’s Hebrew #2971, where Strong gives the name’s meaning as “enlightener”, and Thayer as “whom Jehovah [sic. Yahweh] enlightens”. I must conjecture, that this name may not be related to the Old Testament Ἰάϊρ (“Jair” in the A.V.), but rather (if the spelling Ἰάειρος is discarded, appearing nowhere in the ancient manuscripts, but only in the lexicons) it may be a combination of Ἰά (Yah-, shortened form of Yahweh appearing often in Hebrew names, also as -iah) and the Greek word ἱερός, often written in the poets ἱρός, and therefore it may mean “Yahweh is mighty” or something quite similar.

The word for “best-loved”, or perhaps literally “only-begotten” is once again μονογενής (3439), which was discussed at length last week with our presentation of Luke chapter 7.

The following account of the woman with the flow of blood breaks into the account of Christ's going to heal the daughter of Iahiros.

43 And there was a woman with a flow of blood [literally “with blood that flows”] for twelve years, who had spent her entire livelihood with physicians, who was not able to be healed by anyone,

The third-century papyrus known as P75, and the Codices Vaticanus (B) and Bezae (D) are wanting the phrase which says “who had spent her entire livelihood with physicians”, which the NA27 includes but marks as doubtful, perhaps appropriately. The text follows the Codices Sinaiticus (א), Alexandrinus (A), Ephraemi Syri (C), Washingtonensis (W), and agrees with the Textus Receptus in this instance.

44 who approaching behind Him grabbed the hem of His garment and immediately the flow of her blood had stopped. 45 And Yahshua said “Who has grabbed Me?” Then all denying, Petros said “Master, the crowd constrains and presses upon You!” 46 Then Yahshua said “Someone has grabbed Me, for I know that power has gone out from Me.” 47 And the woman, seeing that she had not gone unnoticed, came trembling and falling before Him because of the charge that she had grabbed Him, announced before all of the people even how she was immediately healed. 48 And He said to her “Daughter, your faith has preserved you, go in peace.”

Preservation, or salvation, can refer at times to the body in this life as well as to the spirit in the life to come, depending upon the context of the passage where it is used. Calling the woman “daughter”, whom He did not know personally, Yahshua discretely asserts Himself to be Yahweh our Father.

Once the woman is healed, the narrative returns to the healing of the daughter of Iahiros.

49 While He was speaking someone comes by the assembly hall leader saying that “Your daughter has died. Trouble the Teacher no longer.” 50 But hearing it Yahshua replied to him “Fear not, only have faith, and she shall be preserved.”

Once again, preservation, or salvation, at times refers to preservation of the body in this life.

51 And coming into the house He did not allow anyone to enter with Him except Petros and Iohannes and Iakobos, and the father and the mother of the child. 52 And all were weeping and mourning her, and He said: “Do not weep. For she has not died, but is sleeping.” 53 And they were deriding Him, knowing that she had died.

Evidently they were mourning the girl by holding what we may call a wake. In the account as it was related by Matthew Yahshua's initial words to the crowd were more pointed, where it is reported that He said “Withdraw! For the child has not died, but sleeps!”

54 Then grasping her hand He cried aloud, saying “Child, arise!” 55 And her spirit returned and immediately she stood up, and He commanded to give for her to eat. 56 And her parents were astonished, and He instructed them to say nothing of what happened.

Matthew 11: “5 The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.”

The resurrection of the dead before the passion of Christ, before the dispensation of the Holy Spirit in Acts, the return of the spirit to a girl who had never heard the gospel, all of this is further evidence that the traditional Baptist view of these things which we have seen described here last Saturday is wrong. For there is the spirit of Man imparted to our race which is an image of God, and that spirit survives after death regardless of its relationship to the gospel when a person dies. Then there is the Spirit of God Himself, and as Paul says in Romans 8:16, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God”, we meaning the children of Adam, and not some satanic rebel angels who are wrongly supposed by Baptists and Dualists alike to be in heaven unto this day.