Biblical Commentary

The Prophecy of Zechariah – Part 2, Jesus and Satan

Presenting the first two chapters of Zechariah, we saw that the prophet began writing around the start of the building of the second temple in the days of Zerubbabel, about 520 BC. While his prophecy had a meaning with an immediate application in his own time, regarding the building of the temple, it also has far-reaching implications related to the very purpose of the 70-weeks kingdom, which is what we call Judaea as it was in the inter-testamental period. We hope to further establish the proofs of that assertion here, presenting Zechariah chapter 3.

This period which we prefer to describe as the 70-weeks kingdom, from another prophecy which describes it in Daniel chapter 9, is also referred to as the second temple period. However that label is not quite accurate. According to Ezra, the second temple took only four years to build. The temple of the time of Christ was actually the third temple, Herod’s temple, as the second temple was rebuilt from the foundations up. That is how the Judaean historian Flavius Josephus described it, and the building of that third temple is mentioned in John chapter 2 where it is said that the project took 46 years to complete.

The Prophecy of Zechariah – Part 1, Visions Near and Far

The writing of the book of Zechariah the prophet can be dated rather accurately to begin about 520 BC, during the reign of the Persian king known as Darius the Great. Zechariah was one of three post-captivity prophets whose writing we have in our Bibles. The others are Haggai and Malachi. According to Haggai himself, the written records of his prophecy were initiated just over two months before those of Zechariah, at the very beginning of the sixth month in the second year of Darius. While the book of Malachi is not dated, from internal evidence it was clearly written some time after both Haggai and Zechariah, as the Levitical priesthood which was reestablished in the time of the first two second-temple prophets was being corrupted in the time of Malachi. Therefore Malachi may have been written as late as the events described in Ezra chapters 9 and 10, and possibly even later.

As we more fully demonstrate in an article at Christogenea entitled Notes Concerning Daniel's 70 Weeks Prophecy, the mission of Nehemiah preceded that of Ezra by many decades. The first captives, unrecorded by Scripture, may have returned to Jerusalem some time after 539 BC, when Cyrus had conquered Babylon. Evidently, some time during this period, some rebuilding in Jerusalem may have begun but was never completely finished. Cambyses, the son and successor of Cyrus who ruled from 529 to 522 BC, was a difficult man. Upon complaints from the Samaritans and others, he had ordered any building activity at Jerusalem to cease. This was recorded by Flavius Josephus. After Cambyses had died from a wound in battle, Darius became King of Persia, in 522 or 521 BC, and by 520 the rebuilding in Jerusalem had commenced. The opening verses of Haggai the prophet records that the temple was rebuilt at this very time.

Paul’s Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 3: The Faith is not for All (οὐ γὰρ πάντων ἡ πίστις)

In his first epistle to the Thessalonians Paul had discussed the persecution of Christians by those Jews who stood in opposition to the Gospel of Christ. In the last chapter of that epistle he mentioned the promise of the ultimate destruction of those enemies of Christ. Here in his second epistle Paul has elaborated on that very theme, and has more accurately identified the nature of those enemies whom he had mentioned in the first letter, “those who killed both Prince Yahshua and the prophets, and banished us, and are not pleasing to Yahweh, and contrary to all men”, as he had described them in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2.

Here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul has explicitly stated that, as he was writing this epistle, that apostasy had already come, that there was already a “man of lawlessness”, which he characterized as the “son of destruction”, operating “in accordance with the operation of the Adversary”, or Satan. We know that this was Paul’s intended meaning because, as we have explained at length, while he described these things he had used present tense verbs, verbs which describe presently occurring phenomena, as well as aorist tense verbs describing actions which were already initiated relative to that presently occurring phenomena.

The grammar of Paul’s statements do not permit one to imagine that the men and actions which he had described would materialize at some point far off in the future. Using present tense verbs, Paul was speaking of someone who already at his own time was “opposing and exalting himself above everything said to be a god or an object of worship, and so he is seated in the temple of Yahweh, representing himself that he is a god.”

Paul’s Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 2: Satan Revealed

The writing of book of Zechariah the prophet can be dated rather accurately to begin about 520 BC, during the reign of the Persian king known as Darius the Great. On the surface, the subject of Zechariah’s prophecy appears to be the rebuilding of Jerusalem in Judaea, as it is presented at the time of the building of the second temple where there is also an actual high priest with the name of Joshua. His is the same name, in its common Medieval English form, as Joshua the son of Nun from the time of Moses. But it is also the same name as the personal name of Yahshua the Messiah, who is more commonly known as Jesus Christ. Zerubbabel is also mentioned in Zechariah’s prophecy, several times in chapter 4. His name means sown in Babel, or Babylon, and he was the governor of Jerusalem at the time of the return of the remnant and the building of the second temple.

While the immediate subject in Zechariah appears to be Jerusalem in Judaea, that is not at all the ultimate purpose of the prophecy. Such is the nature of dual prophecies, that they are given in a manner which has both an immediate application and an ultimate meaning, The ultimate purpose of these early chapters of the prophecy of Zechariah is to describe the reconciliation of the people of Israel in their dispersions, the condition of their true High Priest before their sins are removed, and the propitiation which that Priest, Yahshua Christ, makes on their behalf. Joshua, the high priest of Zechariah’s time, is only a type for Yahshua Christ. Jerusalem, the actual city, is only a type for the true Jerusalem, the City of God come down from heaven, and the rebuilt temple is a type for the restored Body of Christ found in those of His people who are willing to hearken in obedience to Him.

Many little details and much of the seemingly innocuous language which Paul of Tarsus used in his epistles actually serves to sew together the historic context of the Old Testament with the stated purpose of the Gospel. Denominational Christians remain ignorant, not even conceiving what Paul had actually meant by many of the statements which he had made. So while it may seem that we often spend an inordinate amount of time on paltry details, those details are as necessary to a firm understanding of Scripture as each of ten thousand little nails are to the structural integrity of a house.

Paul’s Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 1: The Righteousness of God

As we had demonstrated from the circumstances provided in 1 Thessalonians 3:6 when compared with Acts 18:5, where it says “And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ”, Paul had written the first epistle to the Thessalonians shortly after he began to preach the Gospel in Corinth. Timothy and Silas were originally sent to Thessalonika by Paul from Athens, and they were evidently reunited with Paul in Corinth, as we are informed in Acts 18:5, where they reported to him the state of the Christian assembly in Thessalonika, as we are informed in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. It was that report, along with apparent inquiries that the Thessalonians had made of Paul, which had given him the motivation to write that first epistle to the Thessalonians.

The opening comments to tonight’s program were based on a topic posted at the Christogenea Forum.

Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 5: The Rapture of the Wicked.

Presenting the end of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, we discussed the supposed Rapture of the Saints, and discovered that Paul never really described such a Rapture at all. Rather, he was poetically depicting some of the events as he perceived that they shall take place at the Second Advent of the Christ, in relation to the resurrection of the dead and the regathering of the people of God. Many denominational Christians expecting a so-called Rapture expect to be lifted up into the heavens and into the clouds at any given moment, which is a childishly ridiculous fantasy.

We pointed out that by writing “clouds”, Paul was very likely only referring to throngs, just as he used the word for cloud in Hebrews chapter 12. We also showed that where the King James Version has the words “caught up”, the literal meaning is more properly carried off. In part, a more practical reading of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 may read “Then we, the living who are remaining, at once with them shall be carried off in throngs for a meeting...” But this is not all.

We also elucidated the fact that where Paul spoke of a meeting “in air”, or “in the air”, he was not talking about the sky or the heavens, since in the Gospels wherever the sky is referred to the Greek word is οὐρανός, or heaven, and not ἀήρ, or air. We argued that everywhere the phrase “birds of the air” is mentioned in the New Testament, the word is οὐρανός, which is otherwise usually translated as heaven in the King James Version. If the οὐρανός is the abode of the birds, then by saying ἀήρ Paul could not have been referring to the sky. Here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 the word for air is ἀήρ, not οὐρανός, so using it Paul did not intend to refer to the abode of the birds. Rather, he was referring to the physical world, as opposed to the spiritual, using the word just as he had used it in a reference to Satan, the prince of this world, as the “prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians chapter 2.

Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 4: The Rapture of the Saints?

So far in our presentations of Paul’s first epistle to the Thessalonians we have seen Paul express to his readers that their acceptance and conduct in the Gospel of Christ was itself an assurance that they were indeed the elect of God. We took that opportunity to discuss some of the history establishing that these Thessalonians, like the other recipients of Paul’s epistles, had descended from the Israelites of the Old Testament. Then where Paul had discussed the persecutions which the Christians of both Judaea and Thessalonika as well as the other Christian assemblies had undergone, we took an opportunity to demonstrate that the historicity of the early persecutions of Christians, in the days of Claudius and Nero, was an established historical fact.

Following that, we took the opportunity to demonstrate how Paul’s advice to the Thessalonians which he gives in chapters 3 and 4 of the epistle represented the core of something which in another context we may call Positive Christianity. Doing this, we demonstrated that Paul’s exhortations in Christ had certainly represented ideas which are fully amenable to the preservation of our race and of our White Christian nations. Doing this we also hope to have demonstrated that the things which Paul had advised were things which only Jews, who are the eternal enemies of Christ, could possibly oppose. Therefore by opposing true Christianity one is actually taking sides with the devil, and by attacking true Christians one is doing the handiwork of the Jews, something which the pagans of the first centuries of the Christian era had also done.

We took the opportunity to answer secular White Nationalist attacks on Christian Identity throughout this podcast. We hope that it did not interfere to any great extent with our presentation of this portion of Paul's first epistle to the Thessalonians.

Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians, Part 3: Who Opposes True Christianity?

At the beginning of 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul had discussed the persecution which he had suffered in Philippi, where he had been jailed for upsetting certain Roman pagans. They were angry for having lost the prospect of profit they had in their control of a woman who had been taken by a spirit of divination when Paul had exorcised that spirit from her. There we took an opportunity to discuss the persecution of Christians as it was mentioned by the pagan writers Tacitus and Suetonius, and later by the Christian writers Minucius Felix and Tertullian. The point which we wanted to make is that the wide-scale persecution of Christians by both pagans and Jews in the first century is a historical fact that cannot be honestly disputed. This persecution, which is recorded as early as the time of Claudius, was also usually instigated by the Jews.

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.

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 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 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 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 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 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.

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 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.

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 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 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.