The Epistles of Paul - 1 Corinthians Part 3: The Mystery of Yahweh God.

1 Corinthians chapter 1 ends as Paul compares worldly wisdom, which is doomed to fail, with the wisdom of God which is far better than that of man. Paul explains that although the Gospel of God is folly to man, the wisdom of man shall be destroyed, and has already been made to look foolish in the account of the Christ. In many respects the humanist philosophies OF were comparable to those of modern times, and the religious authorities were just as humanistic as those of today. So while the world thinks that Christians are fools, in reality Christians should see that those who are worldly are the true fools. As David wrote in two of his Psalms, numbered 14 and 53, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.”

The first ministry of Paul of Tarsus in Corinth lasted over 18 months (Acts 18:11) until the Judaeans attempted to persecute him by charging him before the Roman proconsul Gallio. After the persecution had failed, Paul continued in Corinth for an additional but indeterminate period, which Luke describes only as “many days” (Acts 18:18). The end of Paul's ministry in Corinth having coincided with the term of the proconsul Gallio can therefore be dated to 51-52 AD from an inscription discovered at Delphi in Greece and first published in 1905 which is called the Gallio Inscription. The inscription represents part of a letter from the emperor Claudius concerning Gallio himself, which was written in 52 AD. After departing Corinth Paul spent three years in Ephesus (Acts 19, cf. vv. 10, 22, Acts 20:31) and after that passing through Macedonia he once again returned to Greece, where he spent another three months. By Greece, as the text records in Acts 20:2, it can be told from Paul's epistles that Corinth was where he spent at least a part of those three months. This first epistle to the Corinthians was written from Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:8, 19), and the second was written as Paul was en route from Macedonia to Corinth for his final visit there (2 Corinthians 1:8, 15-16, 23, 9:4, 11:9).

Paul's departure from Ephesus seems to have been imminent when he wrote this epistle, where he said “I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost” at 1 Corinthians 16:8. If Paul was tried before Gallio in 52 AD, then with the intervening travels and three years in Ephesus he very likely may have written this epistle in the early part of 56 AD. Therefore here in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul is recollecting his long ministry there which had ended approximately four years before this letter was written.

The Epistles of Paul - 1 Corinthians Part 5: Delivering Sinners to Satan

Discussing 1 Corinthians chapter 4 in the last segment of our presentation of this epistle, we saw that Paul made an analogy of himself to a skilled architect, laying the foundation of Christ wherever he went with the expectation that others would come and build upon that foundation after him, thereby further edifying the Christian assembly. As we also pointed out, Peter made a similar analogy by comparing the members of the body of Christ to living stones, Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone of His ekklesia.

At the same time Paul also made an analogy of himself to a planter, and of Apollos to one who waters, indicating that the various servants of Christ had differing abilities and differing roles in tending to the assembly of Christ. However in our discussion we did not elaborate on how Paul had concluded this analogy, so we will do so here. Paul said that “6 I have planted, Apollos has watered, but Yahweh has given increase. 7 So that neither he who is planting is anybody, nor he who is watering, but Yahweh who is making to grow.”

The denominational religious organizations, which we can hardly call Christian, have done everything that they can to pull wolves, dogs and pigs into the sheepfold, thereby scattering the sheep – when they are not at first devoured. Yet Identity Christians should not seek to emulate the fishermen, for the period of fishing is over. Rather, Identity Christians seek to emulate the hunters of the prophecy of Jeremiah chapter 16, where the Word of Yahweh says “15 But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. 16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.” The lost sheep of the tribes of Israel had wandered over every hill, as Ezekiel chapter 34 describes, and it is the Christian duty to seek them. Those who find them are regathering the sheep, as the Gospel of Christ commands. Of course, only Identity Christians produce the historical, linguistic and archaeological studies necessary in order to dig the children of Israel out of the holes of the rocks, so that they may be identified in the world of today.

The Epistles of Paul - 1 Corinthians Part 7: Marriage and Fornication

(The audio file links were broken for most of the first week that the program was posted. We apologize for the inconvenience. UPDATE: On August 18, 2021 it was noticed that the file was missing from the server. Now it has been replaced from a backup.)

In our last presentation of Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, discussing the first half of chapter 6, we elaborated upon the Biblical concepts of marriage, adultery and fornication. We did this so that we could offer a better understanding of the nature of the sins of adultery and fornication. Denominational sects confound the definitions of these sins. Some of them claim that fornication is idolatry. However here in verse 9 we saw that fornication and idolatry were distinguished. These denominations evidently seek to disguise the fact that among the acts which the Bible calls fornication is the act of miscegenation, or race-mixing.

Other denominations define fornication as being a sexual relationship outside of marriage, and they do that so that they can control the rite of marriage. Biblical marriage happens in the act of an Adamic man and an Adamic woman joining themselves together and consummating the union in a sexual relationship. Three Old Testament witnesses are Rebekah, Leah and Bathsheba, but there are others as well. That will also become apparent as we proceed to chapter 7 of this epistle. In truth, there is no such thing as a sexual union outside of marriage, because if a man is having a sexual relationship with a woman, unless the woman is being raped then they are either married upon the committing of the act, or they are committing adultery when the act is performed. There are no other Biblical choices.

Then there is adultery. We often hear in Christian Identity circles that adultery is race-mixing, and that is true, but from a Biblical perspective it is not true for the reasons that most Identity Christians may presume. The English word adulterate does bear the meaning of mingling something with a foreign substance. But there is no indication in Scripture that the original Hebrew word had that same meaning. We do see in Scripture, as we cited several witnesses, that a man can commit adultery with the wife of a man of his own tribe, so adultery is not only race-mixing and the common use of the term is correct in that basic sense in which it is generally understood. The Greek term, μοιχεία (Strong's # 3430) is related to a verb which means to mix. The Greeks used that verb which means to mix, μίγνυμι, to describe men of mixed race, or mongrels. However the Greeks used μοιχεία even of an illicit relationship between a man and his brother's wife, or a man and his neighbor's wife, where it becomes evident that to the Greeks such mixing signified even a confusion of family lines within a race.

Fornication is race-mixing, defined as the pursuit of strange flesh according to the apostle Jude. Paul agrees in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. But fornication also describes other illicit sexual acts, as we see in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 that Paul used it to describe the man who bedded his father's wife. Of course, fornication is also whoredom, and the words from which the term is translated literally refer to prostitution, although they were not always used in that manner by the Greeks. Adultery is an illicit sexual union with the wife of another. But in the Old Testament when the children of Israel joined themselves to anyone outside of the bounds of their covenant relationship with Yahweh they were committing adultery against Him because He commanded that they remain separate, with narrow and specific instructions as to when or whether those of other nations may join to them. Because they were also, either literally or metaphorically, selling themselves to other nations and races outside of His covenant they were also committing fornication. (See the July, 2010 podcast at Christogenea entitled Adultery and Fornication.)

The Epistles of Paul - 1 Corinthians Part 9: License and Licentiousness

In 1 Corinthians chapter 7 Paul addressed certain issues relating to marriage, beginning his discourse with the words “now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me”. There it was evident that the Corinthians had written Paul for advice concerning marriage, ostensibly because the assembly at Corinth was undergoing the trial of persecutions, something which is passed over by many commentators but which is certainly evident in Paul's words found at verses 26 and 28 of that chapter. Here it is evident that as the topic changes from marriage to idolatry, Paul continues to address issues for which the Corinthians had enquired of him. Paul addresses this topic of idolatry, with several digressions for other things which he was compelled to discuss, through chapter 11 of this epistle. Then in chapter 12 he moves on to other things which the Corinthians had evidently asked him about in their letter to him. So for 4 chapters here, 8 through 11, Paul addresses certain aspects of proper Christian deportment in relation to the idolatry of Greco-Roman society, and in relation to Christian license and un-Christian licentiousness. Paul uses himself as an example., and also in turn makes an example of the assembly. While some of the circumstances have changed, we shall see that Paul's discussion is every bit as relevant today as it was in his own time.

8:1 Now concerning things offered to idols we know, (because all the knowledge we have, the knowledge inflates, but love builds. 2 If one supposes to have known anything [P46 wants “anything”], not yet does he know according as there is need to know.

From the word because, Paul begins a parenthetical remark which ends with verse 3. While we do not frequently note or even refer to the published Bible commentaries, Matthew Henry very succinctly and appropriately wrote on the first verse here that “There is no proof of ignorance more common than conceit of knowledge.” Paul is not saying, as he is sometimes misinterpreted, that he or his readers have all knowledge, but instead he is referring to the body of whatever knowledge each individual among them may possess. One must be careful not to allow the ego to become inflated by reason of what one knows, or by what one imagines himself to know.

The Epistles of Paul - 1 Corinthians Part 11: Israel According to the Flesh.

It can be imagined that if Paul of Tarsus had sat down and wrote a book explaining the Biblical and historical foundations of his Christian teachings, and why he had taken the Gospel of Christ exclusively to the nations of Europe and Anatolia, that the introductory chapter of that book may include some of this very language found here in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, but it would also include the language found in Romans chapters 4 and 9, and then in Hebrews chapter 8. Many of the most notable nations of Europe as they were at the time of Paul of Tarsus had consisted of and were even founded by the descendants of the children of Israel of the Old Testament. Paul's epistles explicitly state as much, and the literal interpretations of those statements are dismissed or even mocked by the so-called scholars of today. This concept is indeed consistent with all Biblical teaching as well as archaeology and the classical histories, and it only sounds fantastic to modern men, men who are conceited in their worldly knowledge, because this concept is not taught in worldly schools. That, however, is not the fault of Paul of Tarsus, because it certainly should be taught.

The poet Homer, the most famous and usually considered to be the earliest of the great Greek epic poets, was writing not long before 600 BC. In his epics, however, Homer was not describing the world of his own time. Rather, Homer was attempting to describe the world and its inhabitants as he believed that they existed in a time 600 years before his own, when the Trojan War was fought. The Greek historian Thucydides and others help to supply the chronology. For such reasons, Homer spoke of the Phoenicians often, but never mentioned their most famous city, Tyre. According to Flavius Josephus, the building of Tyre and its rise to fame began about 240 years before the building of Solomon's temple. If such a statement is accurate, and there is no reason to doubt it, then it totally vindicates Homer's omission of Tyre from his accounts. That is one example. Homer also omitted any mention of Dorians in Greece, or even in Europe, except that he names them as one of the tribes inhabiting the island of Crete. By all Greek accounts, the Dorians invaded the Peloponnesus and displaced the Danaans from much of Greece about two generations after the Trojan War, or not long before 1100 BC. The great kings of the Bible, David, Solomon and Hiram of Tyre, had not yet been born.

The Epistles of Paul - 1 Corinthians Part 13: Communion, Ritual vs. Reality

Continuing our discussion of this first epistle to the Corinthians, we must keep in mind that ever since the beginning of chapter 7 of the epistle Paul of Tarsus has been responding to specific questions which the assembly in Corinth had previously composed to him. So in chapter 7 he discusses with them the risks of marriage in a time of persecution, and then in chapter 8 the daily coexistence of Christians in a pagan world. Paul then addressed matters concerning the conduct of his own ministry in chapter 9, and then in chapter 10 he turned back to the discussion of idolatry.

In each of these discussions we gain important insights into Paul's own Christian worldview, in things such as how he defined marriage, divorce and fornication, and how he esteemed Christian license under the New Covenant, giving the procurement of food from pagan sources as an example of the bounds and resolution of Christian disagreements. Then Paul offered the conduct of his own ministry as an example for others, that continence and subjection of the fleshly will are of the utmost importance because men must subject themselves to Christ, and especially those men who are proclaiming Christ.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul more or less continued the discussion from chapter 8, concerning idolatry, the tables of demons, and the bounds of Christian communion. Paul attested that idolatry was the worship of demons, and we illustrated that his words in Colossians chapter 2 concerning the worship of angels were related to this statement, while also citing the corroborating Enoch literature and the writings of the contemporary Qumran sect in order to show that the sins of the so-called fallen angels were related to these demons, which are also the spirits of bastards. In Psalm 96, in verse 5, we may read from the King James Version that “all the gods of the nations are idols”. However in the Septuagint version of the Psalm we find that “all the gods of the nations are devils”, or demons, and therefore we find agreement with Paul in a version of the Old Testament closer to the one which he himself had used.

Tonight will not be one of my longer presentations, but only because for the most part I wanted to limit the discussion to this one topic, while at the same time not beating it to death. The subtitle of tonight's presentation is Christian Love, and I am certain we all have our favorite passages to quote in relation to that topic. The children of Israel have yet to practice that Christianity which is found in absolute brotherly love on any great scale, yet it is one of the lessons of history that they must learn before perfecting their obedience to Christ. However misguided love probably does greater harm to the children of Israel than practically any other sin, especially since misguided love leads them into blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and to their very own demise.

The Epistles of Paul - 1 Corinthians Part 15: Christian Love

In 1 Corinthians chapter 11 Paul of Tarsus had turned from addressing aspects of Christian deportment in the pagan world to addressing aspects of Christian deportment within the assembly of Christ itself. However it must be remembered that from chapter 7 of this epistle Paul continues to address subjects which the Corinthians had inquired of him. For that reason Paul's discussions of these topics are not as complete as they may have been if he had intended to write essays explaining them, but instead they are based upon things about which the Corinthians had questions in relation to the things which they had already been taught. Therefore it is necessary to have a thorough understanding of all preceding Scripture before one may understand Paul, because Scripture is Paul's authority and the guide for Paul's worldview. Additionally, it is necessary to understand as much of Paul's own letters as possible, because his letters as a whole are a reflection of his study of Scripture as well as his reception of the Gospel. No one statement by Paul can forcibly be interpreted as if to conflict with either the balance of his own writings or with the Holy Writ. If one has such an interpretation of anything which Paul wrote, one must reconsider it, rather than unwittingly projecting one's own hypocrisy onto Paul of Tarsus.

The Epistles of Paul - 1 Corinthians Part 17: Resurrecting Adam

Among the major points of discussion over the first 6 chapters of Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians was the division among the members of the assembly because apparently many individuals were opting to follow different personalities, choosing favorite apostles, rather than committing themselves to following Christ. Another point of discussion was the fornicator of 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and the action which the assembly is required to take in such instances in order to preserve its own integrity. In regard to this, in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 Paul illustrated how Christians should judge among themselves according to the judgment of God, rather than turning to worldly courts and the judgment of men.

Then for 8 more chapters of this epistle, Paul answered the questions posed to him in a letter by members of the assembly for which he had written this epistle as a response. Therefore Paul discussed things such as marriage and virginity in an age of persecution, Christian survival in a world of pagan idolatry, he answered questions concerning the conduct of his own ministry in Christ, and then he offered a lengthy discussion of general Christian deportment. In that last discussion, Paul spoke of how Christians should behave towards one another in their assemblies, how they should love and care for and esteem one another above themselves, and about the various gifts which God grants to men and how they should be dispensed, whether they be spiritual gifts or carnal gifts.

Now, beginning the closing of his epistle, Paul summarizes the purpose of the Gospel and its ultimate promise, which is a resurrection from the dead for all of the children of Adam.