Epistles of Paul Audio and Written Bible Commentary


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The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 21, 09-12-2014: Tradition is not Misogyny

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The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 21, 09-12-2014, Romans Chapter 16

I want to begin tonight with a discussion concerning Paul of Tarsus and accusations against him by anti-Christs and so-called “liberal theologians” that he was somehow a misogynist, or a woman-hater. Nothing is further from the truth, except that jews and all those who have accepted their conditioning do not understand the structure of a proper Christian society, which is a patriarchal society, and the reasons which necessitate such a society are indeed Christian. On the other hand, Christians must understand that the so-called liberation of women from the patriarchal society was a goal outlined in the perverse arguments of the Communist Manifesto. It was a jewish goal towards the destruction of God's creation from the very beginning, and it can be traced back to Genesis chapter 3.

The Epistles of Paul - 1 Corinthians Part 1, The Corinthians and Dorian Greek Origins; The Proof of the Anointed

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The Epistles of Paul – 1 Corinthians Part 1

The ancient city of Corinth sat in the Peloponnesus a few miles southwest of the nearly four-mile wide Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow neck of land that connects the Peloponnesus to mainland Greece. The Greek word ἰσθμός means neck, as describing a narrow passage. In the mid-19th century, the Greeks built modern Corinth much closer to the coast of the Adriatic Sea than the ancient city had once stood. The archaeology of the original site of Corinth indicates that there were people settled in the area in very ancient times. However the archaeology also indicates that the site of the city was only sparsely inhabited when the Dorian Greeks first settled there around 900 BC, if indeed it was inhabited at all. Like all Greek cities, myths were developed surrounding its founding, part of which are fascinating and surreal and part of which seem to represent historical facts. Most such myths put the founding of cites in the hands of the gods, the idols of a pagan people, and very often they were also developed for purposes which were political as well as cultural. In any event, the city of Corinth became a notable city among the Greeks by the end of the 8th century BC.

In the 7th century BC Corinth, like other large Greek cities, began to search out other inhabitable lands and to create colonies abroad. Among the more famous of the earliest Corinthian colonies are Arta which was in what is now northern Greece, Epidamnus which was halfway up the coast of modern Albania on the Adriatic Sea, Corcyra and Ambracia which were on islands in the Adriatic Sea to the west of northern Greece, Syracuse which was on Sicily, which became one of the larger and most famous Corinthian colonies, Apollonia in what was later known as Illyria, and Potidaea which was on a peninsula on the far northern coast of the Aegean Sea. The settlement and elements of the early history of these colonies are known from Greek writers themselves. Other tribes of the Greeks, as well as the Phoenicians who also settled diverse parts of Greece, were even more energetic and successful than the Corinthians were in the founding of colonies in these directions, and the Dorian Spartans had various colonies as well.

The Epistles of Paul - 1 Corinthians Part 2, The Folly of the Wisdom of Men

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The Epistles of Paul - 1 Corinthians Part 2

Here we shall briefly review the last few verses which we discussed at the end of our first presentation, beginning with 1 Corinthians chapter 1 at verse 4 where Paul wrote: “4 I thank my God at all times concerning you, in reference to the favor of Yahweh that is being given to you among the number of Christ Yahshua, 5 seeing that in all you have been enriched in Him, in all thought and all knowledge, 6 just as the proof of the Anointed has been confirmed in you, 7 consequently you are not to be wanting in even one favor, anxiously expecting the revelation of our Prince, Yahshua Christ, 8 who will also secure you until fulfillment, void of offense in the day of our Prince, Yahshua Christ.”

In this offering of gratitude to Yahweh Paul briefly mentions three things which reflect ideas that all Israelite Christians should consider to be among the most concrete Christian doctrines: the favor granted to the Christians at Corinth, the “proof of the Anointed”, and the security of that favor until the fulfillment, when the Corinthian Christians would be found “void of offense”.

Discussing the favor which was being bestowed by Yahweh God upon these Corinthians Christians, we cited passages from Jeremiah chapters 30 and 31 which demonstrate that such favor was a matter of prophecy and was promised by Yahweh to the children of Israel. This is explicit in Jeremiah 30:2 where it says: “Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.”

We then explained that the “proof of the Anointed” is manifest in the return of the children of Israel to Yahweh their God upon their hearing the Gospel, as prophesied in those same chapters of Jeremiah, and also in Isaiah chapters 49, 53 and 54. When we reach verse 13 of 1 Corinthians chapter 1 here, we shall indeed see verification for our interpretation of Paul's use of the phrase ὁ χριστός, or “the Anointed” as a reference to the body of Christians collectively as well as where it refers to Christ Himself.

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

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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 4: The Eternal Spirit of the Adamic Man

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We were informed that the original recording suffered some unexpected whitespace, and we replaced it with a recording of our own making on Sunday evening (approximately 7:30 PM Eastern US time and after 336 downloads). We apologize for any inconvenience. - William Finck

The Epistles of Paul - 1 Corinthians Part 4: The Eternal Spirit of the Adamic Man

In our presentation of 1 Corinthians chapter 2 we saw that in Paul's writings the phrase mystery of God does not mean to identify a mystery about God but rather it pertains to what God had announced in the prophets concerning that which He would do with His people Israel. This idea is encapsulated by Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 in his expression in verses 7 and 9, omitting the parenthetical remarks of verse 8, that “... we speak wisdom of Yahweh, that had been hidden in a mystery, which Yahweh had predetermined before the ages for our honor … just as it is written, 'Things which eye did not see, and ear did not hear, and came not into the heart of man, those things Yahweh has prepared for them that love Him'”. With this we may indeed perceive that this mystery which Paul refers to relates not to God, but to His plan for His people. Accompanied with that concept, we also saw that the spiritual things of Yahweh are revealed to us by His Word. Further supporting this assertion is the very next verse of that chapter, verse 10, where Paul explained that the things God has in store for His people are revealed to them through His Spirit, in concert with the Word of God found in Zechariah chapter 7, where it quite notably refers to “the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets”.

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

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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 6: The Judgement of the Saints

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The Epistles of Paul - 1 Corinthians Part 6: The Judgment of the Saints

While discussing 1 Corinthians chapter 5 last week, although in that chapter Paul himself did not state anything explicit in regard to worldly governments, we noted the historical fact that Christians are powerless to execute the laws of Yahweh their God under the beast governments in which they have been and in which they are even now held as captives. Paul did explain the function of the worldly governments in the plan of God in Romans chapter 13. Studying Paul's ministry and epistles, it is evident that the epistle to the Romans represents much of Paul's most fundamental teaching, since he had not yet been to Rome when he wrote that epistle. But since Paul had already spent a year and a half with these Corinthians, which we see in Acts chapter 18, and since after he departed from Corinth he had written to them at least one epistle before this one, which we may see here in 1 Corinthians 5:9, we can rather safely assume that the Corinthians understood the things which Paul had also written to the Romans. This is especially true since, as Paul tells them in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, he had already “spake all things to [them] in truth”, indicating that he had already taught the Corinthians the fundamental aspects of the Gospel and the prophets that he was obligated to teach them.

Christians in the Roman empire were in a position whereby they could not execute the judgments of the laws of Yahweh their God. Examining the history of the children of Israel and their relationship to Yahweh through the prophets we should note that this was an aspect of their own punishment, and that the Christians in Israel would have to suffer it along with the sinners in Israel. The whole Society being under the power of Satan, as the apostle John tells us rather explicitly, Christians were being taught to come out from the Society, meaning not to engage with the Society and its sin, while at the same time having to coexist with the Society. For this reason, the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus wrote that Christians were incendiary, and that they had anti-social tendencies.

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

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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 8: Marriage and Divorce

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The Epistles of Paul - 1 Corinthians Part 8: Marriage and Divorce

While Paul of Tarsus discusses several things which open up for us other avenues of interest which merit attention, here in our presentation of 1 Corinthians chapters 6 and 7 we have made it a point to illustrate the Biblically Christian definitions of marriage, fornication and adultery. Doing this, we hope to have established that the term fornication describes race-mixing as well as prostitution and other forms of illicit sexual activity, such as sodomy. We also hope to have established that adultery is the violation of the marriage of another, however for an Israelite adultery is also the violation of the marriage covenant which Yahweh God has with the children of Israel, and therefore race-mixing can also be considered as adultery in that context, as it is so frequently found in the words of the holy prophets. One example is given in Numbers chapter 36, where it says “7 So shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe: for every one of the children of Israel shall keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.” These definitions may be contested by the water-carriers for the denominational sects, but they have been established from Scripture and they certainly should not cause controversy within Christian Identity circles.

However what we have established from Scripture as marriage broaches a topic which can be controversial even within Christian Identity circles, and we perceive that is mostly because of the attachment which even the finest men and women have for the societal constructs to which they are accustomed. There are many Christians who would insist that marriage happens at an altar. The only marriages which happened at altars in the ancient [Hebrew] world were those which had occurred in the temples of Baal, and they were very likely instances of fornication rather than marriage. Likewise, there are Christians who would insist that marriage happens upon an exchange of vows before witnesses. However while that may be one way to express ones commitment to a marriage, it is not the marriage itself, as we shall see here in the second part of our presentation of 1 Corinthians chapter 7, when we encounter verse 36.

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

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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.

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