Commentary on the Gospel of John, in text and audio


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On the Gospel of John, Part 1: The Word Made Flesh

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On the Gospel of John, Part 1: The Word Made Flesh

Christianity is Divine Truth which stands opposed to worldly philosophies. Therefore the LOGOS cannot be described in accordance with worldly philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. Anyone who attempts to do so, fails miserably.

Here we shall endeavor a presentation and commentary of the Gospel of John. This Gospel is unlike any of the others, which parallel one another in many ways and which are for that reason called the Synoptic Gospels. None of the writers of these other gospels were witnesses to the entire ministry of Christ, and therefore they also relied on accounts provided by others, in whole or in part. Before discussing John, we shall explain this briefly, but we must warn that the documentation or reasoning which supports these brief explanations is found throughout our other commentaries, and we can not repeat it all here. We will, however, see some of our evidence in the words of the early Christian writers as we cite them in our discussion of John.

On the Gospel of John, Part 2: The Light of the World

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On the Gospel of John, Part 2: The Light of the World

Introducing our presentation of the Gospel of John in the opening segment of this series, we gave evidence from the earliest post-apostolic Christian writers, the so-called Church Fathers, and from the texts of those books of our Bibles which are attributed to John, which is sufficient to demonstrate that one and the same John the apostle – the young man who of all the apostles had been closest to Christ – was indeed the author of the Revelation, the first epistle of John, and this Gospel. There was also circumstantial evidence given to help establish that John was indeed the author of the two shorter epistles which have been attributed to him from the earliest times.

Here we shall offer a brief summary of our discussion. Little is known of the life of John after the early chapters of Acts, and he last appears in Scripture in Jerusalem in 47 AD, in the events which are recorded in Acts chapter 15 and the early verses of Galatians chapter 2. Later in his life, ostensibly after the deaths of the elder James around 62 AD in Jerusalem and Paul of Tarsus about that same time in Rome, John is in Ephesus where he committed this Gospel to writing. Then during the reign of Domitian, some time after 81 AD John was exiled to Patmos on account of his Christian profession, which is where he received the Revelation. After the death of Domitian in 96 AD, John was able to return to Ephesus. If the Revelation was not already committed to writing, it certainly was after John’s return, which is indicated in the accounts of the early Christian writers. All of John’s three epistles were also written in Ephesus, and very likely around this late time, as John fulfilled the role of an elder and apostle to the Christian assemblies at Ephesus and the neighboring districts. This John had reportedly done until his death some time during the reign of Trajan, which began in 98 and ended in 117 AD. If John were 16 when the ministry of Christ began in 28 AD, he would have been no younger than 86 when he died.

On the Gospel of John, Part 3: The Sons of God

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On the Gospel of John, Part 3: The Sons of God

In the opening portions of this commentary on the Gospel of John, we hope to have sufficiently illustrated from Old Testament Scriptures, as well as from the Revelation and other sources, the meanings of the assertions that Yahshua Christ is the Word made Flesh and the Light come into the World, assertions by which the apostle had poetically and confidently attested that Yahshua Christ was indeed Yahweh God Himself, the God of the Old Testament incarnate as a man, and that He was the true Messenger to man sweeping aside all of the false claims of antiquity. So we saw that John, attesting that Christ is the light come into the world, had also made an assertion in reference to Christ which had formerly been claimed by the great kings of antiquity, those of the Hittites, Babylonians, Egyptians and others, who had made that same claim for themselves, even imagining for themselves to be the incarnation of the Sun on earth. Later, in John chapter 12, Christ Himself is recorded as having originated the assertions which John has made for Him here, as the event actually preceded the record.

Then coming to verse 10 of this first chapter of John, we contended with the King James translation of the passage, which reads “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.” The meaning of this passage clearly may have been different in the original understanding of the English of 1611, the word world now having a different meaning. Examining that word world, we came to the conclusion that the word would better be translated as society, since it does not refer to the entire planet and everything on it in the way that it is often interpreted today. There are passages in the classical Greek writings where the word appears in broad contexts and may be interpreted as universe, however that is not necessarily the manner in which it was used in the New Testament, and it was not always the manner in which the classical Greek writers had used the term...

On the Gospel of John, Part 4: The Lamb of God

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On the Gospel of John, Part 4: The Lamb of God

Presenting Part 3 of this commentary on the Gospel of John, which was titled The Sons of God, we gave a full explanation of our translation of John 1:11-13, and we cannot sufficiently stress how important it is to understand the impact which one’s worldview can have upon one’s interpretation of Scripture. I also understand that these presentations may at times be very technical and hard to digest. However we must develop a scholarly basis for a proper understanding of the text before we can even begin to claim to understand the Bible. If one is persuaded by the commonly-accepted interpretations of the Jews concerning the ministry of Christ, then it is easy to accept the King James Version and other popular translations of these verses. So like a lamb being led to the slaughter, one may helplessly be led to believe that the universalist perspective of Scripture is true, and that all those who merely profess a belief in Jesus must therefore be accepted as having somehow become “sons of god” by a mere profession of their lips, and as if they could possibly even make that choice on their own.

However that position is actually in direct conflict with Scripture. Christ Himself had said, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 7, that “21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Likewise, the apostle James said that “19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” So we see that mere belief is not enough to somehow make one a child of God, even if it is a belief which is accompanied by “many wonderful works”. But if we believe that every word of God is true, and that the Scriptures do not conflict with themselves, then it is evident that these passages, along with many others found in the gospels, such as the parable of the tares of the field or the statement by Christ concerning plants which Yahweh did not plant, sufficiently indicate that the common interpretations of John 1:11-13 must be wrong.

On the Gospel of John, Part 5: The Focus of the Disciple

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We apologize to the live listeners who did not hear the last 8 minutes of this podcast. Our streaming computer, which has been quite reliable these past few years, suddenly cut off and Windows 10 began updating itself. This behavior is, of course, contrary to the settings which are supposed to preclude it from doing that during a live program.

On the Gospel of John, Part 5: The Focus of the Disciple

All four of our Christian gospels are written in a very simple and forthright manner, and they describe very little outside of the interactions of Yahshua Christ with His disciples and the people who He had encountered directly, along with some of His teachings and the miracles which He had done, and, of course, His final clash with the authorities. While sometimes they mention a few significant historical figures or events which relate to the birth and life of Christ or the beginning of His ministry, little is described of the world outside of the immediate Gospel narrative. So there are no deep explanations or descriptions of history or current events, nor is there much concern for the political, economic or social conditions in Judaea or the greater part of the Roman empire.

The disciples of Christ are focused upon Yahweh their God and their own immediate circumstances, putting their trust in God, and evidently they did not care if the king was bombing Syria, or invading Arabia. Now, that may seem like a sarcastic allusion to today’s circumstances, and it certainly is, but there were similar things happening at the time of John the Baptist, and the writers of the gospels and the portrayals of the characters involved in the ministry of Christ had no concern for them at all.

Before continuing, we must have a digression. Herod the Tetrarch, or Herod Antipas, appears often in all of the gospel accounts of the ministry of Christ. He is a son of the first Herod known from Matthew chapter 2 at the birth of Christ. He is also mentioned in Luke 3:1 as “tetrarch of Galilee”, where we also find another Herod, called Philip, who is called the tetrarch “of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis”. Herod Agrippa I is the Herod of Acts chapter 12. His son Herod Agrippa II is the Agrippa of Acts chapters 25 and 26, and the Bernice mentioned there is the younger Agrippa’s sister, and she is also alleged to have been his wife. The elder Herod Agrippa’s sister is the Herodias of the accounts of the slaying of John the Baptist in the synoptic gospels, and the Herod mentioned there is Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas and Herod Philip were half-brothers, and they had another half-brother, Artistobulus IV, who was the father of the elder Herod Agrippa. All three of the half-brothers had different mothers. Not all writers used the same names consistently for each Herod, so they are very difficult to follow through Scripture and history.

On the Gospel of John, Part 6: The Wedding Feast at Cana

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On the Gospel of John, Part 6: The Wedding Feast at Cana

In John chapter 1 the apostle had made many bold statements proclaiming the deity of Jesus, or Yahshua Christ. The assertions that He is the Word made Flesh, the Light of the World, the Lamb of God, and the declaration of the purpose of the ministry of John the Baptist all assert that Yahshua Christ is indeed Yahweh God incarnate. He is THE Son of God because He is the manifestation of God Himself, as it was promised in the Psalms and the prophets. This is better understood once the many passages from the Old Testament which also refer to these things are examined and considered, even if they were not all explicitly cited by John himself. The New Testament cannot be properly understood outside of the context provided by the Old Testament, and we sought to elucidate many of those passages as we presented John chapter 1 over the first five parts of this series.

The gospels of Luke and Matthew open with accounts of certain events from the birth and early life of Christ. But in the third chapter of each of those gospels there is the testimony of John the Baptist. The gospel of Mark, similar to that of John, says nothing of the birth or early years in the life of Christ, and opens with the testimony of John the Baptist. So the testimony of John is the event by which all four gospels open their descriptions of the beginning of the ministry of Christ. Doing so, all four gospels cite Isaiah 40:3, attributing the words to John as they are spoken in reference to Christ, where it describes “3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God,” and explains that John the Baptist was that voice. If John was that voice, then Yahshua Christ must be Yahweh incarnate, the God for whom he prepared the way.

Mark, in that first chapter, also cited Malachi 3:1 in reference to John the Baptist, where it says “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.” Yahshua Christ Himself had later cited this also, in reference to John, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 11 and Luke chapter 7. Both of these passages, from Malachi and from Isaiah, are prophecies of John the Baptist and of Yahshua Christ, and if John was the messenger to prepare the way before the Lord (Hebrew, adon) who would come to His temple, then Yahshua Christ is Yahweh Himself, who came to His temple in fulfillment of that prophecy. Once again, if we believe the testimony of Isaiah and Malachi, then Yahshua must be God incarnate.

On the Gospel of John, Part 7: Challenging Orthodoxy

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Our last segment of this series, titled On the Gospel of John, Part 6: The Wedding Feast at Cana, was presented here on July 6th. Now I shall resume with Part 7 before we travel again to East Tennessee in order to attend a League of the South event at Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park on September 29th. Yahweh willing, we will resume the series once more in mid-October, and stay with it through winter, hopefully completing it in early 2019.

On the Gospel of John, Part 7: Challenging Orthodoxy

Before commencing with our presentation and commentary on the Gospel of John, I have a short digression, and this will necessarily lead me to another and much longer digression. In our previous portions of this commentary I explained that some of the disciples of Yahshua Christ had at first been disciples of John the Baptist, and that they, namely Andrew the brother of Simon Peter and John himself, the author of this gospel, had sought Christ immediately after John the Baptist had declared Him to be the Lamb of God. Upon attaching themselves to Him, they introduced to Him Simon Peter. Immediately after that the small group returned to Galilee where Philip, Nathanael and the others – such as the younger James, the brother of John – were also introduced to Him. These opening chapters of the Gospel of John are the earliest records of the development of the association of Christ with His apostles.

Since our last presentation, which discussed the marriage feast recorded in John chapter 2, I was confronted by a friend who claimed that both John and James, the sons of Zebedee, were known to Yahshua Christ even before that, where he asserted that the Salome who is mentioned in the Crucifixion account in Mark’s gospel was their mother, and that she was also the sister of Mary the mother of Christ. But these assertions I must reject, since they are taken from apocryphal tales repeated by some or other of the so-called “Church Fathers”, but which are not based upon any Scripture.

On the Gospel of John, Part 8: Origin and Destiny

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On the Gospel of John, Part 8: Origin and Destiny

When on September 21st, I had presented Part 7 of this series and my commentary on the second half of John Chapter 2, I had promised to continue with Part 8 in mid-October, after a short trip to Tennessee. But Yahweh had other plans, and the October 10th hurricane here in Florida disrupted our lives, along with my writing schedule, days after our return. Now that we are finally getting settled into our new home, I pray that I may resume this commentary without any further unplanned interruptions.

Presenting that last portion of John chapter 2, I chose to focus on the theme of Challenging Orthodoxy as we encountered Yahshua Christ confronting the errors of the generally accepted orthodoxy of Judaea in His Own time. I chose to focus on this theme because we ourselves should perceive that the presumably Christian and generally accepted orthodoxy of today is also in error. Here in John chapter 3, as Christ encounters the inquisitive Nicodemus, some of those errors will be brought to light. The so-called Orthodox and Catholic churches have followed the errors of Nicodemus for perhaps 1,800 years, and they refuse the correction which Christ offered to Nicodemus here in the discussion which is recorded in this chapter.

After our last presentation, I was challenged by certain of my acquaintances with the assertion that the major denominations of Christianity could not possibly have been wrong for these last 1,800 years, or perhaps, as they count, 2,000 years. In actuality, as I elucidated in a presentation of the Identifying the “Beast of the Field” series which I recently concluded, at least some scholars from the Orthodox Church itself admit that their doctrines are drawn from the writings of the so-called “Church Fathers” who lived from the 4th century onward, so giving them 1,800 years is actually giving them too much credit. Orthodox so-called Christianity as we know it is really only about 1,600 years old, it was still developing for a few hundred years after the Council of Nicaea, and it is not an orthodoxy of the Christianity which was taught by apostles of Christ.

On the Gospel of John, Part 9: The World of Salvation

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On the Gospel of John, Part 9: The World of Salvation

Ancient Gnostic influences adversely infected early Christianity with wrongful ideas that basic words such as seed, father, son, brother, and house, among others, had other than plain meanings when they appeared in Scripture in the prophets or in the New Testament writings, and modern adherents to the organized church institutions routinely cite those writings without giving thought to the actual and literal meanings of such words. This allowed them to accept another false doctrine, which we shall call replacement theology, because the words of all the prophets and apostles could then be corrupted and imagined to apply to “whosoever”, to anyone other than those who are expressly intended by the Scriptures, so that in that manner, anyone who would comply with the church institutions could be imagined to be a party to the covenants which Yahweh had made with Israel. So it is also with another word, world, which they now imagine refers to the entire planet and to every thing in it, yet that concept is relatively new, and nothing could be further from the truth.

One cannot be a Gnostic, and be a true Christian. In order to be a Christian, and truly accept the Word of God in the Old Testament, which is also manifest in Christ, one must accept the meanings of the words of Scripture as they were understood by the writers of Scripture or by those who had spoken those words when the Scriptures were written. Abraham would never have believed in any so-called “spiritual seed”, but rather he was told that his seed would come out from his loins, from where we may expect it to come. To Isaiah and Jeremiah and the other prophets, a son was a genetic descendant, a brother was a man of shared parentage, seed was the collective of a man’s offspring, a tribe was an extended family unit, a father a male ancestor near or remote, and the words never represented a mere group of disparate and unrelated believers. For example, a man who was a son was a son first, and then whether he was believing and acted accordingly so that he would be entitled to an inheritance was secondary to his being a son.

In many ways, Gnosticism is the true basis of the doctrines of the modern so-called Orthodox or Catholic churches. When they make appeals to their traditions found in their so-called “church fathers”, the true foundation of those traditions is very often found in Gnosticism, and sometimes also in Plato or Aristotle, but certainly not in the Christian Scriptures. When the other Protestant denominations followed the Eastern Orthodox by parting ways with Rome, they nevertheless retained Gnostic concepts as the basis of their faith. So if Identity Christians are criticized, it is because we reject Gnosticism. We believe the words of Scripture according to the meanings which they represented when they were written, and in that manner we truly seek to understand and believe the Word of our God. Doing this, we may also attest that the words of His prophets are manifest both in ancient history and in Christian society as it has existed historically.

On the Gospel of John, Part 10: The Only-Begotten is Not the Only

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On the Gospel of John, Part 10: The Only-Begotten is Not the Only

In our last presentation in this series on the Gospel of John, which was subtitled The World of Salvation, among other things we had discussed were several aspects of the statement of Christ which is recorded in John 3:16. This is a favorite verse of the universalist denominational Christians, but it certainly does not mean what they imagine it to mean. They read this verse as if it says that Yahshua, or Jesus Christ, is the only Son of God, and had come to die in order to save the entire planet and everything, or, at least, everyone, dwelling thereupon. Of course, that is absolutely contrary to the entire body and context of the Scriptures. But with their interpretation of one verse, and only sometimes with imagined support from a couple of other verses, they would negate the entire meaning and value of all of the books of the prophets, as well as the complete substance of the epistles of the apostles and many of the other statements of Christ Himself.

So we began to address this particular passage by explaining that the Greek words translated as world were never intended to describe what we now know as the planet, and that even in the Medieval English of the King James translators, or in the German of Martin Luther, the concept of world did not imply the inclusion of the entire planet and everything on it, as the word is usually understood in modern times.

Now we are going to address another aspect of this passage, which is the use and translation of the Greek term μονογενής (Strong’s # 3439). In its most literal sense it means “only-born”, and it is the word which the King James translators rendered as “only-begotten” in John 3:16. But is that what the Gospel writers really meant to convey when they used the term? This is debatable, but we would rather understand it according to the idiom of the times, and especially its use in the idioms of the Greek Old Testament, where we will find that it was not necessarily used in that literal sense in our Scriptures.

On the Gospel of John, Part 11: Bride and Bridegroom

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On the Gospel of John, Part 11: Bride and Bridegroom

This is the fourth and, for now, the final presentation of our commentary on John chapter 3. In the three previous portions of this series we hope to have discussed adequately the conversation between Yahshua Christ and Nicodemus, the faithful but puzzled pharisee. We also hope to have established the Scriptural basis for what is “born from above”, which is the establishment by Yahweh of the ancient children of Israel into a peculiar and separate people living under His law. We saw that this was stated explicitly in the words of Solomon, in Wisdom chapter 19. However we also hope to have established that in the spiritual sense, the term is applicable to the wider Adamic race by the nature of their original creation, while Solomon used language that invokes the Genesis creation account to describe the establishment of Israel under the law at Sinai as a new aspect of God’s creation. So he wrote, as we may translate the Greek, “6 For the whole creation in its proper kind was fashioned again from above, serving the peculiar commandments that were given to them, that thy children might be kept without hurt.”

Furthermore, we hope to have established that the “world” which Christ had come to save was that very same thing: the once-present and then-future world which had been, and which still is, promised to come of those very same children of Israel. As Solomon had also described in Wisdom chapter 18, the twelve tribes of Israel represented on the breastplate of the high priest are indeed the “world” of our Scriptures. They alone are also “that which was lost”, which Christ had explained that He had come to save at diverse times during His ministry, as it is recorded in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. The one statement in John 3:16-17 where Christ said that “God so loved the world” and that “the world through him might be saved” cannot be interpreted in a manner which conflicts with the other statement which He made where He said that “the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” But any seeming conflict is immediately dissolved once we take note of Solomon’s Wisdom where he attested in chapter 18 that “24 … in the long garment was the whole world, and in the four rows of the stones was the glory of the fathers graven….” The stones represented the twelve tribes of Israel, and they are the “whole world” of the Scriptures.

On the Gospel of John, Part 12: The Parable of the Samaritan Woman

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On the Gospel of John, Part 12: The Parable of the Samaritan Woman

In the later portion of John chapter 3, after the discourse which Christ had with Nicodemus, John, the author of our Gospel, described the baptizing of the people by the disciples of Christ, the contention which John the Baptist was having with certain pharisees about baptism, and then the inquiry which the disciples of John had made concerning the baptizing conducted by the disciples of Christ. He then recorded John the Baptist’s testimony in response to that inquiry, that “a man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven”, which seems to have answered both the query of his disciples and the contention of the pharisees at the same time, and then in a clear reference to Christ he said “28 Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. 29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.”

At this point in time, John did not necessarily know that Yahshua was the Messiah, as we see that later, after John was imprisoned, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 11 and in Luke chapter 7, John had sent disciples to Christ specifically to ask Him that very thing. Rather, at this time John was simply proclaiming that one greater than he was going to come, and that his own purpose was only to make that announcement. Then John made the illustration of the bridegroom to inform his disciples that the one coming after him would have the people flock to him, and that he would be magnified, while John himself was diminished, and therefore that one was the expected Messiah, a role which John himself denied. In that manner, when John’s disciples saw one coming after him who fulfilled that description, they would know that he was the Messiah. But John, once he was in prison, could not see that for himself, so he sent his disciples to ask. So in that last part of John chapter 3, John the Baptist was not necessarily describing what was happening, but rather he was only explaining what was supposed to happen, which is according to the prophecies concerning him in Isaiah chapter 40 and Malachi chapter 3. Of the prophecy, men cannot tell what is going to happen, but can only know what Yahweh God has promised to make happen.

On the Gospel of John, Part 13: A Tale of Two Women

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I began this evening with a short discussion of Ten Years of Christogenea, which is found at the Christogenea Forum.

On the Gospel of John, Part 13: A Tale of Two Women

In our last presentation in this series, discussing the first 20 verses of John chapter 4, we gave some background into the history of Samaria from the time of the Assyrian deportations, in order to show that there were many Persians, Babylonians, Syrians and others who were resettled there by the ancient Assyrians at the height of their empire, and the Judaean historian Flavius Josephus generally referred to these new inhabitants as Cutheans. But, as we showed from the historical accounts of Scripture, there was also a significant number of remnant Israelites who had remained there, who had escaped the Assyrian captivity. Then in addition to these groups, there was also a large number of Levites and Judahites from Jerusalem who had relocated themselves to the area around Gerizim as early as the late 4th century BC, and who by this time could be called Judaeans. Many of these had mixed with the Cutheans, as Josephus had also explained. We also pointed out the fact that on at least a couple of occasions, Josephus certainly seemed to distinguish the inhabitants of Shechem and Gerizim from the peoples whom the Assyrians had imported. Then, around 330 BC, a second temple was built on Gerizim, and from that time a community of Judaeans and proselytes worshipped at Gerizim before that temple fell into disuse, over a period of about two hundred years. But even though the temple was abandoned, it is apparent that both remnant Israelites and the more recently introduced Judaeans had continued to inhabit the area.

Flavius Josephus, describing the period of the rule of John Hyrcanus which began around 130 BC, said that the temple at Gerizim “was now deserted two hundred years after it was built” (Antiquities 13:256), where it is evident that that period of 200 years must have been from the building of that temple to the time of John Hyrcanus. So to us, that also suggests that it was the Maccabees themselves, who were the Levitical high priests at Jerusalem, that had most likely put an end to the worship at Gerizim after their conquest of the area – although Josephus does not state that explicitly. But here in John chapter 4 it is also apparent that at least some of the people around Gerizim, whether descendants of the remnant Israelites or of those Judaeans who relocated there in the 4th century, had continued in the customs of their ancestors.

On the Gospel of John, Part 14: True Signs and Wonders

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On the Gospel of John, Part 14: True Signs and Wonders

In the first two presentations on our commentary on John chapter 4, we had spoken at length about the Samaritan woman, who was certainly a daughter of a remnant of the children of Israel which had escaped destruction or captivity at the hands of the Assyrians, and which had remained in Samaria throughout the seven centuries up to the time of Christ. It is quite possible that her and her kinfolk ultimately became Christians and could have remained in and around Samaria even until after the time that the Muslim hordes invaded and destroyed the Byzantine Christian culture of Palestine in the 7th century AD. However Shechem, and ostensibly, Sychar along with it, was destroyed by the Romans during the Judaean rebellion of 65-70 AD, and in 72 AD Vespasian founded a new city at the site, called after himself, Flavia Neapolis.

We hope to have illustrated how the encounter of Christ with this woman was a sort of parable representative of the ultimate reconciliation of the so-called “lost sheep” of the Northern Kingdom with Yahweh their God, which is indeed the very purpose and need for a Messiah in the first place. We then made several comparisons of aspects of this encounter with that of the later encounter which Christ had with the Canaanite woman, and by that we hope to have illustrated an example of the racial covenant aspect of the New Testament, where one woman had sought and received an earthly blessing but she was nevertheless excluded from communion, while the other woman being an Israelite had sought no blessing yet it was shown that she was fit for eternal life – in spite of the fact that she was apparently even a sinner.

On the Gospel of John, Part 15: The Sabbaths of God

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On the Gospel of John, Part 15: The Sabbaths of God

Thus far in John Chapter 5 we saw Yahshua Christ return once again to Jerusalem, for an unidentified feast, and upon encountering a man who had spent 38 years hoping to be healed of his ailment at the pool called Bethzatha, or perhaps, Bethesda, He healed him and sent him on his way. The Pharisees, seeing the healed man walking away with his cot, chastised him for violating their Sabbath-day regulations. But upon learning why he carried his cot on the Sabbath, the Pharisees sought to know who had healed him, evidently seeing such a healing done on a Sabbath day as an even greater violation of their rules than the carrying of the cot. They were much more concerned for their legalistic views of the law than they were to see such a wonderful miracle where the man was healed after so long a time suffering, so they neglected to even consider the hand of God in his healing. But if Yahweh God was responsible for his healing, then there is a greater purpose for the Sabbaths than what the legalistic Pharisees would want to admit.

On the Gospel of John, Part 16: The Son of Man

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On the Gospel of John, Part 16: The Son of Man

Here we shall once again continue our commentary on the Gospel of John, resuming with our presentation of John chapter 5. The theme where we had left off with our last presentation was The Sabbaths of God, but it may have been called The Sabbath of God. That is because Yahweh God is still in His Own day of rest, as Paul of Tarsus had explained in Hebrews chapters 3 and 4, where he informs us that the children of God still have an opportunity to enter into His rest. However where Yahshua Christ had attested that “My Father labors until now, and I labor”, it becomes apparent that Yahweh has been compelled to occupy Himself during His Sabbath Day’s rest by helping His people Israel, and the greater Adamic race as a whole. For that reason, Yahshua Christ had asserted that He had a moral compulsion to heal His people on the Sabbath, for example where He said as it recorded in Mark chapter 3 “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill?” Therefore all Christians should follow His example.

Furthermore, we had discussed the fact that under the Old Covenant, it was necessary for the Levites to work on the Sabbaths in their service to the people of God, making sacrifices and performing other rituals on their behalf, or acting as porters, singers or musicians in the temple, or conducting the readings of the Scriptures throughout the assemblies. So the priest is one who serves Yahweh God by serving the people of God. We also hope to have demonstrated from the Scriptures that there can be no true Sabbath without obedience to God throughout the rest of the week. The children of Israel who have returned to Yahweh in Christ are a nation of priests, as Peter explained in his first epistle that “you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, so that you should proclaim the virtues for which from out of darkness you have been called into the wonder of His light...” Christians should also seek to keep His commandments, as He had commanded, so if they truly seek to be obedient, only then may they enjoy proper Sabbaths. Enjoying proper Sabbaths, being a nation of priests, they should spend their Sabbaths in service to their people.

On the Gospel of John, Part 17: The Parable of the Feeding in the Wilderness

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On the Gospel of John, Part 17: The Parable of the Feeding in the Wilderness

As it is recorded in John chapter 5, Yahshua Christ had made several bold assertions concerning His Own identity and His mission, and the authority which He had attested was given to Him from God Himself. Believing Christ, His assertions established the fact that He is the prophetic Son of the 2nd Psalm, the appointed Son prophesied by David who would ultimately rule over and judge the nations of the earth, and the very works which He was able to perform proved that His assertions were true. If Yahshua Christ is that Son of the 2nd Psalm, then He must also be the expected Messiah, a Son of Man who would be handed an everlasting kingdom by the Ancient of Days, as it is described in Daniel chapter 7. So it is fitting that God Incarnate referred to Himself as “the Son of Man”. Not believing Christ, His fantastic claims would indeed be seen as blasphemies by the religious authorities of the time. The Judaeans, being more concerned with the keeping of the law as they interpreted it, were blind to the plain truths revealed in the miracles which He was able to perform, and saw Him only as a blasphemer.

Later on in John chapter 5 Christ had asserted that Moses had written about Him, and that if one did not believe Him, then one can not truly believe Moses. Therefore if we are Christians, then what we now know as Judaism is a false religion, having been completely discredited by Christ just as it is discredited by Moses. The words of the prophets prove that Christ is true, and that He is the coming prophet of which Moses had written, as the apostles had also interpreted the words of Moses. In the Book of Daniel it is also written, that Jerusalem would be rebuilt after the destruction of the original city by the Babylonians, and then after a prescribed period of time, the rebuilt city would again be destroyed after the coming of the Messiah.

So if no other Messiah can be identified within that narrow and specific period of time, then Yahshua Christ is indeed the Messiah of Daniel, and He is also the coming prophet of which Moses had written, and the Son of which David wrote in the Psalms. If a man did not believe Christ before 33 AD, he surely should have believed Him by 70 AD, but unfortunately, so far as we can tell from the testimony of Josephus, the fear of the Jews was more than most men could bear, and the truth of the accounts of Christ were heavily suppressed by them throughout Judaea and the east. For this reason also, to this very day the rabbis of the Jews labor to corrupt the plain and historically verifiable interpretation of Daniel chapter 9, and the priests of the modern Judaized so-called churches succumb to their deceptions. In my opinion, it can further help Christians to determine that the Gospels are true when they see the lies which are written about Christ in the Talmud. If the Gospel accounts were not true, and if they did not spread so successfully in spite of the Jews, the Jews would have had no reason to invent such fabulous tales, and devise such horrible slander. They continue doing those same things today.

On the Gospel of John, Part 18: The Parable of the Bread of Life

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On the Gospel of John, Part 18: The Parable of the Bread of Life

So far in our commentary on the Gospel of John, I have asserted that the encounter of Yahshua with the Samaritan woman was a parable, and that the feeding of the multitude in the wilderness was a parable. There are other things which we can claim to be parables, saying that they must stand for something or other, but we may only be offering conjecture. I do not like to conjecture, and hope to always admit if any of my interpretations are mere conjecture. So I must answer the question: why do I interpret certain events in the Gospel as parables? Before answering, it must be said that merely because I would claim that an event is a parable does not mean that the event did not actually occur. According to the writers of the Gospels, Yahshua Christ truly did feed multitudes in the wilderness, which we must believe if we are Christians who in turn must accept the Gospel accounts as being truthful. Yahshua Christ also met with a Samaritan woman, and we must trust that John accurately described the conversation which He had with her.

But if a real-life event in the deeds of Yahshua Christ is also a microcosm of the fulfillment of prophecy; if the event represents an aspect of prophecy being fulfilled, and if at the same time it also foreshadows the overall fulfillment of prophecy as it appears in the Word of Yahweh in the Old Testament, then the event itself is also an allegory representing the assurance that the word of Yahweh will be fulfilled, and therefore it is a sort of parable. So I would assert that the conversation with the Samaritan woman at the time in which it occurred was representative of the future reconciliation of the so-called “lost sheep” of the tribes of ancient Israel to Christ, and the feeding of the multitude in the wilderness was representative of the spiritual feeding of those same “lost sheep” as the apostles of Christ brought His Gospel to the nations of Europe and the Near East, which is where the so-called “lost tribes” were found at that time.

The apostle James did not write his epistle to the “twelve tribes scattered abroad” with any profession or admission that it was really intended for some other people. Paul of Tarsus did not plainly state that the gospel was “the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers… which our twelve tribes… hope to come” with any profession or admission that some other people could possibly attain such a promise. Rather, both James and Paul intended their message for the same “lost sheep” that we read of in the Psalms, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Hosea. Like the Samaritan woman, they are the children of Jacob for whom the message of the Gospel was intended, and according to the Revelation of Christ, it is they who would be fed in the wilderness for “a thousand two hundred and threescore days .” From the time that the Revelation was written, that is very close to the amount of time which it took to convert the entirety of Europe to Christianity.

On the Gospel of John, Part 19: No Friend of the Devil

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On the Gospel of John, Part 19: No Friend of the Devil

In the last two presentations of our commentary on John chapter 6, we explained The Parable of the Feeding in the Wilderness, and The Parable of the Bread of Life, as these events in the ministry of Christ certainly served as allegories for the future impact and effect which His ministry and Gospel would have on the so-called “lost sheep” of the children of Israel, “that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad”, as we may read from the apostle himself in John chapter 11. Those “children of God that were scattered abroad” which John had in mind were certainly not Jews.

Discussing the Parable of the Bread of Life, we criticized the mystical ritual and beliefs which the early Roman Catholic Church had developed as the so-called Sacrament of Holy Communion. Defending this, the Church also defends and attempts to legitimize its professional priesthood, a 4th century novelty which was never mentioned or described by the apostles or the first several generations of early Christian writers. To us, the true Christian sacrament is sacrifice on behalf of one’s brethren, and the true communion is what is shared in common among brethren. So now we shall conclude our commentary on John chapter 6 by first offering our translation and some commentary on 1 Corinthians chapter 11, which is arguably the most significant of the passages upon which the Roman Church had based its ritual.

On the Gospel of John, Part 20: For Fear of the Jews

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On the Gospel of John, Part 20: For Fear of the Jews

How timely it was, that as I wrote this presentation, I learned that Christogenea was mentioned in an ADL report on hate, their favorite word. The anti-Christs are indeed the personification of hate, but Yahweh the God of Israel hates them, and they will have their day soon enough.

In Part 19 of this commentary on the Gospel of John, which we had subtitled No Friend of the Devil, we made a lengthy presentation from Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians hoping to explain where Paul had described not only the true essence of Christian communion, but also the danger of accepting those who are not worthy of communion into Christian fellowships. The ministry of Yahshua Christ is an example for us of that very danger, although within the Provenance of God, it worked to His advantage. Yahshua had given His Bread of Life discourse in an assembly hall in Capernaum, and even His students had a hard time understanding its meaning. So He responded and said “The words which I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life. 64 But some from among you are they who do not believe.” John then inserted a parenthetical remark into his account where he wrote: “For Yahshua knew from the beginning who they who do not believe are, and who it is who shall betray Him.” Next he recorded the conclusion given by Christ Himself where He said: “For this reason I said to you that no one is able to come to Me unless it should be given to him from the Father.”

As we had also discussed in John chapter 2, Yahshua Christ, being God incarnate, knew the inherent nature of men when – or even before – He encountered them, so the apostle wrote at the conclusion of an encounter between Christ and the officials at the temple in Jerusalem that “24… Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, 25 And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.” Christ would not subject Himself to the authorities in the temple because He knew that they were inherently evil. Now here, at the end of John’s description of the events which followed the Bread of Life discourse, we see that many of the people who had followed Christ had at this point departed, ostensibly because they could not understand or believe Him, while Peter explained why he and others would not depart. By saying “they who do not believe” John was also referring to people who did not possess an inherent capacity for belief, as we shall see Christ Himself describe in John chapter 10. So Christ had asked His disciples: “Have I not chosen you twelve? Yet one from among you is a false accuser [or a devil]!” There John informed us that He was speaking in reference to Judas Iscariot, and it is evident that the devil remained for other and nefarious reasons, but not because he believed.

On the Gospel of John, Part 21: Criminal Enterprise

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On the Gospel of John, Part 21: Criminal Enterprise

There are men who sin, and there are men who are inherently sinners. Men who sin may be forgiven, but men who are inherently sinners have no chance for forgiveness, as Christ Himself had said, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 7, “16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” Likewise, when John the Baptist was announcing the coming of the Christ, he said, in Luke chapter 3, “10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” The allegorical trees of Scripture are not typically individuals, but instead, they are family trees, they are genetic lines of people.

So in others of His parables, Christ described wheat and tares, the tares having been sown in the beginning of the world by the devil, and sheep and goats, the goats having the same destiny as the devil and his angels, and good and bad races, or kinds, of fish, the bad kind of fish being destined to be burned in the fire. One group is always collectively destined to be saved, and the other group is always collectively destined to be destroyed, based not upon their mere behavior, but upon their character and origin. If the tree is bad, it cannot possibly produce good fruit. Christ had called Judas a devil not for anything which Judas had done, but because it was his inherent nature, and that nature was the ultimate reason why he had later betrayed Him.

On the Gospel of John, Part 22: Best Witness

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On the Gospel of John, Part 22: Best Witness

In the Christogenea New Testament, the text from John 7:53 through John 8:11 is not found, but it is certainly not missing. We have maintained the traditional verse numbering accompanying our translation, but John chapter 7 ends with verse 52, and John chapter 8 begins with verse 12. This is done purposefully, and it is for only one reason: that this pericope [a section or passage of scripture] is not found in any of the oldest Greek manuscripts, those known to predate the 5th century, and neither is it found in many of the manuscripts from the 5th century and later. According to the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, in both the 27th and 28th editions, verses up to 7:52 and beginning with 8:12 survived in both of the 3rd century papyri P66 and P75, but they do not contain any of the text from this pericope. The 4th century Codex Sinaiticus (א) can be viewed on line at the Internet website codexsinaiticus.org, and in John chapter 8 the text flows quite naturally from 7:52 to 8:12 with no indication of any break in the context. So there is no evidence in the Codex Sinaiticus for any of this passage from John 7:53 to 8:11. This is the way in which we have chosen to read John, but of course, the Codex Sinaiticus has no chapter or verse numbers, which were first added to copies of the Scriptures in the 16th century.

As a digression, translating the New Testament and observing all of the agreements and differences among the various ancient manuscripts, it is quickly realized that not all Codices are consistent in the frequency of their differences from Matthew through the Revelation. For example, while, the Codex Bezae has many interpolations in its copy of the Book of Acts, and many differences with the 4th century Codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus in the letters of Paul, it much more consistently agrees with the readings of the Sinaiticus throughout the Gospel of John, with a significant exception here. Among all Greek manuscripts, this pericope is first found in the Codex Bezae (D), a manuscript of the 5th century AD.

But in addition to the two significant 3rd century papyri and the Codex Sinaiticus, this pericope is not found in the 4th century Codex Vaticanus, nor in the 5th century Codices Alexandrinus (A), Ephraemi Syri (C), Borgianus (T) and Washingtonensis (W). Even many later manuscripts, such as the Codex Petropolitanus Purpureus of the 6th century and the Codices Coridethianus (Θ) and Athous Lavrensis (Ψ), both of the 9th century, do not contain this pericope, and these are followed by a broad collection of other significant manuscripts of the 9th century and later in which it is also wanting. The pericope is found in some ancient Syrian, Coptic, and Latin manuscripts, but not in all of them. It is also found in some of the manuscripts of Jerome, who created the Latin Vulgate in the 5th century, but not in all of them.

On the Gospel of John, Part 23: The Devil has Children

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This week, YouTube has abruptly deleted the channels of the League of the South, Dennis Wise – who had at least four different channels, Hunter Wallace of Occidental Dissent, Rosette Delacroix, and many others who we would consider to be a part of what we may call the hard right. They even deleted some channels operated by people and organizations who we may think are actually rather innocuous and centrist mainstream Christians. As of this writing, the Christogenea and William Finck channels on YouTube have not been canceled, only because I generally do not publish any of my content there. However the accounts of several others who had published a significant amount of material from Christogenea have also been canceled.

Hard right thought, which is to us pure Christian Nationalist thought, tempers centrists and those marginal Christians who are willing to compromise with evil by reminding them continually of what is sin, and that alone helps to keep them from drifting even further to the left. Hard right thought helps to keep the perceived political center from sliding off into Sodom and Gomorrah. When such thought is removed from public view, when it is barred from public forums, especially because it is labeled as so-called “hate speech”, then the centrists and the compromisers feel more comfortable in tolerating the sins of the devil for the sake of their own peace and comfort. The devil knows what he is doing. Now a relatively small handful of internet media companies have become so big that they are the de facto public forums of the modern world. But because they are privately owned, they reserve a right to determine what is acceptable on their property. So they are slowly shutting all expression of traditional Christian thought and morality out of public view.

On the Gospel of John, Part 24: The Nature of the Beast

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At the beginning of our last podcast I had presented a lengthy discussion regarding the recent assault on free speech being conducted by YouTube, the world’s only viable free video-sharing service, and some of the challenges which we face asserting our free speech rights on the Internet even when we host our own content. At that time I could not have known that I would face the prospect of troubles with my own hosting provider only five days later. As I write this, I have just received an answer to my defense of Christogenea against the claims of a certain non-White Social Justice Warrior who thinks that my website is unlawful because it offends him. I had already been shopping for new servers, only to get a head start if my defense did not prevail. Christogenea does nothing to violate the Acceptable Use Policies of its service providers, but quite frequently, those policies are often fluid and subject to change on short notice according to the whims of corporate lawyers.

There are a couple of start-up video sharing platforms that advertise themselves as free-speech alternatives to YouTube. One is Bitchute, and another is called Brighteon. But both of these have also already censored their users. Brighteon received pressure from its upstream providers over postings of the New Zealand shooting video, and had to remove it from their servers, thereby being forced to censor their own users. On some occasions censorship is merited, such as when it violates state or federal law. For example, one of the characters at the Daily Stormer complained that his open threats of violence against a certain tribal group were censored, but those threats were violations of the laws in every American jurisdiction, and certainly overseas. So Bitchute and Gab were probably trying to save a fool from himself.

I remember when the World Wide Web, which by popular misconception is considered by itself to be the Internet, was first opened to the public in 1993. Soon thereafter I had my own first website, but did not need a domain name because at that time Internet Service Providers were offering dial-up customers free websites in sub-folders on their own web servers. For a few years, the Internet was like a video game version of the proverbial Wild West, where anything went and if anyone didn’t like it, they just didn’t have to watch. Within a year, spam was ubiquitous in email and newsgroups, and it quickly became a plague. The Internet evolved around competing concepts. The first was the ideal of freedom of expression and free and open access to information, and the second was purely economic interest.

On the Gospel of John, Part 25: How the Blind Can See

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On the Gospel of John, Part 25: How the Blind Can See

As John chapter 8 came to a close, the enemies of Yahshua Christ had wanted to stone Him, since He exposed them for what they truly were: children of the devil and not true children of Abraham. Doing this, Christ did not confront them not on the basis of their genealogy, a knowledge of which had evidently been suppressed by the Herodians, nor did He confront them on the basis of the events in the recent history of Judaea, and the Edomite takeover of Judaea. Rather, Christ confronted them on the basis of their character, as it was their character which most effectively revealed their genealogy. If they were truly Abraham’s children, they should have exhibited a nature which is congenial to God, which Abraham had also done. Yahweh knows those who are His, as Paul informs us in 2 Timothy, and they should each have a disposition patterned after the character of the man which Yahweh had created. Even when he sinned, Adam did not dispute his punishment, and in the subsequent generations his sons continued to seek after the very same God who had prescribed that punishment. But Christ had informed His enemies that their apostasy was congenital, that it was due to the circumstances of their origins because Yahweh was not their father. So in that manner it was said elsewhere in the Gospel, such as in Luke chapter 6:43 For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 44 For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.

Therefore it is the nature of the beast, of those which are bastards, to contend with God, and the Jews who were contending with Christ knew exactly what He had meant when He told them that God was not their father, where they responded and said “We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.” When Christ answered this, He told them that they were liars, and that their true father was the devil. As we also discussed, Malachi had prophesied of this very thing, even of this very conversation, and his prophecy also explained that the reasons for the division among the priests was that they had transgressed the covenant of Levi, and that Judah had “married the daughter of a strange god”, a prophecy which was fulfilled in history as the remnant of Judah from the time of John Hyrcanus had begun converting Edomites and other Canaanites, systematically circumcising them and subsuming them into the citizenship of Judaea.

The absorption of the Edomites and others who adopted the customs of the Judaeans into the general population of Judaea was attested by the Greek historian and geographer Strabo, and explained in detail by the Judaean historian Flavius Josephus. The prophets Malachi and Zechariah in the Bible along with the recorded history of Judaea explain the words of Christ in John chapter 8, as well as those pertaining to impostor Judaeans in the Revelation, and the explanations of apostasy in the epistles of Paul, namely in Romans chapter 9, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. In John chapter 8, Christ had explained the consequences of the things which those prophets foresaw in the events of history. Together all of this testimony creates a picture-perfect tapestry of the true nature and identity of the enemies of Christ, the synagogue of Satan of the Scriptures from which today’s Jews are all descended.

On the Gospel of John, Part 26: The Purpose of the Shepherd

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On the Gospel of John, Part 26: The Purpose of the Shepherd

The Bible is not two different books. The most radical, and correct, meaning of the word catholic is “down whole”, and the earliest Church Fathers, such as Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian had used it to describe the reception of the whole of the faith, meaning the reception of both New and Old Testaments, as opposed to the rejection of one or the other by the Jews or by sects such as the Marcionites. One cannot properly understand the Gospel of Christ without first understanding the will of God which was expressed in the words of His prophets.

Neglecting the pericope of the woman caught in adultery, which clearly was not a part of John’s original gospel, it is evident that on the last great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Yahshua Christ was teaching in the temple, as John begins to describe the events of that day in chapter 7 (7:37). Then, upon His having been confronted by His adversaries, we see Christ reveal their true nature in the lengthy exchange which He had with them, as it is recorded in John chapter 8. So upon departing from them, He is found outside of the temple where He then healed a man who was blind from birth.

This act led to another confrontation with those who were opposed to Him, in which He declared: “For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.” They which “see not” are the lost sheep of the house of Israel for whom He had come, and “they which see” are the Judaeans who witnessed His acts and had heard Him speaking, but who nevertheless had rejected Him. This statement, from John 9:39, reveals the true significance of this event, where on this day He chose to heal such a man, as He had said earlier in that same chapter, when He was asked by His Own disciples why the man was born blind, that “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”

So it should be evident that the man’s very life stood as a parable in order to provide a lesson to the children of Israel: that the purpose of Christ on the day wherein John’s gospel records that He revealed the true nature and character of His enemies was to heal the children of Israel from their own collective blindness, as it is they who are identified in the Word of God which is in the prophets as being blind, “they which see not” for whom Christ had come so that they “might see”.

Standing in the assembly hall in Nazareth at the beginning of His ministry, as it is recorded in Luke chapter 4, Christ had read from Isaiah in relation to Himself, and announced that “18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Once one learns that His sheep are the children of Israel exclusively, and that His enemies are all children of the devil, that is how the blind can see.

On the Gospel of John, Part 27: Hirelings and Wolves

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On the Gospel of John, Part 27: Hirelings and Wolves

As we began our discussion of John chapter 10, we sought descriptions in the words of the prophets of Yahweh by which we may understand The Purpose of the Shepherd. This is necessary for us to do, because Christ Himself had said, in Matthew chapter 5, “17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” So if He came to fulfill the words of the prophets, then the action and the purpose of His ministry must be in conformance with their words, and therefore it is they to whom we must turn in order to better comprehend the purpose and intent of His ministry, so that we may understand what He had come to fulfill. If His intentions are not in accordance with their words, then He has destroyed them, and He cannot claim to have fulfilled them. But praise Yahweh God that He is True, and He is not a liar, since He does not change. The words of the prophets describe the purpose of Christ, and the epistles and actions of the apostles further verify that purpose. For that same reason we read in 2 Peter chapter 3 that Peter’s reason for writing was: “2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour”, because the purpose of the Shepherd was indeed the purpose which had been previously announced by the prophets.

Yahshua Christ, being the Good Shepherd, and the only true shepherd, had come only for the “lost sheep of the house of Israel”, to gather them to Himself, as He Himself had professed and as the prophets had described. Furthermore, the words of the prophets had not only explained what happened to those sheep and why they were lost, but they also inform us as to where those sheep had wandered and what would become of them. By the Word of Yahweh God through the prophets, since the only purpose of the Shepherd is to regather those same lost sheep to Himself, the apostles brought the Gospel of the Shepherd to Europe, Anatolia and Mesopotamia, because it was to those same places that the sheep had wandered and that is where they expected them to be found.

Thus far in this chapter of John’s gospel, Yahshua Christ had also explained that the good shepherd would enter through the door of the sheep, in verse 2 where He said “2 But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” Then He asserted that He Himself is the door of the sheep, in verse 7 where He proclaimed “Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.” So if He is the door, and if He came in through the door, how can these two concepts be reconciled? How can a door enter in through itself?

On the Gospel of John, Part 28: Wolves Cannot Be Sheep

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On the Gospel of John, Part 28: Wolves Cannot Be Sheep

Thus far in John chapter 10 we have seen Yahshua Christ proclaim for Himself to be the Good and True Shepherd who came in through the door of the sheep, and He also proclaimed for Himself to be the Door of the sheep. As we examined the relevant oracles of the Old Testament prophets concerning both the sheep and the Shepherd, it is revealed once again that Yahshua Christ is indeed Yahweh God incarnate, who had long before promised to come and to gather His Sheep for Himself, which are the scattered and lost sheep of the house of Israel, and that is the only stated purpose of the Shepherd.

We also discussed at length another aspect of the discourse of the Good Shepherd, which is the phenomenon of hirelings and wolves. The hireling may indeed be one of the sheep, who cares only for his own gain and for profit he allows wolves into the sheepfold, as we read from Isaiah chapter 56. Or perhaps, as Christ Himself had described here, the hireling flees from fear when the wolf comes. Of course, either sheep or wolves may be hirelings, but wolves are not sheep, and they did not come in through the door of the sheep. For that reason wolves cannot ever be sheep, and wolves in the sheepfold can only be thieves and robbers, outsiders who are looking to profit by devouring the sheep. We explained that the door of the sheep was the genetic line of Abraham through Jacob-Israel, as that is how Yahshua Christ and all of His sheep come into the world. Yahshua Christ also being Yahweh incarnate, the Creator of the sheep, He is also that Door. Wolves did not come through that door as they were not created by Him, but wolves here are used as a metaphor to represent corruptions of His creation – bastards, and not sons.

We found the words of Paul of Tarsus in Acts chapter 20 had made this same distinction, We also discussed how both Peter and Jude in their epistles, which explain who the wolves are, had related them to the wicked and corrupt descendants of the fallen angels who were condemned of old and who had sought to infiltrate and subvert the sheepfold of Yahweh in ancient times as well as in the Christian era. I would assert that here in John chapter 10, we have this great discourse on the Good Shepherd and the Sheep so that we could be absolutely certain of the purpose of both the Christ for His sheep, and the nature of His enemies, who are also the natural enemies of the sheep.

On the Gospel of John, Part 29: The Final Earthly Journey

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On the Gospel of John, Part 29: The Final Earthly Journey

As it is recorded in the earlier chapters of John, Yahshua Christ had healed the lame man and opened the eyes of the blind, and these things were done in accord with the words of the prophets in relation to the coming of a Savior, which would be Yahweh God Himself, for example as it is written in Isaiah chapter 35: “4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.” This we have already discussed at length when we encountered John’s testimony of the healing of the lame man, in chapter 5, or of the man who was blind from birth, in chapter 9 of his gospel.

While it is not recorded in John, there are also accounts of His having healed the deaf and the dumb. For example, in Mark chapter 7 we read: “31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. 32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. 33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; 34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. 35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. 36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; 37 And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

Where the people had said “He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak”, the reference to “all things” must have been to all of the things that the Old Testament had prophesied in relation to a promised savior, or Messiah for Israel. They could recognize that Yahshua Christ was the promised Messiah from the things which He was able to do, that had been written in the words of the prophets many centuries earlier. This is explained by Christ Himself in Matthew chapter 11, where John the Baptist, just before his death, wanted to verify that Yahshua was indeed the Messiah, so he sent his disciples to question Him: “3 And [they] said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? 4 Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: 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.”

On the Gospel of John, Part 30: Raising Lazarus

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On the Gospel of John, Part 30: Raising Lazarus

During the course of His three-and-a-half year ministry, Yahshua Christ had opened the eyes of the blind, healed the lame, cleansed the lepers, cured the deaf and the dumb, and had already raised the dead, as He Himself had announced in Matthew chapter 11, at a point much earlier in His ministry than that which we see recorded here in John chapter 11. All of these things were in accordance with the prophecies for Israel concerning a Messiah, or Savior, for which reason He was known to be the Christ, a term which means the Anointed One and the very meaning of the Hebrew word for Messiah. But while many of these acts were recorded in the other three gospel accounts, most of them are not found in John. It seems that John had only recorded certain of the miracles which were performed by Christ not only in order to prove that He is the Messiah, but also to demonstrate His humility, to illustrate the division that His works caused among the people, and to explain the resulting contention that they had caused with the authorities in Judaea in spite of His humility.

The first miracle recorded by John was the changing of water into wine, and while Yahshua was reluctant, He was urged by His mother, which even caused Him to deny her any authority over His purpose in life. While there are other acts recorded in John’s gospel which revealed the prescience of Christ, that He must have been sent from God, the second significant miracle was the healing of a sick nobleman’s son, in Capernaum in Galilee. The descriptions of these two miracles illustrate the humility of Christ, that although He was able to do these things, He was reluctant at first, He refused to make any exhibition when He did them, and He wanted no credit for Himself when they were done.

On the Gospel of John, Part 31: Raising Cain

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 On the Gospel of John, Part 31: Raising Cain

It is within the provenance of God that Yahshua Christ knew that He was going to be executed in Jerusalem, and He knew when and how He would be executed. Many descriptions of these things were also written aforetime in the prophets, and one example is found in Daniel chapter 9 where it rather plainly states “26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself” and in Isaiah chapter 53 “5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Then there is the 22nd Psalm, which the apostles themselves had cited in reference to Christ: “10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly. 11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. 12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. 13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. 16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. 18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” Of course there are other prophecies besides these which had foretold of elements of the passion of the Christ, but Christ Himself did not necessarily rely on the prophets to know these things. Instead, they had known them from Him.

As early as Matthew chapter 16, while Christ is in Galilee at a point in His ministry some time sooner than we are here in John, we read that “21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.” But until this point here in John, Christ had purposely evaded the Pharisees and scribes who were opposed to Him, and escaped their desire to stone Him on a few occasions. So six months before this time, as it is recorded at the beginning of John chapter 7, Christ attended the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem but He would not make a public entry into the city, saying “for my time is not yet full come.” Even though He did clash with His adversaries later on during that feast, He had entered Jerusalem quietly and alone. Twice, during that feast and the subsequent feast of dedication a couple of months later, He escaped being stoned by apparently miraculous circumstances.

On the Gospel of John, Part 32: Self-sacrifice is the Ideal Sacrifice

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On the Gospel of John, Part 32: Self-sacrifice is the Ideal Sacrifice

I had chosen to display a portrayal of the sacrifice of Isaac by the 16th century Italian painter Domenichino for this program, because Abraham’s sacrifice was the ultimate sacrifice, as he was willing to give up everything which he had been promised in order to please his God, but he was promised nothing additional in return. His sacrifice was entirely selfless. In an ideal society, that is the sort of sacrifice which all White Christians should be willing to make for one another. If we chose to do so now, perhaps that ideal society which we could call the Kingdom of Heaven would begin to develop before their very eyes.

In our commentary on the first part of John chapter 12, titled Raising Cain, I had made an analogy of the fact that by raising Lazarus, Yahshua Christ had finally brought the wrath of His enemies to the point where they were compelled to act against Him. As He himself had explained in John chapter 8 and elsewhere, His enemies being the children of the devil, by raising Lazarus He had certainly also raised Cain.

Now, as we also explained in that presentation, we are at the point where it is four days before the Passover upon which He was to be executed, which is when He made His triumphal march into Jerusalem, as John had described in verses 12 through 15. Then in verses 17 and 18, John explained that the reason why the crowd had met Christ at the gates of the city and declared for Him to be king, glorifying God, was because they knew that He had raised Lazarus from the dead. So by doing that, His enemies were able to lay a capital charge against Him before the Roman authorities, and the event had sealed His fate, which his something that He Himself had foreseen. So in verse 19 we read where John described the envy and anxiety of the Pharisees and he wrote: “19 Therefore the Pharisees said to themselves: ‘You see that you are not of any help? Behold, Society goes off after Him!’” By this John explains the reason why they sought to kill Him, because they were envious and because by His wonderful deeds their own pretense of authority over the people was threatened, so they were anxious to be rid of Him. They had no care for truth nor for the people themselves, but only for their own pretense of authority which provided for them a comfortable station in life.

On the Gospel of John, Part 33: Light and Truth

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On the Gospel of John, Part 33: Light and Truth

In our last presentation from chapter 12 of the Gospel of John, we made the assertion that Self-sacrifice is the Ideal Sacrifice. Speaking of the sin which is made manifest by the Law, Paul had informed his readers in chapter 5 of his first epistle to the Corinthians to “7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us”, and then in chapter 10 of his epistle to the Hebrews Paul had written “11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” So there is no other sacrifice that Christians can make except where Christ Himself had admonished, as it is recorded in three gospels, that “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” Therefore self-sacrifice is not only the ideal sacrifice, but it is the only sacrifice which is expected of Christians, and everything else, the rituals and the sacraments and the pretensions of piety, is superfluous and vain.

This is also evident where, the second time that this same admonition is recorded in the Gospel of Mark, in chapter 10, we see an exchange between Christ and a wealthy young man, which occurred after Christ, being in Judaea, had once again been challenged by the Pharisees, and then we read: “17 And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? 18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. 19 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. 20 And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. 21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. 22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions. 23 And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!

On the Gospel of John, Part 34: Intrinsic Character

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On the Gospel of John, Part 34: Intrinsic Character

In our last presentation of this commentary on the gospel of John, Part 33, titled Light and Truth, we made the assertion that since Yahshua Christ was the Light come into the world, as He Himself had attested at John 12:46, then He must be that Light which was first described as having been created by Yahweh in Genesis chapter 1, verse 3. He is also recorded as having declared that “I am the light of the world” in John chapters 8 and 9. He is first-born of all Creation, He is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”, and that first Light in Genesis is a type which represents what emanates from God as opposed to what lies in darkness, a type which forebode Yahshua Christ, the manifestation of God in the physical world.

I did something unusual this week. Before I started to write this presentation, I did a search on the Internet asking “What is the light of Genesis 1:3?” While I only checked the first few results, I was highly disappointed with the quality of three of the answers, even if I did not expect the same conclusion which I had made here. The top result was from a website called Quora.com, written by someone claiming to be a nineteen-year-old physics student. This came up first on the Google search results, which is probably as far as many people asking that question may go, so this is certainly not the way to do any serious research, but it is probably the way many people do what they think is research. He claimed that the light of that passage was all matter, and that in Genesis 1:4 God had created the rules that govern that matter. The first objection to his theory is this: Heaven, Earth and waters already existed, so matter existed before the declaration in Genesis 1:3 which said “Let there be light: and there was light.” So Genesis 1:2 immediately discredits this young man’s interpretation of Genesis 1:3.

This is exemplary of why nineteen-year-olds should not be answering theological questions, or maybe even questions about physics. In truth, the rules that govern matter are coded directly into the structures of matter itself. It is not an accident that two hydrogen atoms naturally combine with one oxygen atom to create a molecule of water. A third hydrogen atom can only join the combination if it has lost its electron, thereby having a positive charge, and if it combines with the other three atoms it creates a hydronium ion, which is acidic. Otherwise it cannot combine at all, and water remains water. This is the intrinsic character of these basic elements of creation, so the rules of matter were not created separately from the matter itself. Every element had its rules of behavior already built into its nature as it was created.

On the Gospel of John, Part 35: Empathy and Altruism

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On the Gospel of John, Part 35: Empathy and Altruism

In our last presentation from John chapter 13, which was Part 34 of our commentary on this gospel, we spoke of the intrinsic character which all people possess, even comparing it to the structure of a water molecule and the natural behavior of its basic components, the hydrogen and oxygen atoms which make its creation possible. In one place in that presentation I said “This may seem to be conjecture, but every man has an inherent nature, and often, contrary to that nature, every man is conditioned by society to behave in a certain manner. But eventually, when confronted with an appropriate situation, it is a man’s intrinsic character which will surface and take control of his actions and determine his fate.” There I went on to use Peter’s description of the fate of Lot as an example.

The children of God are called sheep for good reason, as they are generally docile and follow along with the flock wherever they are led. The proof of that statement is easily verified in the transformation of Western society over the past few decades. Until recently, sodomites and miscegenators were the outcasts of society, and in many places, laws had prohibited both acts. Now these sins are not only publicly acceptable, but they are even publicly applauded and those who commit them are admired rather than scorned. Thus we read in Jeremiah chapter 50: “6 My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.”

For that reason, at the day of their judgment their shepherds shall receive the greater punishment, as we read in Jeremiah chapter 25: “33 And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground. 34 Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel. 35 And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape. 36 A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and an howling of the principal of the flock, shall be heard: for the LORD hath spoiled their pasture. 37 And the peaceable habitations are cut down because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

On the Gospel of John, Part 36: The Way

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On the Gospel of John, Part 36: The Way

When Yahshua Christ chose His apostles from among the men who had first encountered Him at the start of His ministry, which is when He was baptized by John, they were simple and uneducated laborers, and for the most part, fishermen from the shores of Galilee. These men were not schooled in Scripture except for their attendance at the synagogues on the sabbath days, and the customary reading from the law of Moses which is referred to by James in Acts chapter 15. So far as in Acts chapter 4, at least some of the apostles were still considered unlearned, where we read “13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” Since the synagogues were the instruments of religious organization in Judaea, the teachings would have naturally been in accordance with the doctrines of the Pharisees and Sadducees, who dominated religious and political activity throughout Judaea.

But Christ did not occupy the course of His ministry schooling the apostles in the details of Scripture and giving them an education in letters. In fact, as we see in that verse from Acts chapter 4 which we have just cited, their testimony of Christ was even more valuable and made more of an impression because they were unschooled. These were simple men who witnessed profound events and gave plain and simple testimonies concerning the substance of those events. For that reason, the gospel accounts were written without craft or guile. As Paul later attested in his first epistle to the Thessalonians, “For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile: But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak”.

Rather than instructing the apostles in letters, they instead served Christ as companions, fellow-workers and then, most significantly, as witnesses, while He Himself was focused upon instructing His people in a better and more pure way to please their God, urging them to a sincere repentance in ways which were contrary to the elaborate doctrines and rituals of the Pharisees, whose spiritual authority He had challenged. This caused an ongoing confrontation with the officials in the temple, which He knew would ultimately lead to His execution – fulfilling the very purpose for which He came.

On the Gospel of John, Part 37: The True Vine and the Tree of Life

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On the Gospel of John, Part 37: The True Vine and the Tree of Life

In our last presentation of this commentary on John chapter 14 we discussed The Way as we saw in verse 6 of the chapter that Christ had declared that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. So we made the assertion that the way of Christ leads to the tree of life, which, to put it simply, is Christ Himself. Then, because He had also said in verse 15 of this chapter that “If ye love me, keep my commandments”, an admonition which He repeated several times throughout His discourse on this evening before He was crucified, we may discern that the keeping of the law represents the way to Him. As we also explained, this is the significance of the cherubs which, as it is described in Genesis chapter 3, were at first set to “keep the way of the tree of life”. So the cherubs had protected that path to Christ, as they were later seen aside the mercy seat which was atop the Ark of the Covenant wherein the tablets of the law were kept. That mercy seat represented the ultimate judgment seat of Christ, where Paul wrote in Romans chapter 14 “for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”

In Proverbs chapter 7 we read: “1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. 2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. 3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.” The wisdom of Solomon which was inspired by God, Christ Himself had followed on His Own earthly walk, as Paul of Tarsus had informed his readers in chapter 4 of his epistle to the Galatians that Yahshua Christ was born in accordance with the law, and He also kept the law, so that He could redeem those who were under the law. We know that He kept the law because in Hebrews chapter 4 Paul had informed his readers that Christ was without sin, where he wrote: “15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Again, Paul wrote likewise where he had spoken of God in reference to Christ, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5: “21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Therefore, as an example to men, Christ Himself had walked that same path which He also encourages men to follow. Yet Christ is also the path itself, or the Way, because He is One with the Father who had authored that same law. For that same reason, in the opening chapter of his gospel, John had called Him “the Word made flesh.”

On the Gospel of John, Part 38: Genesis Synthesis

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On the Gospel of John, Part 38: Genesis Synthesis

This program, a commentary on John chapter 15, is titled Genesis Synthesis because the Bible is the same book, and the plan of Yahweh our God has never changed from beginning to end. Doing this, I am going to repeat some of the concepts which we have presented over our last few presentations, but here in John chapter 15 Christ also repeats certain concepts on several occasions, so I won’t feel too terribly about it.

In our last two presentations of this commentary On the Gospel of John, which were titled The Way and The True Vine and the Tree of Life, we have made the assertion that Yahshua Christ is the Tree of Life, and that the tree itself also represents the race of Adam which Yahweh had created, as the creation is described in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Here we will continue to make those assertions, and offer further proof of their veracity as we proceed through John chapter 15. We also hope to elucidate the synthesis of the gospel of Christ with the fall of Adam in the Genesis account, as the overall plan of Yahweh God for the Adamic man which He had initially created is indeed revealed in the gospel. As we may read in the Wisdom of Solomon, in chapter 2, “23… God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.” We cannot imagine that God would fail.

Now, as it is recorded here in John chapters 15 through 17, Yahshua is speaking to His disciples after departing from the house where they had shared their famous so-called Last Supper, and it would be only a few hours longer before He is arrested and subsequently executed. We would assert that in these chapters where John had recorded some of the final words of Christ to His apostles there is profound significance, as we see a synthesis between the gospel and purpose of Christ in the redemption of the Adamic race, and the failure of purpose by which the Adamic race had come to need that redemption in the first place, as it is described in Genesis, which was written by Moses over fifteen hundred years before the gospel was announced.

On the Gospel of John, Part 39: The Inevitability of Persecution

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On the Gospel of John, Part 39: The Inevitability of Persecution

As we brought our commentary On the Gospel of John to the end of John chapter 15, in a presentation which we had called Genesis Synthesis, we repeated some of the things that we had said over the previous chapters, first because Christ Himself had repeated some things that He had said earlier that same night, and secondly, because we wanted to elucidate the fact that many of the assertions which He had made in the gospel are intrinsically intertwined with the symbols and allegories found in the accounts in the opening chapters of Genesis. In turn, this helps us to understand and to prove that He is indeed the remedy for the fall of our race as it is recorded in Genesis, according to a plan which was first hinted at in the allegories of Genesis, and that this was planned by Yahweh from the beginning. So in our commentary we have sought to illustrate the fact that the plan of Yahweh our God for His creation was indeed known by Him, was revealed through the Scriptures as history progressed, and has not changed course since the very beginning. We must not think that it would suddenly change course today, or that our God would somehow forget His Word, as we have the Revelation of Christ and therefore we can certainly determine what is unfolding as it happens.

Now as we proceed with John chapter 16, we are continuing with John’s account of the things which Yahshua Christ had said to His disciples after they left the house where they had shared their so-called Last Supper, and they are apparently walking along on their way to the place where Christ would be arrested just before He was crucified. Throughout the discourse in chapter 15, Yahshua had encouraged His disciples to keep His commandments, that they would demonstrate their love for Him if they did so, and in that manner they would abide in the love of God. Then He also exhorted them to love one another as He had loved them, and that if they did that they would also be his friends. So it is obvious that we cannot love our God if we despise or neglect one another. Then He warned them that the world would hate them, because it also hated Him, as it hated God Himself, and once again hinting that He would be taken from them, He had promised to be with them in Spirit, in the form of the Holy Spirit. Now, provided that they keep all of these things and do them, as the dialogue continues in John chapter 16, He says to them... 

On the Gospel of John, Part 40: The Consolation of Expectation

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On the Gospel of John, Part 40: The Consolation of Expectation

Discussing the The Inevitability of Persecution as we presented the opening verses of John chapter 16, we sought to illustrate the fact that even today all true Christians, meaning those who seek to keep the commandments of Christ, should expect to be persecuted by the society-at-large in one form or another. If a Christian is not being persecuted by the world around him, if a Christian is comfortable with the world around him, then he is not really living for Christ. In Romans chapter 6, Paul of Tarsus had described, in part, what it means to live for Christ, as Christians who truly seek to do so should separate themselves from sin. Today’s churches have become agents for the “princes of this world”, and have created a false narrative urging their members to accept all sorts of sin and sinners based on what they call “Christian tolerance”, but true Christians should never be tolerant of sin. The true Christian should have already walked away from sin, as well as from those who remain in sin.

In that chapter, Paul had written, in part, “5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”

On the Gospel of John, Part 41: God Glorified

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On the Gospel of John, Part 41: God Glorified

All Christians can profess to glorify God, but only Identity Christians can know exactly how and why God should be glorified.

Presenting the final portion of John chapter 16 we discussed the Consolation of Expectation, as Christians encompassed by a world of sin certainly should find their consolation in an expectation of the fulfillment of the promises of Yahweh their God, and in turn that should be the substance of their faith. Yahweh God is glorified when man realizes that He keeps His promises, and comes to understand that He is true. Abraham was made an example as Yahweh had spoken to his son Isaac, and explained that his father was blessed “5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” Abraham had done those things because he believed Yahweh, as we read in Romans chapter 4, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” In that same manner, if we believe God and keep His commandments it shall be counted to us for righteousness. We find this where Paul, speaking of Abraham’s seed, or offspring, had said in that same chapter “that righteousness might be imputed unto them also” who “walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham.” That faith of Abraham was his belief that God would indeed keep his promises.

There were certain earlier promises made to the wider Adamic race which Yahweh shall not abandon. But when we examine the promises which are the substance of the faith of Abraham – because they are what Abraham had believed – we find that the promises of God in Christ concerned the offspring of Abraham through Jacob-Israel exclusively, and that the seed of Israel which were the subject of those promises would inherit the Adamic world, becoming many nations. This certainly did happen in antiquity, and those nations are described in Scripture and it is also evident in the actions and letters of the apostles that they were the intended recipients of the gospel. They are the object of the faith, because they are what Abraham believed that God was able to do for him in spite of the apparent impossibility. That is the circumstance under which Isaac was born and he in turn became the subject of the promises, which were later bestowed upon Jacob.

On the Gospel of John, Part 42: Out of This World

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On the Gospel of John, Part 42: Out of This World

It is easy for any so-called priest or pastor to tell other men what to do, and to find one verse of Scripture or another to justify his position, especially if he does not have to do those things himself. So if he is not humble, he himself may ultimately become a parasite, feeding off the body of his flock while they themselves wither and die. This is probably the state of most denominational churches today, and especially the Roman Catholic Church, which is why they always seek new audiences, for which they turn to South America, Africa and Asia. No different than the international banks and global corporations, the so-called churches constantly need to find new ways to satiate their thirst for money and power.

So far as can be determined, it was John Selden, a controversial 17th-century scholar and jurist who had opposed many of the policies of the Church of England, who had first recorded the saying “Do as I say, not as I do”, and when he wrote those words he was attributing that sentiment to the preachers of his time. So we see that at least one learned Englishman understood the frequently-occurring hypocrisy of those who put themselves in authority over men, as Christ had also said of the Pharisees: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: 3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.” The scribes and Pharisees of ancient Judaea were the teachers of the law, but they themselves did not keep the law. Fortunately for us, Moses’ seat was torn down by the Romans in 70 AD, and today no man can claim to occupy it.

In recent times, and especially among Identity Christians, we often hear the admonition to “get out of Babylon”, as the saying usually goes, and for many people that evokes the thought that Christians can somehow go off into the wilderness and survive on their own while they isolate themselves from a corrupt Society. But this is impractical, and perhaps even impossible. There is no more hospitable wilderness which may be peacefully inhabited, especially since modern transportation and surveillance technology have put even the most remote areas of the habitable earth under the scrutiny of earthly rulers. Perhaps there are a few exceptions, but the vast majority of Christians today cannot “get out of Babylon” and continue to feed and shelter themselves and their families. So even before we argue over the hypothetical prospects of success, we must inquire as to whether this is even what Christian leaders should be teaching.

On the Gospel of John, Part 43: My Will, or His Will?

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On the Gospel of John, Part 43: My Will, or His Will?

The first pronoun in the subtitle is meant not in reference to myself, but to the reader or listener of this presentation.

Presenting our commentary on the lengthy prayer of Yahshua Christ which is found in John chapter 17, I hope to have explained sufficiently what it is to be “not of the world”, as Christ had prayed for His disciples and said: “16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” But in spite of that, I understand that there are always going to be lingering questions, as it is a broad topic with great implications as to how a Christian should conduct himself as he abides within the world. It is certainly evident that Christians must remain in the world physically if the Kingdom of God is ever going to be “on earth as it is in heaven”, so Christ had also prayed saying “15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” Therefore Christians must live and survive in the world, while at the same time eschewing the evils which are also in the world.

Just as soon as I had made that presentation, the very next morning, I confronted an individual who is involved in some of our Social Media circles, a professed Identity Christian, who was speaking of American presidential politics when he made the statement that “I'm morally obligated to continue to vote conservative so more ultra liberal communists don't get elected. That will at least give us time to reach more of our people with the truth until we can get someone worthy of the position.” But this is precisely the sort of worldly attitude that Christians are expected to depart from. Perhaps I would have ignored his statement, except that he said he was “morally obligated”, which startled me because it is an idea which is found nowhere in Scripture. Engaging with the world in order to choose what is perceived to be the lesser of two evils is still a conscious decision to engage with evil. It is almost as if claiming that we should decide which of the seven heads and ten horns of the beast of the Revelation might treat us more nicely, and cast our vote for it.

On the Gospel of John, Part 44: What is Truth?

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On the Gospel of John, Part 44: What is Truth?

Discussing the first portion of John chapter 18, we endeavored to illustrate the difference in the personality and deeds of Peter the apostle with the deeds and fate of Judas Iscariot. Although Judas was a devil, both his participation in the earthly ministry of Christ and the manner in which his own life came to an end had resulted in the fulfillment of certain prophecies in the Word of God concerning the passion of the Christ as it was prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures. In contrast, Peter, an apostle of Christ and a child of God, had tried rather persistently to exert his own will upon the transpiring events, and for that he had to be rebuked by Christ on several occasions. Now here in the garden Gethsemane, as Peter attacked an officer of the temple while being greatly outnumbered by the Roman soldiers, Christ had to rebuke him once again, and we see that Peter was saved and ultimately went on to complete his own ministry in the gospel in spite of himself and his stubborn personality.

The lesson in this comparison is that Yahweh God can use even a devil to accomplish His will, as He did with Judas. But when men attempt to interfere, as Peter had attempted, they shall fail to succeed and they shall be led by God to fulfill the destiny which He has assigned to them whether they like it or not. This is the meaning which Christ Himself had explained to Peter as it is recorded at the end of John’s gospel, in chapter 21 where He told him “18 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.”

On the Gospel of John, Part 45: Gods and Emperors

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On the Gospel of John, Part 45: Gods and Emperors

In our last presentation of this 18th chapter of the Gospel of John we attempted to answer the question which was posed by Pontius Pilate, where he had asked what is truth? with the assertion that real truth is what is relative to the Will of God. So Pilate did not receive an answer to his question, since, as we have also frequently explained throughout this commentary, Yahweh God endows men with wisdom and knowledge on a need-to-know basis. So Pilate did not really need to know the truth, since it was written in the prophets that the Christ had to die, as Christ had also frequently told His Own disciples, and perhaps if Pilate had learned the truth in his conversation with Christ, the Will of God may have been hindered. Therefore it must have also been the Will of God that Pilate did not find the truth.

There are apocryphal tales which indicate that Pilate had later learned the truth concerning Christ, but I would not repeat any of those. Another lie is the description of the fate of Pilate as it is recounted in the so-called “lost” chapter of Acts, a forgery which represents itself to be the 29th chapter of Luke’s second book. There are Identity Christians who promote that work as “truth” when it is actually an absolute fraud. As we already explained here, Pilate had remained stationed in his office in Judaea until 36 AD, or perhaps as late as 37 AD, when he was relieved after complaints of how he had handled a sedition in Syria, and he returned to Rome. From that point he disappears from the historical record, and later Christians who reported his having committed suicide, such as Eusebius of Caesareia, lacked any substantiation to establish the claim as fact.

On the Gospel of John, Part 46: Crime and Culpability

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On the Gospel of John, Part 46: Crime and Culpability

As we presented our commentary on the opening verses of John chapter 19, we saw that the apostle clearly sought to describe Pontius Pilate in a way that absolved him of any complicity, minimizing his culpability in the murder of Christ. So the first charge by the Judaeans regarding Christ that would be a serious offense to Rome was that He had claimed to be king, which is not necessarily true although the gospels do record others as having made that claim on His behalf. Pontius Pilate, interrogating Christ about that charge, sought the truth of the matter and when Christ answered him with an inquiry of His Own, Pilate asked “Am I a Judaean?” That evidently indicated that he was admitting having known nothing of matters peculiar to the people of Judaea, as he then asked “Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?” So to answer Pilate’s first question, Christ did not deny or admit being a king, and only said that His kingdom was “not of this world” while professing that He came into the world only to speak the truth.

Although Christ did not deny the charges made by the Judaeans, Pilate was nevertheless reluctant to accept them, and sought to release Him. At this point a custom is mentioned which is difficult to verify because it is only mentioned here in the Gospel accounts, and not in any other surviving records. Pilate was described as having customarily released a prisoner on the feast as a favor to the Judaeans. While Josephus does not discuss anything like this custom in his histories, he does mention other instances of pardons which may have been granted by Roman procurators. So Pilate hoped that they would agree to release Christ, but they demanded Barabbas instead. Barabbas was a robber and a murderer, the leader of a sedition, and therefore he deserved to die. But looking at the name Barabbas from a prophetic point of view, since in Hebrew it apparently means son of the Father, in that manner it very well represents the fact that Christ had died in exchange for the sins of the sons of His Own Father.

On the Gospel of John, Part 47: The Jewish Murder of the Messiah of Israel

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On the Gospel of John, Part 47: The Jewish Murder of the Messiah of Israel

As we presented the first part of John chapter 19 and the account of the trial of Christ before Pontius Pilate, which we had titled Gods and Emperors, we also found a need to discuss at greater length the issue of culpability for the crucifixion of Christ. This is because there is much propaganda in presumably Christian literature which places the preponderance of guilt for the crucifixion of Christ on Pontius Pilate, or on the Romans in general, when Christ Himself, and His apostles after Him, had clearly placed that guilt on the Judaeans. So it is a wonder to us, that the Jewish propaganda which has forever attempted to shift the blame onto Pilate is so strong that now even so-called Christian scholars, or so-called scholars who claim to be Christians, no longer believe their Bibles or the veracity of the only surviving eye-witness accounts. Instead, they believe the lies of the Jews who with cunning and sophistry have imagined that they can escape the ultimate punishment which awaits them for their act of Deicide, as well as their continued acts of rebellion against that very same God whom they had slain, which they have perpetrated throughout history.

The phenomenon of Bolshevism was not new in 1917. It has erupted continually throughout history, and it is always instigated by the same people who today are known as Jews. The Bolshevik Revolution was not Russian, and the French Revolution was not French. The result of both was the oppression of Christianity and the attempt to introduce an atheistic utopia. While at least most of the Reformers were not Jews, the Jews of Europe certainly also had a significant role in assuring the success of the Reformation, and Martin Luther was allied with them until he recognized their treachery, after which he tried to warn the world, but by then it was too late and the world did not heed his warning.

On the Gospel of John, Part 48: What is Finished?

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On the Gospel of John, Part 48: What is Finished?

In our last presentation describing The Jewish Murder of the Messiah of Israel, we left John’s account of the crucifixion of Yahshua Christ with the exclamation by Christ that “It is finished!” and the resulting explanation by John that “turning the head He surrendered the Spirit.” While many commentators speculate upon what Christ had meant where He said that “It is finished”, John himself tells us just before he described the exclamation where he wrote: “With this, Yahshua seeing that He had already finished all things, in order that the writing would be completed, He says: ‘I thirst!’ 29 A vessel full of vinegar sat there. Therefore they brought to His mouth a sponge full of vinegar wrapped in hyssop.”

So where Christ had said “it is finished”, John understood that to mean that all things which were written in the books of the prophets concerning what would happen to the Christ were fulfilled. Christ Himself had expressed that same thing the evening before, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 26 where He spoke to His disciples at the time of His arrest, and particularly to Peter who had tried to prevent His arrest, and He said “54 But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” Then Matthew also wrote: “55 In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me. 56 But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.

On the Gospel of John, Part 49: The Open Tomb

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On the Gospel of John, Part 49: The Open Tomb

Presenting our commentary on the account of the final events in the crucifixion and death of Christ as they are described in John chapter 19, we focused on the meaning and implications of the exclamation of Christ where He had said that “It is finished!” In doing that, we hope to have sufficiently elucidated what it was that had been finished at the cross as it had been written in the prophets and explained by the apostles. However doing that, we also neglected any discussion of other aspects of the event, not all of which were recorded by John, so it may be fitting to do that here.

In relation to earlier portions of John chapter 19, we have already discussed and correlated the various descriptions of the fate of Judas Iscariot, the dream of Pilate’s wife, and other things which Matthew had included in his account of the events of this day. Then we discussed at length the culpability for the crucifixion of Christ, and we also discussed the account of Luke which relates that Pilate had sent Christ to Herod Antipas before finally relenting to the demands which the Jews had made for his crucifixion. It is very likely that Herod was elsewhere in the Praetorium, or in the district of the city where it was located, so that entire event may have taken place in a very short time. Sending Christ to Herod, it is evident that Pilate had hoped that Herod would resolve the situation and satisfy the demands of his fellow Jews by another avenue, however Herod had instead merely sent Christ back to Pilate, thereby assuring that He would indeed be crucified as it was Pilate’s last chance to avoid having Him executed.

On the Gospel of John, Part 50: Adamic Dawn

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On the Gospel of John, Part 50: Adamic Dawn

In our last presentation on John chapter 20, The Open Tomb, we discussed various aspects of the events of the morning following the resurrection of Christ, and sought to properly correlate John’s account with the descriptions which are found in the other three gospels. While we will continue doing that here, to some degree, we will shift our focus to the significance of the resurrection itself, because the risen Christ also represents what we may call the Adamic Dawn, as it provides for us an assurance that Yahweh our God transcends His Creation, that He Himself takes responsibility for His Creation, and that therefore we must also understand that His promises of eternal life for the Adamic man and salvation for all of the children of Israel are assured in His resurrection.

The ancient Egyptians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Greeks and Romans, the earliest Adamic cultures from which we have significant literature, all believed in the immortality of the souls of men and an underworld in which they dwelt, and often even in the judgment of men for their deeds after death. The early Greeks and others also expressed a belief in the possibility of resurrection from among the dead, although not in Christian terms, and attributed many of the same beliefs to the ancient Galatae, Gauls or Germans, attributing their bravery in battle to beliefs they had in their own immortality.

These beliefs, being found among the various Adamic nations, should not be viewed as competitors or as truthful alternatives to what is found in the Hebrew scriptures. That would merely be a repeat of the mistakes of the past and a failure to learn from our history. Rather, they should be viewed as reflecting certain core beliefs that the earliest Adamic ancestors of each of those nations, as they are listed in the genealogies found in Genesis chapter 10, had all held in common in prehistoric times. As the nations multiplied and were separated from their primordial ancestors, the myths began to diverge and suffered different embellishments in diverse places, as they were also influenced by the wayward pagan beliefs of alien peoples – those groups related to the people whom the Hebrew scriptures identify as Nephilim, which are the so-called fallen angels.

On the Gospel of John, Part 51: Feed My Sheep

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On the Gospel of John, Part 51: Feed My Sheep

The resurrection of Yahshua Christ is an assurance, for those men who can accept it, that God is true, that He does indeed transcend His creation, and that He had also determined from the beginning to take a part in His Own creation in the person of Yahshua Christ. This was spoken beforetime in the words of the prophets, and it was the inevitable conclusion that had been made by the apostles themselves once they realized the fact of His resurrection. Therefore once Thomas had seen Him he immediately responded by acknowledging Him to be both “My Lord and my God.” Realizing that Yahweh God incarnate as a man can transcend, or overcome, the physical limitations of His creation, it must be realized that His promises of eternal life for the Adamic man of His creation must also be true, and therefore the resurrection of Christ is an Adamic Dawn, as we have described it, the Son rising as a manifestation of the true Light which is an assurance of life to men, to the entire Adamic race which had previously sat in darkness.

But even this is only the beginning of a Christian understanding which leads to many other inevitable conclusions, too numerable to explain here. In his first epistle, which was evidently written not long after John had written this gospel, his own conclusions made with this understanding led him to explain that we must keep the commandments of God and love our brethren, if we love our brethren and keep the commandments then by that we have confidence that we are of God, and our keeping of the commandments of God is how we also manifest our love for our brethren.