December 2024 Open Forum Discussion

The new Christogenea website - Christian Identity as a theological and historical worldview, and the importance of being able to defend it - Directions for future Bible commentaries - Commentaries, what should be said vs what can be said - Politics, voting, engagement in the political system - The Trump phenomenon, even among Identity Christians - Trump and immigration policy - Pagans, Norse or Greeks, all of their gods are rapists and perverts - Missing Biblical literature available to Solomon and Paul - Genesis 10 Nations and the importance of showing they were all White – Back to immigration, towns overrun with illegal immigrants - Indians in the tech industry and other banter about Indian and Mexican inabilities – Mainstream attitudes towards Adolf Hitler – Christian Identity is the promised Elijah ministry and that is where Identity Christians should focus their efforts - God comes before family; putting man before God is idolatry - Differences in the circumstances of boomer and gen-xers when they were young, as compared to those of millennials and zoomers, who have it much harder and are often naturally disaffected from society - “White” as a descriptor for Europeans and why it was not necessary to use such a term for most of history - Most people would rather live in lies than leave their comfort zone and face the Truth – A lot of discussion relating to Identity Christians dealing with the challenges of everyday life, and more, of course… including Big G and the end of those who bring bastards into their families.

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 14: Lucifer, Son of the Morning

Isaiah 14:1-17

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 14: Lucifer, Son of the Morning

The Roman Catholic images of a fallen angel named Lucifer have permeated Christian society for at least fifteen hundred years, but they are related far more closely to the allegorical images which are found in ancient Mesopotamian carvings than they are to the truths of Scripture. The epithet Lucifer, which is known only from Isaiah chapter 14, does not actually exist in the original language of Scripture, and the words from which the epithets were formed were used in reference to a man, and not as an address for some mystical and supernatural demon or fallen angel. They were used to describe a certain and then-future king of Babylon, whom we would assert could represent any king of any world empire at any given time, a man standing in opposition to God, and not some other-worldly adversary with super-human powers.

The Roman Catholic visions of Lucifer actually detach the Biblical warnings from the realities of everyday life, and the context here in Isaiah concerns the punishment of the children of Israel for their sins. Lucifer does indeed exist, and has existed throughout all of history, but as a man, or as a long series of men, the nature of which the Roman Catholic fables have forever prevented Christians from understanding. The true meaning of the words requires an understanding of ancient history as well as the Biblical context which is found here in the surrounding text of Isaiah. Having obfuscated the meaning of the term Lucifer, the popes of the Roman Catholic Church have actually quite often fulfilled the role of Lucifer, through which they have pretended to be the light-bearers for Christian society while they have actually stood in opposition to Christ. But the people never noticed, because they saw Lucifer as some far-off and mystical, ethereal demon.

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 13: Visions of Empires

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 13: Visions of Empires

Discussing Isaiah chapter 11, there is a prophecy of a rod which would come forth “out of the stem of Jesse,” and in an apparent Hebrew parallelism, also a branch which would “grow out of his roots.” Then where this phenomenon is described further, it becomes apparent that the branch is a man: “a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles [Nations] seek: and his rest shall be glorious.” It is even more evident that this rod is a man, for example where it says that “he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked” and then “righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.” But the language indicates that the man is both the origin of Jesse, and a descendant of Jesse. Therefore this man can only be one and the same as the child who had been prophesied earlier in Isaiah, in chapter 9, who would be called the “mighty God”, the “everlasting Father” and the “Prince of Peace.”

No other man could fulfill the plain meanings of all of these statements unless the promised Messiah is God incarnate. So in language which further illustrates this assertion, here in Isaiah chapter 11 this Root of Jesse is also prophesied to “recover the remnant of his people” from all of the places to where they had gone in their captivity, and only Yahweh God would have the authority and the ability to do that. Furthermore, at this point in the time of Isaiah, the promise to regather His people comes even before most of them are taken into captivity. Then, accompanying that promised regathering, there is also a promise of great peace, and the child of Isaiah chapter 9 would be called the Prince of Peace.

The 50th Psalm - A Discussion from our friends Antioch and Lion of Patmos

Psalm 50 is About Jacob and Esau! (A Brotherly Discussion With Antioch About the Truth of Racial Salvation)

The podcast posted above is a sound-only version of the video:

Download the video here.

Lion of Patmos is joined by our friend Antioch for a discussion about the 50th Psalm! He wrote:

"We are convinced that the Psalm's primary theme is the judgement of the descendants of Jacob and Esau, and that the descendants of Esau are prophetically exposed in this Psalm for their fraud and slander. This was an unscripted discussion, and I realized afterwards that the Hebrew word for saint in Psalm 50 is not qôdesh. Regardless, our arguments still stand because the first group is defined as Israel in verses 4 and 7." Visit Lion of Patmos' channel for more videos.

 

 

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 12: Root and Branch

Isaiah 11:1-16

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 12: Root and Branch

As we had explained at length in our introduction to the later portion of Isaiah chapter 10 and The Promise in the Flames, or the promises which had been given to Israel as the twelve tribes were about to go into captivity, throughout these chapters of Isaiah, where both Israel and Judah are repeatedly condemned and destined to go into captivity, there are also many repeated promises of salvation, and that salvation would ostensibly be achieved through the birth of a child who would be called “the mighty God, the everlasting Father, [and] the Prince of Peace”, among other things which apparently could only describe Yahweh God Himself even if this child would be born of a woman just like any other ordinary man.

In Isaiah chapter 10 we had seen a prophecy warning that Assyria would be destroyed, and assuring the children of Israel that once in captivity, they would escape and even have a part in the destruction of their captors. From the time that Isaiah uttered this prophecy, it would be as many as a hundred and twenty years before Assyria was destroyed around 612 BC. But Jerusalem was also destined for captivity in the words of the prophet, and up to this point, explicit examples of such prophecies concerning Jerusalem are found in the parable of the vineyard of Isaiah chapter 4, and the parable of blindness in Isaiah chapter 6. So if it seems that Jerusalem had escaped its fated captivity once Assyria had fallen, Isaiah had also prophesied concerning Babylon, in chapters 13 and 14, and later, in the closing verses of chapter 39, Isaiah warned Hezekiah that his sons “shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” So Jerusalem would indeed go into captivity, even it it did not fall to the Babylonians until about 586 BC.

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 11: The Promise in the Flames

Isaiah 10:12-34

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 11: The Promise in the Flames

As we have already discussed at length, in Isaiah chapter 7 Ahaz king of Judah was given a sign, that a virgin would conceive a child, and that before the child could eat solid food, or before he could call out to his mother or father, that the kings of both Israel and Syria would be cut off. This judgment upon those kings was described in several different ways, even in chapter 9 where the birth of the child was announced. But there is something much greater being prophesied here, because in spite of the fact that the sign which had been promised to Ahaz was fulfilled, in chapter 9 we read that this child would be a ruler who would sit upon the throne of David and have no end to the increase of his government and peace, that he would forever establish his kingdom with judgment and with justice, and that his name would be called Wonderful Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.

But at the very same time, the children of Israel had also been warned that their kingdoms would be destroyed, and that for their sins they would either perish or be taken into captivity. So the child described in chapter 9 is not the same child who fulfilled the promise of a sign to Ahaz made in chapter 7. In fact, the child, Mahershalalhashbaz, was a son of Isaiah himself, and he was not in line to succeed to the throne of David. Since from this point forward both the Bible and history are silent concerning Mahershalalhashbaz, he could not have been the child which the prophecy in chapter 9 had described.

Rather, the child of chapter 9 is a future Messiah, a promise of Yahweh God come in the flesh to rule His people forever, at some point in the distant future because in the meantime, Israel and Judah were destined to suffer greatly, and also to remain in a period of blindness, or darkness. For example, in Isaiah chapter 8 Yahweh had attested that He “17 …hideth his face from the house of Jacob… 22 And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.” While Ahaz had a temporary comfort in Mahershalalhashbaz, the true Light would be far in the future, and Israel would suffer in the meantime. But as we shall see, there is hope and a promise in the flames of their trials.

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 10: The Rod of My Anger

Isaiah 9:8 - 10:11

In the last presentation of our commentary on Isaiah, titled A Child is Born, we had mainly sought first to rectify the understanding of the phrase “Galilee of the Gentiles”, or correctly, circuit of the nations, in prophecy, and to illustrate the reasons for its dual meaning, since within the greater context and scope of the prophecy of Isaiah it refers to something other than its later colloquial use in reference to the aliens who had come to dwell in and around Galilee during the intertestamental period, among whom portions of the people of ancient Judah who returned from the Babylonian captivity had later settled. It is in that later historical context in which the apostle Matthew had interpreted the passage in reference to Christ, which is appropriate for His time, however the phrase itself must have had another meaning in reference to the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun, as Isaiah had presented it here.

So in the time of Isaiah, the prophecy at the beginning of chapter 9 could not have applied to the region of Galilee in the short term. That is because in Isaiah chapter 7, it is evident that at this time Pekah is king in Israel, and the prophecies in Isaiah chapters 7 and 8 had promised his removal in a very short time. So in the near vision, which is the immediate fulfillment of those prophecies, we read in 2 Kings chapter 15: “29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria. 30 And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.” As we have already discussed, in his own inscriptions Tiglathpileser had boasted of having set Hoshea on the throne of Israel himself.

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 9: A Child is Born

Isaiah 9:1-7

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 9: A Child is Born

Thus far in these first 8 chapters of Isaiah, there have been condemnations of both Israel and Judah, and similar condemnations shall be found repeatedly throughout the first 40 chapters of the words of the prophet. But if one were to sit and read Isaiah through all at once, this seems repetitious, and it may seem that at least some of the language is repeated unnecessarily. But we must bear in mind that during the life of the prophet himself, the prophecies recorded in these chapters happened over the space of as many as fifty years. So elements of his message were repeated frequently, but it was indeed necessary to present such a testimony to the people of Judah over that long span of time.

Isaiah had begun prophesying these things during the reign of Uzziah, and through the reigns of three generations of his sons who had followed him, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, who is last mentioned in Isaiah chapter 39. There Isaiah had informed Hezekiah that his own sons and all of his riches would be taken into captivity to Babylon. Of course, that did not happen for nearly another hundred and twenty years, and we do not know whether Isaiah had outlived Hezekiah, who would live for another fifteen years from that point. But if Jotham and Ahaz had each ruled for sixteen years, discounting the possibility of coregencies, and since the fourteenth year of Hezekiah is mentioned in Isaiah chapter 36 and made evident again in chapter 38, then the prophet had been prophesying for nearly fifty years by that time. Then some time after that, he had written the last twenty-six chapters of his book, which are addressed to Israel in captivity.

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 8: A Stone of Stumbling

Isaiah 8:1-22

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 8: A Stone of Stumbling

In Isaiah chapter 7 it is described that Ahaz, King of Judah, had been vexed by the kings of Israel and Aram, or Syria. With that, we had examined the historical accounts of Scripture in the books of Kings and Chronicles, wherein it is described that both kings working together in an alliance had invaded Judah, killed many tens of thousands of men in battle, and had taken many of the people into captivity. The scale of the war which they made with Judah was not fully reflected in the words of Isaiah, which were directed personally towards Ahaz himself. But in the historical books it also becomes evident that Yahweh had humbled Judah on account of the sins of Ahaz, who had led the kingdom much deeper into idolatry than it had been in the days of his fathers. But in spite of those sins, and in spite of the great harm which had come upon Judah, here in Isaiah Ahaz had been granted mercy, and Yahweh had promised him deliverance from those hostile kings, who had even sought to kill and replace him. As a sign of this forthcoming deliverance we read in verse 14 that “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

But this Immanuel was a sign, and the child should not be confused with the method by which Ahaz would be delivered. In the text of the passage in chapter 7, it is said that “16 … before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.” Therefore the child would only be an infant when the kings of Israel and Aram would be removed. So we should not confuse this child with the king of Assyria through whom the removal had come, or with any historical figure of the period, since the child is otherwise unknown and unidentified in Scripture – except for what we are about to see here in Isaiah chapter 8. We have also stated that this child cannot be the good king Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, as some commentators have imagined, since Hezekiah must have been born before Ahaz his father had become king, and now Ahaz has already been king for at least a couple of years and the child is still not born. That is made evident where Hezekiah became king at age twenty-five after his father had ruled for only sixteen years, as we have already elucidated from Scripture.

European Fellowship Forum, September 2024

Among the topics discussed:

· The recent AfD successes in German national elections · Arab-Islamic crime in Germany · The CIA, Mossad, the potential for war in Iran · The death of cursive writing, and the slide rule. · Replacement theology · Dearth of Greek manuscripts of Scripture in Medieval Europe · Education then and now, how children have been educated throughout the centuries · Hurricanes and other inclement weather · Demographics in Germany · Historical climate change and a much warmer Scandinavian past. See: Melting Ice and a High Altitude Dig Reveal Viking Secrets in Norway and The Big Melt

· Negro crime in America · Oppression of “Holocaust” truth seekers in Germany · School shootings and Jewish kids on psychotropic drugs · Abortion and Sodomy in the modern Israeli State · Phoenicians, and the Antikythera mechanism · Britain, the Glastonbury accounts, and related tales promoted by British Israel · We thought to discuss the rejection of mass immigration by the people of Ireland, but the opportunity was missed See: Ireland is Full

· Ohio Gov. DeWine’s deep connections to Haiti inform response to Springfield controversy (no wonder Ohio is being loaded with Haitians!) · “Doctor” Chuck Baldwin, who calls himself “America’s Patriot Pastor”, and his love for niggers · Jews openly colonize every White area they can get into · Islam and the so-called “White Sharia” movement · Divisions and dividers in Christian Identity, and more!

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 7: A Virgin Shall Conceive

Isaiah 7:1-25

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 7: A Virgin Shall Conceive

Thus far in Isaiah we have seen three recorded visions, first in chapter 1 where there was a general condemnation of Israel, then in chapters 2 through 5 where there was another condemnation of Israel, and a lengthier condemnation concerning Judah, and finally, in chapter 6, there was another vision in which it was proclaimed that the people would be blind, and deaf, ostensibly so that the Will of Yahweh described in the prophecies which concerned them would be fulfilled. That is how Isaiah understood it, where in verse 11 he described himself as having responded to the vision by asking “How long, Lord?” and the answer he received was: “Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.”

So Judah is condemned, the cities of Judah were destined to become wasted and without inhabitant, and at this time there had not been any contingencies provided by which Judah may escape such a fate. Therefore, as we proceed throughout Isaiah from this point, we must keep in consideration the fact that these judgments would indeed be executed in spite of any other promises of deliverance, or a promised appearance of a beneficent ruler, or even of a savior or messiah figure, things which we shall see here in the next several chapters. In that it becomes evident that such promises may have some partial near-term fulfillment, but ancient Judah was not going to be saved, and therefore the promises must indicate something else, something with a long-term fulfillment, a fulfillment far off in the future. This is a phenomenon of many prophecies, that they have a dual nature, which we label as the near vision and the far vision.Now before we discuss Isaiah chapter 7, we should recall that in an appendix to our recent Genesis commentary, and in the opening chapter of our commentary on Isaiah, we spoke of some of the problems with rectifying the chronology of the kings of Judah, and that may start to become apparent here. Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he ruled in Judah for sixteen years, according to 2 Kings chapter 16 (16:2) and 2 Chronicles chapter 28 (28:1). In 2 Kings chapter 17 (17:1) it states that in the twelfth year of king Ahaz, Hoshea became the king of Israel. So Ahaz is likely to have died some time in Hoshea’s fourth year as king of Israel.

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 6: Why Hear the Warnings?

Isaiah 5:18 - 6:13

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 6: Why Hear the Warnings?

Here we shall continue our commentary on Isaiah with the later half of chapter 5, where we are still in the second vision that had been recorded in the words of the prophet. As we had explained, this vision runs through four chapters of the book, and now we are nearing its end. In the opening verses of the chapter there is a rather brief song of a vineyard. That the vineyard serves as an allegory for the children of Israel was stated explicitly where we read in verse 5 that “…the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant…” Later in Isaiah, in chapter 18, there is yet another description of a vineyard where we read what seems to have been a rather ominous warning: “5 For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, He will both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks and take away and cut down the branches.” While we should not get too far ahead of ourselves, for now it may suffice to say that the vineyard in Isaiah chapter 18 is also an allegory for the children of Israel, and as we had already explained in relation to this chapter, it also relates to the Gospel of Christ and the Parable of the Vineyard, as well as the visions of the harvests of the grapes found in chapter 14 of His Revelation.

Topical Discussions, September, 2024

Rejecting the Global Flood Fallacy, and the Folly of Jason von Laban

Topical Discussions, September, 2024

Rejecting the Global Flood Fallacy, and the Folly of Jason von Laban

Over the years, and especially this past year, I have encountered many supposed Identity Christians who believe that the flood of Noah had covered the entire globe. Upon confronting them, they dig themselves in, adhering to their own understanding of the phrase “the whole earth” and the description found in Genesis chapters 7 and 8, that the tops of the mountains were covered. So now we hope to offer a synopsis of our proofs as to why the flood of Noah could not have been global, and as we have already explained at length in Part 11 of our recent Genesis commentary, The End of Sinners, neither of these phrases necessitates a belief that the entire globe of the earth, as we may perceive it, had been covered by water, by water five-and-a-half miles deep, the minimum amount required for those statements to be true if one insists on interpreting them from that global perspective.

But first, we must state that from our experience, none of these people even seem to understand the ramifications of believing that the entire globe of the earth was flooded, and that even goes for many of them who correctly think that the flood was only a local phenomenon, yet they give place to people who profess a global flood. The global flood theory, which is a lie, is something that the enemies of Christ have leveraged against the White European world, a problem which Identity Christians, above all others, should be able to figure out. Once the concept of a global flood is accepted, any sound reason for distinguishing the various races of hominids on this planet is marginalized and opened to ridicule because after all, a global flood interpretation also necessitates an admission that all of races of men must have descended from Noah and his three sons. That is how the devil uses the global flood claim against White Christians, and those who fall for it are suckers opening the door to their own demise.

September 2024 Open Forum Discussion

As usual, these Open Forums have a slow start. One friend asked about Texe Marrs, to whom I have not spent any time reading or listening in 15 years. Texe is an apparently Christian “conspiracy theorist” who, in my opinion, continually misses the mark, and always will miss the mark. So he is really just another rabbit hole, or perhaps, rabbi hole. I offer this opinion here because I did not spend much time on the subject in the Forum.

Finding comfort and encouragement in Scripture. The comfort in prayer. The correlation between thought and prayer.

Kirk Weaver’s beginnings as an Identity Christian, starting in the 1980’s. I had noted that there were two other long-time Identity Christians present, our good friend Bruce Bohn, who founded the Christian Identity group on Gab, and Debbie Downey, a good friend and the widow of pastor Mark Downey. Unfortunately, Bruce had troubles with his microphone, but we hope to speak to him at an Open Forum soon.

The significance of Christian Identity as the prophesied Elijah ministry of the last days. The origin of the label “Christian Identity”. I should have mentioned the fact that Christian Identity is not a denomination. Rather, it is a worldview grounded in Scripture and proper view of history which is fully supported by archaeology. Some of the divisions and differences within Christian Identity.

“Big G”, an Identity Christian from Philadelphia, and his experiences at work and at home.

A brief discussion of American pioneer Davy Crockett, who was also a U.S. Congressman from the State of Tennessee for several terms in the 1820’s and 30’s. At one point in that career, Crockett gave an excellent speech to his fellow Congressman titled “The Public's Money Is Not Yours to Give”, which I had discussed at length in a 2017 presentation titled The Protocols of Satan, Part 29: Constitutional Vanity. This led to a brief discussion of soldiering for the empire, and the evils of taking money from the citizenry in order to fight foreign wars on behalf of international merchants.

Towards the end of this Forum Erick raised the subject of the Parable of the Ten Virgins found in Matthew chapter 25. Here we did not discuss every aspect of the parable, but I made a reference to a recent Wednesday Bible Study which may be found at our Media site: Christogenea Bible Study - August 7/24 - Matthew 24:29 - 51, Matthew 25

Of course many other topics were discussed beyond or in relation to these.

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 5: The Vineyard of Yahweh

Isaiah 5:1-17

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 5: The Vineyard of Yahweh

Here we shall continue our discussion of this second vision which had been recorded in the words of the prophet Isaiah, which runs through four chapters of the book, and now upon our coming to chapter 5 we are nearing its end. This chapter contains a rather brief song of a vineyard, and it is within this context that we should also consider the parable of the vineyard, as well as the parable of the vineyard workers, which are found in the Gospel of Christ. This song is a song of lamentation, accompanied with a message of a coming punishment. In the words of the later prophet Jeremiah, Yahweh further laments His vineyard, and then even later, Yahshua Christ makes an example of a portion of its history, however in His Gospel it is also evident that the lamentation shall ultimately turn to wrath, and that wrath is expressed in even stronger terms in His Revelation. In these messages it is fully evident that the vineyard is an allegory for the society of His people, in which the grapes are metaphors for the people themselves.

As we had discussed in Isaiah chapter 3, where the punishment of the people of Judah for their sins was first announced by the prophet, it is evident that the Patterns of Societal Collapse which had been described there are aspects of that punishment, and they had evidently already come upon Judah even before Isaiah had begun writing. They are the inevitable result of sin which would lead to the breakdown of society and its ultimate punishment. So in the course of the execution of that punishment, the great, wise and mighty men of the society would be neutralized, in one way or another. Then while the youth are magnified and the women caught up in feminism, they would all be humbled by the violence of their enemies. The men would end up dead, and the women, scarred with their own excess of debauchery, would be laid bare in the face of their enemies.

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 4: Patterns of Societal Collapse

Isaiah 3:1 - 4:6

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 4: Patterns of Societal Collapse

Isaiah chapter 2 had opened with a promise of hope, which was evidently a vision for some time far off in the future, since it was followed by a much more immediate condemnation and imminent judgment of the people of Israel of Isaiah’s own time. This condemnation was for greater Israel, since it had made references to the cedars of Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan, which were allegories for various of the tribes of ancient Israel, and also to the ships of Tarshish, the ships by which the children of Israel had spread themselves abroad. In this condemnation they were condemned for their sorceries, for their idolatry, for their haughtiness, and because they had pleased themselves in the children of strangers, which is fornication or race-mixing.

Therefore we must understand that since there was a message of hope which had accompanied the condemnation of Israel for their sins, that Yahweh God had never intended to destroy Israel entirely, but rather, His intention was, and is, to punish them for their sins, so that they would ultimately conform to His will and through their conformance, He could fulfill the things which He had promised to their fathers. As we also hope to have illustrated, it is very likely that by the time Isaiah had written these words, the prophet Amos had already completed the course of his prophecy, and in Amos chapter 3 we read: “1 Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, 2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

Shemitic Idioms and Genesis Chapter Three, Revisited

An update to a 2007 essay by William Finck

The essay which I am going to present this evening is an update of a paper which I first wrote some time in 2006 or 2007. At first, Clifton Emahiser had published it in December of 2007, in his Watchman's Teaching Letter #116, and although I never hesitated to send copies of my essays, translations, or other writings to him as soon as I had completed them, sometimes he needed awhile to verify them and get around to publishing them, if he was going to publish them at all. Later, this paper was presented here in a podcast on Saturday, January 7th, 2012, and I probably elaborated somewhat doing that. But I never updated the text to the original paper, and I did not keep a copy of any notes or other statements I may have added. Since the original text is nearly 5,400 words, and since that podcast was only an hour and twelve minutes, I probably did not add very much.

Doing this, I also want to speak somewhat about development, and by that, I mean the development of one’s Biblical understanding, and the worldview which may result from that understanding. Each of us may think that we know something about a subject, because we heard some teacher or read some article and maybe even did a little studying on our own which seemed agreeable, so we adopt what we learned and we incorporate it into our belief system, and our worldview. But when contradictory facts arise, we must be willing to examine them, and face a decision. It might be easier to continue in something which is not true, living with a more comfortable lie. But if we return to the subject and study more, then perhaps we can sort out what is the truth, and as the apostles themselves had explained in reference to the men of Berea, that is the more noble Christian approach to the Scriptures. Doing this, we must even be willing to challenge our teachers, if we have facts contrary to anything they may have taught.

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 3: Hope and Tragedy

Isaiah 2:1-22

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 3: Hope and Tragedy

In Isaiah chapter 1 we hope to have elucidated the commonality of the opening message of the prophet with those of his contemporaries, Hosea and Amos. In verses 2 through 5 the prophet upbraids the children of Israel for rebelling against Yahweh their God, and departing from Him. Then in verses 6 through 9 the inevitable result of that rebellion is described, where strangers, people of other nations and races, have devoured their land. This prophecy also parallels other similar prophecies of Scripture, both contemporary and remote. One example is found in Joel chapter 1, who wrote in reference to the land of Israel some short time after the deportations of Israel and much of Judah by the Assyrians, and said “4 That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.”

But then this also parallels another example, a more distant prophecy in Revelation chapter 9, where there is a vision of the hordes of Arabia who tormented the Byzantine Empire for over a thousand years: “2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. 5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.”

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 2: Mercy Exceeds Sacrifice

Isaiah 1:10-31

In the opening presentation of this commentary on Isaiah we had sought to focus upon the historical circumstances in which the prophet had begun his ministry. So with the evidence we presented, Jonah had already prophesied some decades earlier, and it seems that the prophet Hosea had already begun his ministry, which, like that of Isaiah, had also endured to the time of Hezekiah. The prophet Amos had also already begun, even if his ministry had evidently not endured for as long as that of Hosea. Now along comes Isaiah, in what appears to be the final years of the rule of Uzziah king of Judah, some time before 740 BC. We have also explained, from evidence which Isaiah provides in chapters 7 and 8 of his prophecy, that he is a man a Judah, that he was married and had at least one child, and he was of some importance to the degree where he could have the attention of the king, and he could command scribes and priests. So it seems that Isaiah may even have been a man of rank in the court of the king before he started his prophetic ministry.

In the opening words of his prophecy, in the first nine verses, there is a blanket condemnation of the entire nation of Israel, which includes both Israel and Judah, and it is not entirely certain that anyone in Israel proper had yet been taken into captivity, but it is evident in the inscriptions that many Israelites dwelling north of Israel proper, in lands already captured by the Assyrians, had most likely been taken, and as we have also seen, as early as the time of Ahab the Israelites had been sending men north to fight against the Assyrians, in league with the Syrians of Damascus and other towns which at one time had been governed by Judah. So concerning this struggle, which is evident in the prophecy which Jonah had made concerning Jeroboam II, and the Assyrian success against Aram and Israel after the time of Jeroboam, it is difficult to tell whether Isaiah is speaking prophetically, or if he is speaking as if the news were a current or recent event, where he announced in verse 7 that “Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.”

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 1: The Sinful Nation

Isaiah 1:1-9

Here we are going to venture a commentary on the book of the prophet Isaiah. While it seems as though it may be a long journey, and I am persuaded that it may take as long as a year and a half to complete, the Genesis commentary had taken that long to complete. I can only pray that it is worth the time and effort in the end. As we discussed here last week, I am still pondering some supplementary material for the Genesis commentary, so I may occasionally revert to that in the near future. The Book of Isaiah is nearly as long as the Book of Genesis, about 37,000 words in the King James Version where Genesis has just over 38,000, and the dives into ancient history and some elements of the language may be nearly as deep. However we also hope to elucidate its close relationship to the Gospel of Christ and the epistles of His apostles in ways beyond those we have already discussed in our New Testament commentaries.

Here we are going to venture a commentary on the book of the prophet Isaiah. While it seems as though it may be a long journey, and I am persuaded that it may take as long as a year and a half to complete, the Genesis commentary had taken that long to complete. I can only pray that it is worth the time and effort in the end. As we discussed here last week, I am still pondering some supplementary material for the Genesis commentary, so I may occasionally revert to that in the near future. The Book of Isaiah is nearly as long as the Book of Genesis, about 37,000 words in the King James Version where Genesis has just over 38,000, and the dives into ancient history and some elements of the language may be nearly as deep. However we also hope to elucidate its close relationship to the Gospel of Christ and the epistles of His apostles in ways beyond those we have already discussed in our New Testament commentaries.

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 1: The Sinful Nation

The prophet Isaiah describes himself as the son of Amoz, and little more can be known about him with any absolute certainty, aside from the apparent fact that he was a man of Judah. Being a man of Judah, he could have been of the tribe of Judah or of Levi, or perhaps even of Benjamin, and the only indication is found in circumstantial evidence later in his writing. There it is also evident that Isaiah had been married with children, as he recorded in chapter 7 that he had been told to go to meet Ahaz the king, and to bring “Shearjashub thy son” along with him. If this were the only reference to a son, we may think the Hebrew term בן or ben (# 1121), which is literally a son, was being used metaphorically, as it is used on many occasions. But in the subsequent text there is another indication that he did indeed have a wife and children, and very much in the same fashion that the prophet Hosea had children – as an example to the people for whom he had prophesied.