Commentaries and Podcasts

1 Peter Chapter 2 - 03-09-2012

Discussing the first chapter of 1 Peter we saw that Peter was indeed addressing the uncircumcision, who were Israelites of the Old Kingdom that were dispersed in ancient times, which Peter by this time had fully understood, even though he had not understood it at the time of the events which were described in Acts chapter 10, which actually occurred some years before the writing of this epistle. We also saw how Peter directly connected the Old Testament and the New where he wrote of things such as the “foreknowledge of Father Yahweh in a sanctification of the Spirit in obedience and a sprinkling of the blood of Yahshua Christ”, which we see in the opening lines of this epistle.

1 Peter Chapter 1 - 03-2-2012

Each of the epistles of Peter are disputed by various critics. The first is rejected because its language is considered to be the highly polished work of an educated man. The second is oft rejected because it was disputed at an early time, it is not often quoted in early Christian writings, and its language is often quite rough. The differences are easily accounted if it is understood that 1 Peter, which is more or less a formal treatise, was probably related by Peter and penned by Silvanos, which is evident in 1 Peter 5:12 where it says “By Silvanos the faithful brother, as I reckon, I have written to you”, and 2 Peter was more of an informal letter that Peter may have written himself since no one else is mentioned. Both epistles are written to the same audience. While there are only what may or may not be allusions to 2 Peter in Clement and in Justin, the epistle is quoted by Hippolytus. It was later disputed by the Catholics (I use that word here with a capital C, in its more modern sense), such as Eusebius who called it one of the “disputed books”, along with Jude. While 2 Peter is little attested, that would not be alarming for a letter that is more-or-less an informal follow-up to the first longer and more formal treatise. I will offer more in its defense when presenting it later this month. As for 1 Peter, it is often quoted and always thought to have authentically belonged to Peter by significant early Christian writers. For instance, Irenaeus quotes 1 Peter 2:16 in Book 4, Chapter 16 of his Against Heresies, and 1 Peter 1:8 in Book 4, Chapter 9 and in Book 5, Chapter 7. Irenaeus also often calls Mark the “interpreter of Peter”, meaning that Mark wrote Peter's gospel. Likewise, Clement and Tertullian also quote from this first epistle of Peter on various occasions, as do other early Christian writers.

Hosea Chapters 12 through 14

This is the last installment of our series of presentations on the prophecy of Hosea. Throughout the prophecy, we have seen a common theme, which is also common in the other Biblical prophets: that the children of Israel were about to suffer a great calamity, and were being cast off from the Kingdom and polity of Yahweh their God because of their sin, but that they had a promise of a later reconciliation in Christ. Here in these last chapters, Hosea continues with that same theme, allowing us to further reflect upon much of what has already been presented these past few weeks, and although his words are quite foreboding, he ends with a message of hope, a hope which we still bear to this very day.

KJV Hosea 12:1 Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt. 

At Hosea 2:5 it is explained that Israel's national sin was related to Israel's desire for foreign trade: “For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.”

Hosea Chapters 10 through 11

I will repeat an important concept which I discussed last week. Here is what is written in the law at Leviticus 20:10 concerning adultery: “And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” Israel, as a nation being the wife of Yahweh, has committed fornication with every other nation and race upon the face of the earth. There are many in Christian Identity today who want to extend the mercy of God to the lovers of the whore: the other races which our Israel nations consort with unto this today. That is universalism! That is not the Scripture, where it tells us that the mercy of God is extended to Israel alone. The day shall come, when we see the words of Jeremiah fulfilled: “Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed” (Jeremiah 22:20). The children of Israel shall indeed be spared, as Yahweh has promised, but all those consorting with her - all of her lovers - shall be destroyed by God, according to His law. Thus Yahweh warns us in Isaiah chapter 52 - which Paul repeats – to come out from among them, and touch not the unclean – so that He would receive us and be our God, and we could be His people, if indeed we are of the children of Israel.

There was a break at 1:14, where the connection dropped and I was not sure where in respect to the presentation that had happened. Therefore some verses were discussed twice, and I left that in the recording but cut out almost all of the whitespace.

Hosea Chapters 6 through 9

Hosea 1:10 says: “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.” In order to realize the fulfillment of this prophecy, we must find the dispersed people of the children of Israel deported by the Assyrians, which Hosea is describing. The prophet Isaiah, speaking of the coming fate of these very same children of Israel, records these words of Yahweh in the 66^th chapter of his prophecy: “19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Nations.”

Tarshish is Tartessus in Spain. Pul is an allegorical name for Assyria after one of its kings, as can be ascertained in the books of Kings and Chronicles. Lud is Lydia in Anatolia. Tubal at this time lived on the Black Sea. Javan are the Ionians, and represents the lands of the Greeks. Within 300 years of the deportations of the Israelites, the Germanic people showed up in all of these places, threatening their very existence. They overthrew Assyria, sacked Lydia, and forced the people of Tubal up through the Caucasus mountains. They threatened Ionia, sacked Etruria – another land of the Lydians in northern Italy, and settled what became known as Gaul as far west as Spain, or what was once Tarshish. No other people ever showed up in all of these places in the centuries following the deportations of the Israelites. This is the “large place” where the children of Israel were to be fed by Yahweh, where he says at Hosea 4:16: “now the LORD will feed them as a lamb [Christ the lamb] in a large place.” With the spread of Christianity to Europe, every word of these prophecies has come true.

Hosea Chapters 3 through 5

Last week, discussing Hosea chapters 1 and 2, I think that the primary lesson was summed up in the idea that the children of Israel are a nation of whores, and a whore as a nation, because they sought intercourse in commerce with all of the other nations, which they had been commanded to remain separate from. This is seen near the beginning of Hosea chapter 2, where it says “2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; 3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. 4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms. 5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.” Today, chasing after the produce of China, Mexico, and every other race on the earth, we are whores once again. That is why, speaking of the then-future Mystery Babylon, the Revelation again depicts the nation of Israel as a whore: and that is where we are now, awaiting Babylon's fall. For her intercourse with other nations, the nation of Israel was punished and carried away by the Assyrians and later Babylonians, as a judgement from Yahweh. This message continues throughout Hosea.

Hosea Chapter 1

I decided to present the prophecy of Hosea commencing with this week, because on the Saturday program over the next few weeks I plan to present my papers on the Scythians and their origins - God willing – and this prophet more than any other with the arguable exception of perhaps Isaiah, goes hand-in-hand with the history of the deportations of Israel and Judah.

Hosea began his prophesying, according to his own introduction, at the time when Uzziah (who is also sometimes confusingly called Azariah in the King James Version) ruled over Judah and and Jeroboam II ruled over Israel. Both of these men reigned for a long time: Uzziah, who was stricken with leprosy while he ruled, from about 791-739 BC and Jeroboam II from 793-753 BC. Therefore Hosea began to prophecy before 753 BC. He wrote until the days of Hezekiah. Hezekiah ruled Judah from about 729-698 BC and since there was no king in Israel after Hoshea's rule ended circa 722 BC, we see that Hosea did not mention any king after Jeroboam II even though six kings followed him before Israel was fully broken as a kingdom. Therefore Hosea wrote from no later than 753 BC unto at least 722 BC, a period of at least 32 years during the time described in the Bible from II Kings chapters 14 to 20, and from II Chronicles chapters 26 to 32.

James Chapters 4 and 5 - 01-20-2012

Here, because of its importance, and because of the ways in which the chapter is abused, I thought to repeat James chapter 3, and to present it in a manner a little more pointed than how it was presented last week. 

III 1 You must not produce many teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive a greater judgment. 2 For we all fail often! If anyone does not fail in word, he is a perfect man able to guide with a bridle even the whole body. 3 Even if the bridles of horses are put into their mouths for which to persuade them for us, then we maneuver their whole body. 4 Behold also, there are such great ships, and being driven by severe winds, maneuvered by the smallest rudder, being driven straight where impulse desires. 5 Thusly also the tongue is a small body-part and boasts loudly. Behold how small a fire ignites so great a forest! 6 And the tongue is a fire, an ornament of injustice. The tongue sits among our body-parts soiling the whole body and setting ablaze the course of existence, and being burned by Gehenna! 

Gehenna, the destruction caused by the fiery trials of this life, the wars and strife caused by the tongue. All of these things are of course true, but we must consider how and what kind of speech causes men to slip. And in whose perception do men slip? One man may think that you have erred when he does not like what you say. But what is sin, to slip in the eyes of man? Or to slip in the eyes of God? It may well be that man's pride which causes him to think badly about you. Therefore we have only one Judge: Yahshua Christ, and one Guide, which is His Word.