Christian Study

Here is a small excerpt from a booklet called Paul and Joseph of Arimathea, Missionaries to “The Gentiles”.

“The book of Acts itself is the historical account of the changing of the name of Israelites in Judea to “Christian.” The only people who retained the name “Jew” after the first century A.D. were the Judeans of non-Israel ancestry who rejected Christ, hated the Gospel, and killed Christians. Israelites who were converted adopted the name “Christian.”

“Those non-Israelite “Jews, their descendants, and all those who have joined their so-called “religion” of Judaism, are still called “Jews” today. This is, also, fulfillment of the prophecies, for God said to the enemies of His Israel people,

“And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto My chosen: for the Lord Yahweh shall slay thee, and call His servants by another name.” Isaiah 65:15

“We’ve already seen His servant (Israel) was to be called Christian after
Christ. As far as can be ascertained, very few, if any, “of them which say they are Jews” (Revelation 2:9) today, have any Israelite blood in their veins. Yet our “lying prophets” call the “Jews” by the hallowed name of “Israel,” and “God’s Chosen People.”

The is was an excerpt from Paul and Joseph of Arimathea, Missionaries to “The Gentiles”, by Sheldon Emry, 1974. The interesting part is that enough additional research has been done in this area, mostly by Jews themselves, that we no longer need to guess if there might be some real Israelites among today’s Jews. There aren’t any.

There are two way to interpret scripture using scriptural terms. One is to suggest that the apostles ignored the scriptural definitions for words. This is highly unlikely since they quoted and expected one to understand the context of quotes quite often. Even Christ quoted from the older writings and expected one to understand the context.

The better idea is to look at all quotes and word usage in light of the old testament usage. For example here is 1 Peter 2:9-10.

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”

This well known and very abused verse is well defined by scripture. The following terms must be understood with scripture’s definitions.

Find the definitions for each of the following and you will understand who is the subject of these verses. chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, “not a people” and “have not been shown mercy”.

Chosen or Elect. They both have the same Greek word source.

1 Chronicles 16:13 “O ye seed of Israel his servant, ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones.”

Isaiah 45:4 “For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.”

Royal Priesthood and a Holy Nation.

Exodus 19:6 “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.”

Peculiar People (Peculiar Treasure and Special People).

Exodus 19:5 “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine”.

Deuteronomy 14:2 “For thou art an holy people unto Yahweh thy God, and Yahweh hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.”

Deuteronomy 26:18 “And Yahweh hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments”.

Not a people.

Hosea 1:8 “Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son. Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.”

Have not been shown mercy.

Hosea 1:6 “And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.”

It should be rather clear that it is true Israel who is the context for 1 Peter 2:9-10. To suggest that Peter, Paul and James for examples had no clue that God had changed His plans puts doubt on the inspiration of scripture. It also destroys many old testament prophecies and promises and makes God a promise breaker.

The modern day Jews are not Israel. Believe the scripture, question the world.

I started reading one book, but in the introduction another book was recommended. That led to a third book. So now I am reading two books with the third waiting. One by James Jester had a quote from a Professor C.A.L. Totten (1851-1908), of Yale University.

“I can never be too thankful to the Almighty that in my youth he used the late Professor Wilson to show me the difference between the two houses. The very understanding of this difference is the KEY by which almost the entire Bible becomes intelligible, and I cannot state too strongly that the man who has not yet seen that Israel of the Scripture is totally distinct from the Jewish people, is yet in the very infancy, the mere alphabet, of Biblical study, and that to this day the meaning of seven-eighths of the Bible is shut to his understanding.”

The understanding of the two Houses of Israel is very important. Ephesians chapter two is all about the reunification under Christ of those two Houses. Many men over the centuries, including Thomas Paine, gave up on the Bible because of one misunderstanding. The Jewish people in the world today are not in any way the children of Israel. The error of who is Israel has destroyed the faith of many.

Here are a couple more interesting quotes I’ve come across in reading another book by James Jester.

In 1760, Ezra Stiles, president of Yale said “God is now giving this land [America] to us who by virtue of the ancient covenant are the Seed of Abraham.” He also said, “The Lord shall have made his American Israel high above all nations which He hath made.”

In 1775, Samuel Langdon, president of Harvard, contended that America should adopt the same form of government that God gave to Moses, because the “Israel government was a perfect republic.”

How far have we fallen by believing those who hate Christ. The Scripture is true. Believe the Scripture. Question the world.

In the beginning there was God and His Moral Law. God chose Israel and put His skirt over her in the desert, Ezekiel 16. This was the Hebrew religion.

Upon the return from Babylon the Edomites corrupted that religion creating Judaism or Phariseeism. When God sent His Son to redeem Israel, Christ had to restore the Hebrew religion. Now it is called Christianity.

It is the same religion with the same God and the same people. The only differences are that Christ is our high priest and sacrifice and that we now have God’s Law written on our hearts.

The Edomites, today found among the Jews, are still trying to destroy the Faith only now they call it Judeo-Christianity.

In talking about the Law, Statutes and Judgements, Moses said,

Deuteronomy 4:6-8 “Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as Yahweh our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?”

This Law was given only to Israel. Is the wording exclusive? In other words, Are other nations prohibited from obeying this Law? The same goes for missions.

The gospel is to be preached, but that is all. We are not to incentivize or force belief in or the keeping of the gospel. How can we tell others to keep what we aren’t keeping ourselves? Our best method after just telling others is to obey it ourselves. Other nations used to look to our nation as mentioned in Deuteronomy above as a source of righteousness. Now all the other nations are interested in is what they can get for free from us. We have taught greed.

The Gospel has been preached far and wide. Bring the missionaries home and let us get our house in order.

It has become common in the larger denominations to approve of sodomy today. It is really rather easy for one to come up with the same ideas. It starts very simply. One Sunday your preacher stands up and reads

James 1:1 “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.”

Today it is incorrectly taught that the 10 tribes didn’t exist at the time of James. So your preacher will say the 12 tribes means the church. What your preacher is saying is that James didn’t know what he was talking about or wasn’t inspired correctly. James used the word translated as church in chapter five. He knew the word. Since the preacher spiritualized James 1:1 then he will also have to do the same with James 2:21 which says

“Was not Abraham our father…”

It doesn’t stop there. Your preacher will be spiritualizing many verses all through the new testament because they don’t make sense with the current teaching in most churches. Next thing you know your preacher will be telling you that Romans 1:27 doesn’t mean what it says and you’ll be right there agreeing with the heresy of many today.

The writers of the New Testament wrote what they meant and meant what they wrote. Spiritualizing what they wrote destroys the meaning they intended. Believe the Word, question the world.