Christian Study

Recently saw a post from a non-Christian reminding his friends to try to guilt Christians into loving what he called their neighbors, basically everyone. Not everyone is a neighbor.

With the Parable of the Good Samaritan Christ taught us that it was the man who behaved as a Christian who was the neighbor. It was not the thieves, the priest nor the Levite. Scripture says that if you love enemies of Christ you will be considered guilty of their evil deeds. Not everyone is your neighbor or brother.

Don’t listen to non-Christians tell you about scripture. It is not their book to use against you.

The greatest damage to scripture has been the idea of spiritualizing the meaning of scripture.

Romans 9:4 “Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises”.

Paul lists some things that belong only to Israel. In today’s upside down world instead of questioning the world, preachers will question and change the meaning of scripture. For example, they say that “the adoption” now belongs to all Christians everywhere. This is something that scripture never teaches. Here is a list of words from the KJV that are identifying marks that belong only to Israel.

Adoption, glory, covenants, Law, service of God, promises, elect, called, children, firstborn, chosen, royal priesthood, holy nation, peculiar or special treasure, treasure, grapes, olives, even wild olives and sheep. Afar off and those near. Brother and neighbor. “Not a people”, food, Jew, Gentile. (More as they are found.)

If it doesn’t make sense based on what you see in the world then maybe you have the wrong people as Israel. Check history. Find what people have followed Christ and behaved the most like followers of Christ for almost 2000 years and you will likely have the right people as Israel. Once you get the right people as Israel, spiritualization of scripture is no longer necessary for it to makes sense.

Isa 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.”

John 10:27 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me”.

Isaiah 46:13 “I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.”

Question the world. Believe the Word of God.

Scripture says that true physical Israel would be blind. They would not know who they were. That is currently happening.

Isaiah 42:19a “Who is blind, but my servant?”

Isaiah 1:3 “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.”

Luke 6:39 “And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch?”

If you listen to a preacher who tells you that others, those that hate Christ, are God’s chosen then he is blind as well. He will lead you to the ditch.

Romans 11:25 “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the nations be come in.”

John 10:14, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.”

Christ did not say “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, but won’t be known of mine for 2000 years or more..” Christ did say,

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me”, John 10:27.

We sheep follow Christ, but for the most part we are blind to who we are. The churches tell us that for most of the last 2000 years we have believed in someone else’s God and followed someone else’s religion, but the someone else does not and can not hear Christ’s voice as Christ told them, John 10:26. They are not His people. They are not His sheep. We are Christ’s sheep, Israelites. Pray that soon

“Yahweh openeth the eyes of the blind: Yahweh raiseth them that are bowed down: Yahweh loveth the righteous”, Psalm 146:8.

The book of Galatians was written to and for Israel. This will be just a brief look at the easiest verses to show this truth. Galatians is one of the more abused books where people pull a scripture like Galatians 3:28 out of context. Take a look at Galatians 3:7.

“Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.”

So modern Christianity has been taught to read that verse as the following.

“Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are become the children of Abraham.”

However here is the logical equivalent statement (contrapositive) of what Paul wrote and the understanding he intended.

“If you are not the children of Abraham, then ye are not they which are of faith.”

The standard teaching is to spiritualize scripture to make it more inclusive. Doing so destroys the meaning intended by the author. So with spiritualization one must ask if Paul just did not understand what God wanted him to write or if God didn’t know what was going to happen or if God did, but then He changed his mind and broke promises He made and became a liar. Spiritualizing verses makes God a promise breaker and a liar.

Here is another verse from chapter 3.

3:29 “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Here is the logical equivalent statement.

“If ye be not Abraham’s seed, or not heirs according to the promise, then ye are not Christ’s.”

Both of these statements are found in the same chapter where verse 28 is abused through inclusion.

“There is neither Judean nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Verse 28 really doesn’t prove what most have been taught at all. There were Judean Israelites and Greek Israelites at the time of Paul. This verse must be understood in light of the context of the surrounding verses. To pull it out of context and change the people in the verse to be all people everywhere is dishonest.

Chapter four is even easier to prove the book is written to Israel through the use of scripture’s defined words.

Galatians 4:3 “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world”.

Christ himself defined the word children as meaning Israelites.

Matthew 15:26 “But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.”

Christ also defined the word dog here and the woman of Canaan accepted it.

Galatians 4:4-5 “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”

In verses 4 and 5 Paul mentions the Law of God. No other people were given the Law except Israel and would have no understanding or knowledge of it. Psalms 147:19-20. Only Israel was under the Law.

Redemption can only be for those who were once in good standing with God, which was only Israel. Redemption is only for next of kin by the Law of the Kinsman Redeemer. This is why so much time was spent showing the lineage of Christ in relation to Israel. See the family listings in Matthew 1 and Luke 3.

The adoption belongs only to Israel.

Romans 9:4 “Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;”

When you see those words along with others like special treasure or peculiar treasure, grapes, olives, called, elect, heirs and sheep you know that it is symbolic for Israel. The bible defines its own terms. There is never any verse that equates non-Israelites with those terms. Remember the Latin word Gentile only means nation. It must be understood in context as to the who. If scripture says that some Gentiles are called then you know that they are of physical Israel by scripture definition and usually of the dispersed ten tribes. Paul never changed God’s definitions. Paul only used God’s words the way God intended.

The Greek word for our English word adoption is not found in the new testament. The Greek word means placement of sons, that is placement of those who are already natural sons.

There is more that you can find when you read Galatians. Paul was not double minded and he knew his audience. The modern day Jews are not Israelites. Think about it.

The Hebrew word “hovah” is a part of the word jehovah. In the Hebrew hovah is ruin or destroyed.

H1943 hovah, ho-vaw’; another form for H1942; ruin.

Therefore jehovah would mean “I am ruin” or “I am destroyed”. We should abandon the use of this name. A 1931 dictionary says the word jehovah is a false form while the name Yahweh is a better choice.

I do believe that God has protected His name. One day we will know it correctly. Until then it seems wise to stop using one that is so obviously incorrect.

Exodus 9:16 “But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth“.

Scripture is always true. Christ said of the Jewish leaders of His day,

“But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.”, John 10:26

We know from history and the Jew’s own admission in John 8 that most of the Jewish leaders of Christ’s day were of Esau/Edom whom God hates.

Today’s Jews include Esau/Edom. “Edom is in modern Jewry”, The Jewish Encyclopedia.

Remember your grandparents or uncles telling stories about Jews? I remember hearing about two Jews fighting over a penny making the first wire. Those stories were not told to be mean. They were told to teach a warning to the children about the continual behavior of the Jews. They do not share Christian morals.

Christ didn’t say they couldn’t believe because they had not become sheep. Christ said they could not believe because they were not and are not sheep. The modern day Jews are not Israelites. Christ’s word is always true.

John 10:27 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

1 Corinthians 5:8 “Therefore let us keep the feast”.

We spiritualize it away. Christ is our Passover. A historical record stated that the apostle John taught churches to remember the Passover by taking communion. Easter’s roots are pagan. Spiritualizing scripture destroys its meaning.

The word generation is another word that has been misunderstood in scripture. Sometimes it is translated from the Greek G1074. That is associated with age as in a period of time. Sometimes it is translated from G1085 which means kin. A few times it is translated from G1081 which is fruit with a root word of offspring. The actual source Greek word is where we get the English word for genetics. In the Hebrew it is more common to find it translated from a couple words that mean age as in a period of time of the life of a people.

One of the definitions for generation may be less known. “All of the offspring of about the same stage of life from a common ancestor.” It seems that the ideas of kin and age are connected. When one sees the word generation in scripture it is important to remember that it is referring to a common group of people, family line or race.