Christian Study

If Jacob-Israel were to visit your church next Sunday with his four wives would he be welcome to place membership? God does not change his morals. The true nation of Israel began with one man and four women with God’s blessings.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not have eternal life in torture, but have eternal life (in peace, joy and love).”

Hmmmm, what does John 3:16 really say?

We did it again. A well known phrase is that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. So not only have we done it again, but we have done it over and over again.

The model given to us by scripture has a hierarchy of order. God is at the top followed by man and then women. God is the protection of men and women are under the coverature of man. That order has never changed. If you believe that we have not outgrown our need for God’s protection then understand that scripture teaches that women are still made as a help meet to men, to be by man’s side, to be under man’s coverature.

1 Samuel 8:4-5 “Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel to Ramah; and they said to him, Behold, you are old, and your sons don’t walk in your ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

If you realize the similarity then we did it again in 1776 when some men got together and created a nation that did not have God as its head. If there is any question about whether this nation was formed as a Christian nation then the Treaty of Tripoli of 1797 should remove all question. Article 11 of the treaty plainly states that “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” The treaty was in fact a violation of God’s Law in that it made an alliance with believers of Islam. Regardless of the intent of those who approved of the constitution, it was written in a way as to allow the free practice of almost anything that calls itself a religion.

So we did it again. “Yahweh said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them.” 1 Samuel 8:7

In 1920 the nation was convinced to grant women the right to vote. Now the right to vote is not necessarily a problem, but it was just a step in the direction for those who wanted to change God’s order. In Christ, Christians are equal with one another, but man usually never knows when to quit. Laws have been passed to give preferences to not only women, but to minorities and now followers of Islam; a “religious” group who are just starting to push for their own preferences. Liberal courts have been ruling in their favor or ignoring their activity.

One of the complaints commonly heard is that men are not behaving as men and so women are having to take up the job. I just heard that again on the radio. It is time to consider that women have had their share in the problem. Women have been wanting men to behave more like women for a long time. The truth includes the idea that women have not been behaving like women for a long time as well.

The radio program then went on to blame men and pornography. Has anyone considered why men might use pornography? A woman on a pedestal may not behave like a help meet. A woman on a pedestal is likely not going to look favorably on “her” man paying any attention to other women, regardless whether the women are real or in pictures. Perhaps a woman on a pedestal is not fulfilling her God appointed role?

Let me suggest that it is not only time for men to behave as Godly men, as required by scripture, but for women to step off the pedestal and begin to behave as Godly women, as also required by scripture. Humility is an important aspect to receive God’s blessing and protection.

The point is that if we want God’s protection and blessings then we must put and keep ourselves under his coverature. Women are to be properly under the protection and coverature of men. Those who do not may do as they wish, but should not complain when things do not go well for them.

Tim

Recently there was an article posted on line about the idea that so many people can read the Bible and come away from it with different conclusions. There are a few very good reasons for this. Here are just two.

Let me suggest a scenario where I tell a story about three dogs. The story eventually gets to a part where the dogs go into hibernation. Some readers might not notice anything strange about that. Some readers might see that as strange that dogs were going into a winter hibernation. If I told you that the story was supposed to be about bears then the part about hibernation would make more sense.

A number of people through the years, including one of the founders of the united States, disregarded scripture because they would read in scripture about some people and then compare them to what was believed to be the modern portion of those same people. It did not make sense. Many misunderstand scripture because of the people who today call themselves Jews. The story wasn’t about dogs, but bears. Scripture is not about a modern people called Jews, but rather a people who were Hebrews, called Israelites, and in scripture a portion of them were referred to as Judeans or Judahites. These words were changed in English Bible translations to Jews in 1775. The term Jew did not exist before 1775.

About ninety percent of today’s Jews are Ashkenazi Jews who descend from a grandson of Japheth, Ashkenaz through Gomer. Around ten percent are descended from Esau who is Edom. “Edom is in modern Jewry” is a quote from the Jewish Encyclopedia. The rest are Sephardic Jews who’s history we won’t get into here. The fairy tale concerning Jews being Israelites continues on today with as much validity as the Easter Bunny. Much of the available evidence for this comes from Jewish writers although scripture has plenty to say about this as well. There are an endless number of quotes that could be cited.

So the first problem for many in reading scripture is that the wrong people have been assigned to the most important roll. Israelites are not modern day Jews. Modern day Jews are not Israelites.

“Strictly speaking it is incorrect to call an ancient Israelite a ‘Jew’ or to call a contemporary Jew an Israelite or a Hebrew.” (1980 Jewish Almanac, p. 3, A brief History of the Terms for Jew).

“Khazars, a non-Semitic, Asiatic, Mongolian tribal nation who emigrated into Eastern Europe about the first century, who were converted as an entire nation to Judaism in the seventh century”. (The Jewish Encyclopedia)

The term Gentile does not mean non-Jew as it is misunderstood today. The term Gentile is a Latin word first used by Jerome in his Latin translation of scripture for the Greek ethnos. The term Gentile includes the idea of kinship. The basic meaning of ethnos is nation or race. The idea was that a nation was made up of a people of the same race, they were kin.

There are several instances where translations use the word Gentile, but the context clearly refers to Israelites. I have covered this elsewhere, but my favorite is in Romans 2:14-15 where we are told a group of Gentiles has the Law of God written on their hearts. Scripture is very plain stating in Jeremiah 31, Hebrews 8 and Hebrews 10 that only Israelites have the Law written on their hearts as a part of the new covenant agreement. This is a contract and has never been amended in scripture to include any other people.

The basic story of scripture starts with a man described as Adam in Genesis 2 and follows his descendants down through a man named Jacob, renamed Israel. From that point on scripture is mainly only about a people who descended from Jacob Israel. To suggest otherwise makes God a promise breaker and a liar.

There is a group that would like this truth to remain unknown. Because of that there is a lot of incorrect and misleading information on the internet concerning who truly is Israel today. It’s not a spiritual only group. It is a physical people who’s history is obvious when one does just a bit of research. If you are interested you can start at this very short web site for just the beginning.

Tim

First a couple facts from scripture. God made everything. There is nothing that exists that does not have it’s source from God, John 1:3. God created all the races. Scripture does not directly address this however due to a poor choice of wording in Genesis chapter one it is not so obvious.

The Hebrew word chay, H2416, is a general word that means life and living. In the KJV in Genesis 1:24 it is translated as living and beasts. In Genesis 3:20 it refers to the children of the Eve from the garden. It is translated living and life quite often. So the point here is that in Genesis chapter one God created living beings, some who could walk on two legs, reason and talk, and this meaning may have been obscured by the translators choice of the word beast.

God created everything and then said it was good. God did not say or imply equality among men or the races. The US constitution states that “all men are created equal”, but one must consider that the framers and signers of the constitution owned slaves and using their own words limited that equality to “our progeny”.

God created everything and then said it was good. It was good until man messed it up. The Book of Jasher, recommended reading by scripture, tells us a bit more detail about the reason for the flood at the time of Noah.

“..and the sons of men in those days took from the cattle of the earth, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and taught the mixture of animals of one species with the other, in order therewith to provoke the Lord; and God saw the whole earth and it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon earth, all men and all animals.” Jasher 4:18

Men and animals were being corrupted from God’s original perfect and good creation by admixture, by miscegenation. So why was Noah preserved? After God said that he would destroy those in the land this is what scripture says about Noah.

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of Yahweh. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations , and Noah walked with God.” Genesis 6:8-9

Noah’s lineage was perfect. Noah did not practice admixture. In the older Hebrew texts the word found for generations means descent, that is, family; (figuratively) history. However even the word generations has a root meaning that includes only one group of people or family.

A couple other details to consider. The actual meaning of the word bastard has changed over the years. In scripture the meaning is not “one born out of wedlock”. Rather the meaning in the Hebrew is mongrel. When one takes that along with the seventh commandment Hebrew word meaning of adultery, adulteration, mixing and yes the meaning includes miscegenation, then the meaning of all of this becomes rather clear.

God created everything and then said it was good. God created all the races and said that they were good. God made what he made for his own purpose.

“But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”
Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor?” Romans 9:20-21

If one can get past their political correctness arrogance and let God be God, then one must admit that it is truly his choice to create, make and design as he sees fit. Who are we to question? So with all the political correctness training that has invaded the church one might then find it interesting that the above is even in the scripture. The fact that God made the races makes God a racist in the eyes of men. Either God is a racist or he is Righteous. God does not make arbitrary law. He has a reason for everything and this is only a part of the story. For a bit more click this link to read another aspect that you may have missed in scripture.

We had just moved, to a new town, in a new state, for a new job. So we started visiting a new church of Christ. They are always happy to see a new family and when we said that we home schooled our three children they were quick to point out that there was one other family that did that as well. We met them in the parking lot and I remember saying a few things to let them know where we stood on a few doctrinal issues. If I remember he didn’t catch those, but we later found out that we were of a similar mind.

As time went we would go to early worship, Sunday school and then meet up at Wendy’s for lunch. They lived way out in the country so this was almost the only time we saw them. We became friends and eventually every Tuesday I would go by his work in Nashville, pick him up and we would go eat lunch together. We did this for about twelve years. This was great because it not only allowed two mostly like minded Christians to fellowship, but also bounce ideas off each other. I have learned that this is very important.

A person who is off by themselves all the time with out any fellowship has the possibility of coming up with some possibly very strange ideas. Having one person who you can freely mention all of your weird ideas to without worry is so very helpful. One funny aspect was that I would mention something to him. Then anywhere from six months to four years later he would come back to me with this new thing he had learned which of course was what I had told him earlier. This happened many, many times. I finally did tell him in the last couple years that I had told him those things earlier.

So we moved, to a new town, in a new state, for a new job. Really in both cases it was just a new location, same job, same company. Now neither of us have the old fellowship, the opportunity to bounce new ideas off each other. He is not much for emailing although I did send him some of my new ideas by email so he is pretty much up to date with me. It was nothing too out of line with what he already knew about my beliefs. However he has made a very major change in that he has dropped Paul and all of his writings. I feel badly because I was not there for him to bounce those ideas off of and hear some reason. I have told him that most of the problems with people’s understanding of Paul is due to bad English translation. That I think is the case with maybe sixty percent of all doctrinal problems. Forty percent then is left for bad definitions and having the wrong people identified in history as it all relates to scripture.

A few years ago an old friend from Harding called and said hi. He has been preaching in the church of Christ for the last twenty years. He was explaining to me that many had begun to question or had already changed their belief on the need for immersion or baptism for the remission of sins. This has been a major church of Christ doctrine. He was now in that crowd. I told him that I didn’t see how one could get around Romans 6:3-4. Then I made the mistake of telling him some of my changes, pointing him to one of my web sites to read further. I haven’t heard from him since. He is a good man and I wish he had had the desire to chat with me further.

He likely had a knee jerk reaction. It is a natural reaction to any new information. It is natural to reject new ideas before one has the opportunity to logically study something new. The Bereans were noble people in this regard. Preachers are taught to identify some doctrine and “pigeon hole” it. That training keeps the preacher safe from the possibility of losing his job and keeps him ignorant of what possibly might be important truth for him to learn. I have noted that most of the text books that identify these doctrines are rarely accurate and are very good about picking out the worst examples of any doctrine considered false by the group.

I have another friend who shares a hobby with me, but works in Christian radio. Excluding family I have probably known him longer than anyone else. About fifteen years ago he heard about a one minute explanation of just some of my beliefs. I am pretty confident that he has never given any of those ideas even five minutes of consideration. In that regard I guess I am amazed that he is still my friend. We pretty much only talk about our hobby. He would lose his job if he started to believe any of what I believe.

So as I want to share ideas with anyone new I understand that it is almost impossible to do so. What we think we know is comfortable. I know all the old arguments and was successful with them. I was there once upon a time. For those of us who have had to make changes for conscience sake it is a lonely road, but quite exciting to see how wonderfully scripture all works together and even matches history once the fairy tales taught in the churches are done away.

Tim

People generally know that the ten northern tribes were divorced by God and sent into exile among the Assyrians. What most do not know is that most of the twelve tribes actually went into that exile. Only Jerusalem and a couple towns nearby were spared that captivity. Even so many believe that the northern tribes became amalgamated into the Assyrian empire and disappeared from history.

James, really Jacob, knew the word that we translate as church. James 5:14 has the phrase, “let him call for the elders of the church”. So James knew the word we translate as church.

Unfortunately these days there is a tendency to spiritualize anything in scripture that is not understood or does not fit with doctrine. In James 1:1 he wrote:

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

Many will teach that James was writing to the church. This is partly true, but James wrote “twelve tribes” and that is what he meant. As I mentioned earlier James knew the word for church and if he had wanted to write church he would have. So to teach that James wrote to the church because one’s understanding is lacking on why he would write what he did is not honest study or teaching of scripture.

The twelve tribes were in existence. The Pharisees knew where many of them were living. Josephus wrote, “…wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the Ten Tribes are beyond the Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers.” The ten tribes were in Europe. Also Ptolemy spoke of the western isles of Britain and Ireland writing, “They were peopled by descendants of the Hebrew Race .” An early name for Ireland was Ibernia which meant “new land of the Hebrews”. Europe is scattered with grave markers declaring the tribe and family of those buried there. History also records that many of Israel were in the United States. One grave site was found near Knoxville, Tennessee . Those buried there were from the time of Christ.

So the point is that we have been spiritualizing anything we didn’t understand when we should let the scripture writer’s meaning stand. Take a look at John 3:16 and the word perish for another example.

Tim