Special Bible Study—Galatians 3

Fred R. Coulter—October 20, 2012

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Who is going to be the next President? If it's going to be Obama, you better batten down the hatches and be prepared for about 40% tax, plus all the taxes that are hidden in 'Obamacare' because he is never signing a repeal. There are about 23 taxes there. The worst one is tax on selling your home, which is 3.8%; $3800 tax for every $100,000 that you receive. Right now there won't be much tax to collect because for most people, the value of their house is less than the mortgage they are carrying. If you sell it, it'll be a payoff and if you're lucky the bank will forgive the overage. The bank ought to because they are the ones who pumped it up.

I remember going back quite a few years, all those loans, 'Get this loan on your house, up to 125% of the value of your home.' They knew that with all this money being pumped into the housing that it was going to go up, up, up. That would work so they can make a lot of money. They had good interest. Now they're hung with the penalty when it all crashes. Now you've got houses that are called 'under water,' which means they're not sitting in a flood, it means that they owe far more than what the house is worth.

I view it this way: If Romney gets in we may have a respite for a while and the reason for that will not be so that we're going to survive financially—which we probably will survive better financially—but there's one aspect that you can't find on a chart, that you can't find on any financial table.

How much does God want the Gospel preached? And I don't think the churches are doing a very good job right now. So therefore, there's going to have to be a whole lot of preaching of the Gospel to the world in any way that can be done.

My prayer everyday is that since Christ is the Head of the Church—not the man who may be considered the corporate head by whatever governmental agency is involved—that He would stir up His Churches, lead the ministers to repentance. We'll talk about some ministers and brethren as well here so that they would really preach the Gospel the way that they need to.

On the other hand, we have the brethren and there are a lot of them out there doing their own thing--they are putting people, social things; Sabbath services become a social event. We are to love one another, but too many people take the attitude not quite as bad as this. One man says, 'When I go to bed I think of God. When I get up I'm out there in the world on my own.' Meaning God is not involved in his life except a fleeting thought.

There are way too many people in the Churches of God who are not studying, who are not praying, who have their own pet doctrines, who have their own things that they're going to do. The reason that that is so is because the ministry has been so deficient. The ministry has not taught the people to have that relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ. They have not preached the love of God, the grace of God, the hope of God.

Yes, they've preached the commandments, but God is calling us to eternal life. That's greater than any scale we could compare to any educational system we would want. Whether you start from kindergarten and you go clear through to the super PhDs three or four times over again at the other end, because eternal life is greater than that!

The people have been delinquent, the brethren. The ministers have been delinquent to teach the brethren so they can grow in grace and knowledge in understanding of the Word of God. So therefore, when it comes a time that brethren come to Church and they hear everything repeated again and they have a notebook, they take notes. They go through and they take notes on different sermons.

Lo and behold, they're sitting there and the minister is speaking and they think to themselves, 'I've heard this before.' They go back through their notes and sure enough they did. There are some ministers who are so delinquent in not praying and studying themselves and all they do is just go back through their old notes. The truth is they ought to be preparing for every single sermon, not relying on the old notes.

You want to see my notes? There they are. Now you figure out what I preached. That's not to be bragging, because I'm not, that is to say that what needs to be done in preaching and teaching is that the elders and ministers need to learn the Bible so well that the only thing they need to do is write down the Scriptural references and then preach. But they are not doing it.

• they're hung up on authority
• they're hung up on structure
• they're hung up on a lot of things

—and they are missing a lot of the true doctrines that they need to learn. Some of the brethren studying on their own learn them or hear from another minister about things. Then they come and ask their 'loyal, faithful' minister, 'What about this or what about that?' Oh, you shouldn't listen to that person, and, of course, above all, never listen to Fred Coulter.'

People have asked, 'Why have they been so against you?' I've thought about that for years and years; the only thing I can figure is this: When I resigned in 1979 that was way before anything happened, but I could see it happening because I was right there in Pasadena for four years and then I was three and a half years just 300 miles from Pasadena, so I was in close communication with them.

I was seeing everything that was taking place at every level clear up to the evangelists and everything. If you knew the Word of God you knew that that couldn't hold together. When I resigned on the Day of Atonement 1979, I just had a listing of Scriptures and asked God to inspire me to say what needed to be said. I had no written-out statement concerning anything.

The loyalists in the organization thought that I was absolutely rebellious and presumptuous because in effect I was correcting Herbert W. Armstrong. For all the loyalists who follow men instead of God this was a great affront.

I wasn't correcting Herbert Armstrong. God used me to preach the Word of God, to warn not only Herbert Armstrong, but everybody else. Leroy Neff was the treasurer at the time that I spoke there in Monterey. He brought with him the nice little 'gestapo' minister who was going to take over and totally smash everything that is done. He was a good man to use because he destroyed every church he went to so he was a perfect one to take over after me.

As I was bringing the sermon I kept praying, saying, 'Oh, God, please don't have them come up and take me off the stage.' I thought about that, why didn't He do that, because as I was getting toward the end of it, it was really beginning to hit home. The only reason I can figure why Leroy Neff did not do that was because he agreed with me, because he was in the middle of Pasadena. He was shocked to hear it, but paralyzed to do anything. He was under orders that if anything happened he would have to disfellowship me.

Couldn't disfellowship me because I resigned. So therefore, this is why they were so against me. The truth is from 1979 until 1994—so when I said the forces have been set in motion to tear the Church apart I didn't intend to say that, but God inspired me to say it—that was 15 years ahead of time. That's why people have been so against me. This is not intended to be a defense of me because:

• I also had to learn the grace of God
• I also had to learn the love of God
• I also had to learn that the brethren needed to be taught

• I also had to learn I had to go out and find work and support the family—which I did through loan brokering, and so forth.

But it did give me one thing: It gave me a lot of time to study, especially study the Greek, translate the New Testament. Having few brethren to serve, teaching them how to live their lives is the whole thing of ministering and teaching because what it should have been:

• Teach the brethren and you don't have to counsel them.
• Teach the brethren how to live their lives.
• Teach them that they need a relationship with God, not the minister.

Whatever they do, they do because God says so. I learned a lot of things about the ministry, too, because strange as it may seem, when I was in Worldwide—though I was under authority—I was really not under authority in the sense that a lot of other ministers were.

After I was ordained they sent us over to Boise to pastor there and the district superintendent, Carlton Smith, he was not an overlord like some of them. For seven years, between Boise and Salt Lake, he would come over once a year and see how the churches are. 'Hello, Fred, how are things going?' The churches are fine; churches are growing. All of those things because there was one thing said by the profligate evangelist in one ministerial conference, which is true—even Balaam was forced to speak the truth, so keep that in mind.

This is not a dig in the sense of a dig, but it's a shame that that situation was perpetuated for nearly 20 years before anything was done about it, actually longer than that. But he said to all the ministers, 'If you want to know how to handle or teach or be a good minister, read and study 1st & 2nd Timothy and Titus, as well as the rest of the Word of God.'

The question was, why was the director of church administration, a so-called top evangelist, why did he have 'a burr under his saddle' toward me? The reason is that because I also believed what they told us: If you're studying and you come up with something new, write it down and send it in. I did that. That had to do with the book of Galatians, that the book of Galatians did not mean that God added the sacrifices after the people sinned. No such thing. When you bring out the Truth, what can they say against it except that you're rebellious. Herbert Armstrong was the only one who was supposed to bring new doctrine.

Remember when they first brought out about Simon Magus. Remember that? Ernest Martin was the one who brought that up. Ernest Martin was the one who wrote all about it. But it was not going to be preached unless it was handed to Herbert Armstrong so he could preach it as if he discovered it. That's how tight the authority was. That's why Herbert Armstrong rarely had anyone he could trust because he needed all of the credit for everything and needed everyone to worship him. When you're one-on-one that's a different story. He was nice, he was humble, he was kind, and all that sort of thing. But he had to be the one to bring it out.

Galatians 3:19 (KJV); this is one of the reasons why eventually this led to translating of the New Testament. "Wherefore then serve the law? It was added because of transgressions..."

Jeremiah 7—here was the basis for saying that God never intended to give them sacrifices until they had sinned. Where did they first sin? All the way through the time they were in Egypt! What did Moses say to Pharaoh? 'Let us go into the desert three days so we can offer sacrifices to God.' Hello!

Jeremiah 7:21: "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat flesh.'" Who were they sacrificing to?

Verse 3: "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Do not trust in lying words, saying, "The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these." For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your hurt'" (vs 5-6). Those sacrifices were not to God. They perverted them.

He says, v 7: "Then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever. Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit" (vs 7-8).

So He says it up here, v 4: "Do not trust in lying words..."

Then He explains what they are trusting in, v 9: "Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know." Meaning they were taking those sacrifices that were supposed to be to God and offering them to the other gods. Right there in the temple area.

Who was king at that time? This was just right after Manasseh died, beginning of the ministry of Jeremiah. Josiah was a little kid, eight-years-old. What did Manasseh do to the whole temple area? He turned it into the greatest ecumenical thing that there ever was with all kinds of weird worships, weird gods, perverted sex, everything perverted. God's message through Jeremiah was that this was an effrontery to Him.

Verse 10: "And them come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, 'We are delivered to do all these abominations'?…. [we have grace] …Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it,' says the LORD. 'But now go to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel. And now because you have done all these works,' says the LORD, 'and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear; and I called you, but you did not answer; therefore, I will do to this house, which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim'" (vs 10-15). He says, 'Look at the ten tribes of Israel. They are gone. You better learn a lesson from that.'

Verse 16: "Therefore, do not pray for this people, nor lift up cry nor prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you." That's what He told Jeremiah. Then it talks about what they were doing; the queen of heaven and all of that.

So when it says over here, v 21: "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices'" (vs 21-22). That was not the primary thing but He did speak to them about it before they sinned in breaking the Sabbath in Exo. 32.

Verse 23: "But this thing I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people; and walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, so that it may be well with you.'"

Did God command the sacrifices? Yes! That's the very first thing He started talking about. You start in Ex. 25, build the tabernacle, gave all the instructions. He listed all the sacrifices that were to be there. He intended them to have His sacrifices, but they perverted it for the sacrifices of the other gods.

Verse 24: "But they did not obey, nor bow their ear, but walked in their own counsels, in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward."

The false doctrine in Gal. 3 is based on Jer. 7. What happened, this was based upon the Church of God Seventh Day doctrine. When I was up in Salt Lake and Boise—I'm leading up to something that I did with Gal. 3—which then was in about 1967-68. We stayed there until 1972, maybe it was as late as 1969. While up there I was able to meet all the Church of God Seventh Day ministers in the area, which was interesting; they had some interesting things.

Back here to Galatians 3:19 (KJV): "Wherefore then, serve the law? It was added..." [Now they're saying this is the law of sacrifices. No! This is complete misinterpreted and misunderstood.] ...Wherefore then, serve the law?.… [In relationship to what?] ...It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator."

The topic goes back to v 14. I'm going to go to the Faithful Version because that is the correct translation. What are we talking about all the way through? Let's come back here to the first part of Gal. 3 and let's see what Paul is talking about. Talking about the Spirit of God:

• how God gave it
• how we need it
• how we need to use it

We'll follow one of the very first rules of Bible study: read the content.

Galatians 3:1: "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you into not obeying the Truth..." You need to understand that what is being talked about in Gal. 2 is the laws of Judaism and not the laws of God. Otherwise, God would be schizophrenic indeed and the Apostle Paul would be a madman in attempting to get rid of the laws of God, which God gave. We'll just say here, the only one who can change a Law of God is God! He did not do away with any laws; He elevated them to a higher spiritual level. That's a separate study in itself.

This is interesting. "...who has bewitched you into not obeying the Truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ, crucified, was set forth in a written public proclamation?" (v 1). That shows they had the Gospel. That shows they had the book of Matthew. The word for written here comes from the Greek verb 'grapho'—which means to write. God's Word is always based on what is written.

Verse 2: "This only I desire to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit of God by works of law... [works of law always means Judaism] ...or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected in the flesh?" (vs 2-3). That's exactly what too many Churches of God are doing. Perfected by this rule, by that rule, by the other rule. And twist and pervert the Gospel and take to themselves authority that God never gave them epitomized in this thought: you must be ruled before you can rule in the Kingdom of God. A true statement, but they apply, 'You must be ruled by the ministry and you must be submissive to the ministry. Otherwise you're not going to be in the Kingdom of God.' Rather than teach them

•  to love God
• to serve God
• to grow in grace and knowledge
• to have a relationship with God

That kind of thing stultifies the ministers in learning because they're operating on a false doctrine and the brethren from growing in grace and knowledge who knuckle down and submit to it. It gets down to the fact that you end up with the same way that it is in the Catholic Church: you cannot study the Bible unless a minister is there and you cannot learn anything from the Bible unless the minister tells you.

How, pray tell, are you to grow in grace and knowledge? You can't do it! So, all of these things were so intermeshed and intertwined together that the whole system had to be blown apart. There was no reformation of it.

Verse 4: "Have you suffered so many things in vain, if indeed it has been in vain? Therefore consider this: He Who is supplying the Spirit to you, and Who is working deeds of power among you, is He doing it by works of law or by the hearing of faith?" (vs 4-5).

In other words, do they do a 'hocus-pocus dominocus' with a work of law? I'll use one vain example and it's in the Code of Jewish Law: On the Day of Atonement the devout ones are to take a white chicken, live, put it over their head and circle it around their head. They better make sure that nothing happens. That is a work of law.

God says repent! That is a work of the heart. That is the work of the Spirit. There are spiritual works. There are works of law, which are physical works. If you don't have the book, Judaism: A Revelation of Moses or a Religion of Men?, get it and read it especially the back part where we have things from the Code of Jewish Law.

If you don't read that, you're never going to understand Galatians. The biggest problem that the Protestants have and new people coming to the Bible, the first thing they do is jump in to understand Galatians and they are knocked right out of the whole thing immediately. They don't understand it.

Verse 6, here's the key you need to pick up on: "It is exactly as it is written: 'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness.'" How did he believe God? James says 'faith without works is dead.' How did he believe God? We'll find out.

• How do you believe God?
• Do you just believe He exists?

or

• Do you believe what He says?

What did we cover in Jer. 7? Obey My voice! We're to obey the voice of God! This is where the Protestants get off because very few really fully grasp that Jesus Christ was the Lord God of the Old Testament.

How did Abraham believe? Here's why the promise went to Isaac, Genesis 26:5: "Because Abraham obeyed My voice..." Just what we're talking about, that's the first thing. He said, 'Get up and go out of this land.' Kept obeying His voice except when he became a coward on a couple of occasions and he listened to his wife when he shouldn't have. There are times to listen to your wife and there are times not to listen to your wife.

"...and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws" (v 5). Those cannot be any different than the ones that He gave to Israel. He believed God. He believed God enough

• to obey His voice
• to keep His charge
• to keep His commandments
• to keep His statutes
• to keep His laws

Galatians 3:6: "...and it was reckoned to him for righteousness." Why? Because he did it from the heart! You can see how complicated Gal. 3 gets.

Verse 7: "Because of this, you should understand that those who are of faith are the true sons of Abraham." That goes clear back to Gen. 15. If you haven't read that in the Christian Passover book and The Day Jesus the Christ Died, and understand that that was the beginning of the Passover in Gen. 15.

Verse 29: "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." The spiritual seed as the stars of heaven, the physical seed being Isaac. We are to have the same faith as Abraham as stated in Gen. 26:5.

Verse 8: "Now in the Scriptures, God, seeing in advance... [because God had a plan] ...that He would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, 'In you shall all the nations be blessed.'" How far does that go? From that moment clear on into eternity! Read Rev. 21, the nations that are saved.

Verse 9: "It is for this reason that those who are of faith are being blessed with the believing Abraham."

(go to the next track)

Let's understand something here very important. Unless you understand the covenant with Abraham beginning in Gen. 12, 15, 17, 22, you cannot understand the Old Testament, but in particularly you will never understand Gal. 3. This was the fundamental problem that was with the Church of God Seventh Day from whence Herbert Armstrong got all of his doctrine. All of his basic doctrine came from Church of God Seventh Day because the neighbor woman who persuaded Loma to keep the Sabbath, Mrs. Rencorn belonged to the Church of God Seventh Day.

When you write your own autobiography are you going to indict yourself on your own sins and weaknesses? Are you going to tear down your own exalted image by admitting that you were an integral part of Church of God Seventh Day? Not just that he came into contact with them. When they changed their headquarters from Stanbury, Missouri to West Virginia, then he would get in the pulpit and say, 'That church is dead. Church of God Seventh Day at Stanbury is dead.' They moved their headquarters, it wasn't there. There was a time when Church of God Seventh Day actually had more members than Worldwide Church of God. Out of the Denver group they count pretty close to 70,000.

When you write your own autobiography to puff up yourself, you bring out certain facts that are good. You leave out other facts that are not good. Since you don't want to give credit to anybody else, you don't dare put them in a good light. I want everyone to understand that. This is not doing away with the laws of God. It's upholding them!

He explains it here, Galatians 3:12: "Now then, the law... ['ho nomos' with a definite article] ...is not based on faith; but, 'The man who practices these things shall live in them.' Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law... [What is the curse of the law? Not doing things written in the book of the law, which is sin!] ...having become a curse for us (for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree')" (vs 12-13).

Now then, he shifts right here. This becomes a very important shift right here, v 14: "In order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, and that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." We're back to Abraham again, the covenant of Abraham.

Verse 15 (KJV): "Though it be a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannuls, or adds thereto."

Verse 19 (KJV): "It was added because of transgressions..." Now you see how they interpreted that and understood it incorrectly.

Let's come back to the Faithful Version and read it, v 15: "Brethren (I am speaking from a human perspective), even when a man's covenant has been ratified, no one... [That means no one else. He's specifically referring to the works of law of Judaism.] ...no one nullifies it, or adds a codicil to it. Now to Abraham and to his Seed were the promises spoken. He does not say, 'and to your seeds,' as of many; but as of one, 'and to your Seed,' which is Christ. Now this I say, that the covenant ratified beforehand by God to Christ cannot be annulled by the law, which was given four hundred and thirty years later, so as to make the promise of no effect" (vs 15-17).

What they were doing with Judaism, they were going back and using the name of Moses, calling it the Law of Moses, and they missed the whole point by leaving out Abraham. Neither can the Law, which God gave to Israel, annul the promises given to Abraham. They are two separate covenants! You're not adding and taking away from. A covenant is a covenant and you cannot add to or take away from it. You cannot change it.

There was the covenant given to Abraham. Now here's Israel 430 years later and here is the covenant that God gave to Israel. A separate covenant in addition to the one given to Abraham. The covenant given to Israel did not annul the one given to Abraham. That's the whole contention.

"...cannot be annulled by the law, which was given four hundred and thirty years later, so as to make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is by law, it is no longer by promise…." (vs 17-18). They were saying 'because we are the seed of Abraham, He must give it to us.'

Here now we have the Gentiles, uncircumcised, where He now says, v 29: "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." He was going against all of the pretentious arguments by the Jews that this with Jesus Christ cannot be true. 'We reject it! We reject Him!'—because they didn't understand.

What did the Pharisees say there in John 12? They said, 'What are we going to do? The whole world is going after Him and we're going to lose our positions and we're going to lose our nation. So. we've got to kill Him.' They could not accept that.

This becomes profoundly important. You cannot be converted unless you answer God's call and repent and are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. You cannot take the covenant given to Israel and say, 'That's the complete work of God.' You cannot take the New Testament and delete most of it and say, 'All you have to do is believe and now this is the covenant of God.' No! You have to take the whole Word of God and see how the whole covenant fits together.

Verse 18: "For if the inheritance is by law, it is no longer by promise..." Then you couldn't bring in the Gentiles. 'Who is your forefather? Where did you come from?' You have Shem, Ham, and Japheth! Then you have the table of nations. 'Who did you come from? 'You didn't come from Abraham.' Just looking to the physical seed, not the spiritual seed. 'The only way that you can enter this synagogue is you have to give up that little bit of flesh,' and then sit in the third rank in the synagogue.

That's why the contention. Back here in Gal. 2 not eating with the Gentiles. That's one of those works of law.

Verse 19: "Why then the law?... [here's what it means in the Greek]: ...It was placed alongside... [Alongside what? What are we talking about here? The promises given to Abraham!] ...It was placed alongside the promises..." Not annulling it, not replacing it, not adding to it, not taking from it, but placed alongside.

"...for the purpose of defining transgressions... [sin is the transgression of the law] ...until the Seed should come to whom the promise was made, having been ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator" (v 19).

What happened when the Seed came? He told them right at the first, but they didn't believe Him! The truth is when you repent you can't cling to anything in the past. That's why it is a covenant baptism, you bury the self.

Matthew 5:17: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law... [Is that taking away? If He abolished the Law, He'd take it away—wouldn't He?] ...or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill"—which means to complete.

When the laws are raised to a spiritual level, you complete the full meaning of the Law. Otherwise it's just the letter of the law to define sin, to keep a society in a semblance of morality. That's it. No promise of eternal life. Eternal life is going to need the spirit of the Law, the spirit of the Prophets, spiritual circumcision of the heart. All of those things are necessary.

Verse 18: "For truly I say to you, until the heaven and the earth shall pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from the Law until everything has been fulfilled." That's not until Rev. 21 and 22. Then there's a New Covenant from there for all eternity.

Verse 19: "Therefore, whoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall practice and teach them, this one shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I say to you, unless your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way that you shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven" (vs 19-20). Showing that the letter of the law will not get you there.

Now then, this is a major problem in too many Churches of God. They are halfway going by the spirit of the law and halfway going by the letter of the law. So therefore, they have a restricted faith, a restricted understanding of the Word of God. We can't judge the faith, because that's an individual thing. Then Jesus gave a foretaste of what the completing of the Law would be by murder, adultery, etc.

He also shows the goal of the New Testament, v 48: "Therefore, you shall be perfect, even as your Father Who is in heaven is perfect." That's the whole goal. Of course all the rest of the New Testament defines how to accomplish that. You can't take that one verse out of isolation without the rest of it.

Let's go over Galatians 3:19 again: "Why then the law? It was placed alongside the promises for the purpose of defining transgressions... [and it still does] ...until the Seed should come to whom the promise was made, having been ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator. Now then, a mediator does not act on behalf of one... [Who is he going to mediate?] ...but God is one" (vs 19-20).

Moses was the mediator between God and the people. God is one and Moses is the mediator and the people were the ones that he was mediating on behalf of.

Here is the key that locks this all up, v 21: "Is the law... ['ho nomos'] ...then contrary to the promises of God? MAY IT NEVER BE!.… [Of course not!] ...For if a law had been given that had the power to give life..."—to give eternal life.

Eat this, do this, do that, do the other thing. Law cannot bring eternal life. When it's in the spirit of the law, as led by the Spirit of God, then helps you in your relationship with God, but eternal life is a promise and a gift of God and no law can be made to give you eternal life. That's what he's talking about here.

"…For if a law had been given that had the power to give life, then righteousness would indeed have been by law. But the Scriptures have shut up all things under sin... [as we covered in Rom.] ...so that by the faith of Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe" (vs 21-22). When it stated 'those who believe,' that is those who believe, those who repent, those who are baptized. All of that has to fall into this right here.

Verse 23: "Now, before faith came... [through the Spirit] ...we were guarded under law... [It kept us from going out a gross sinning. Just like you do with your children growing up: do this, do that, do the other thing and you guard them. If you're not parents, what are you called? Guardians—right?] ...having been shut up unto the faith that was yet to be revealed."

So, he's talking about the full time from the giving of the Law, clear down to the time of Christ. The Holy Spirit had not been given to the people in general. Those of the prophets and those of the kings were the only ones who had the Spirit of Christ and they will be in the first resurrection. All of the rest were only promised physical blessings. You all know that.

Verse 24: "In this way, the law was our tutor to lead us to Christ... [That we could read the Law which says, You shall not murder, now then through Christ we understand it means, You shall not hate.] ...to lead us to Christ... [to lead us to salvation] ...that we might be justified by faith. But since faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor" (vs 24-25).

A lot of people say, 'We're no longer under a schoolmaster,' is the way that they say it. 'So we're out from underneath the Law.' No! Since faith has come and you've repented and been baptized, received the Holy Spirit of God, now you are in a direct relationship under God the Father and Jesus Christ. How are the laws and commandments of God to you in this relationship? In your heart and in your mind!

Verse 26: "Because you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ... [That's why I said going through, if you believe it must include repentance and baptism. Here's the verification of it.] ...did put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (vs 26-28).

That is for salvation. We are still whatever we are—Jew or Greek, free or bond, male or female—in the flesh. But our relationship with God is like His very own offspring. That's why it has to be this way. This is why they did not understand it.

Verse 29: "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

Now that I've gone on for the better part of an hour explaining about Gal. 3, I'll tell you why I was in bad standing with the Director of Church Administration at that time. I wrote a paper showing conclusively that the sacrifices were not added to the law—misinterpretation—I go through and show every place.

The law was placed alongside the promises given to Abraham. You had two things coming down through time here. When Christ came that covenant ended with His death. It had an overlap of forty years until the temple was destroyed. But God had to destroy Jerusalem, destroy the temple, because unless that were done, what would happen?

All you need to do is look at sacred names and that tells you the rest of the story what would have happened. People would have been there arguing, 'Who is going to put their church closest? Where did Jesus stand? Oh, that was a wonderful message He gave when He was standing here. We're going to build our church here. Our church is going to be better than your church.' Someone else is going to say, 'We built our church on the Mount of Olives because that's where Jesus ascended. So, our church has got to be better than your church because the Mount of Olives is higher than down there in Jerusalem.'

So, I wrote this paper. Let me tell you about the paper because I believed what they said, 'If you learn something new, you write it up and you send it in.' I faithfully believed what I was told, not knowing that the purpose of that was not to learn new things but to find out who might be rebellious against authority.

Let me finish the rest of the story here. At the time I wrote the paper that's when Herbert Armstrong's right eye was blinded. I rented a bulletin typewriter to type up the original paper, nice big type so he could read it. I was later castigated for using $125 of church money to do that by the Director of Church Administration who made a personal visit out to me as a result of that paper.

He came out to visit at Salt Lake and then Boise because he wanted to find out about—because he figured I was rebellious. I wasn't, I was just doing what they were saying. Who was I to bring something that Herbert Armstrong didn't know anything about? 'I'm the protector of the church for Herbert through the ministry.'

I Get a call one day. 'We like to make routine visits out into the field.' I didn't connect it until way, way later. I might also add another thing here, too, that if you haven't listened to the rest of the story one and two, I also reinstated a man who was disfellowshipped by one of the 'gestapo ministers' without properly going through what the problem was. I reinstated him. Of course, that infuriated the Director of Church Administration, head over all the ministers.

He comes out on this visit and he said, 'What we'd like to do, let's have a Spokesman's Club dinner dance so we'll hear some speeches and let's do that on a Thursday night. Then we'll have services.' He would fly up with me to Boise, then we would have services up there and then we would have Spokesman's Club with a dinner dance there and the speeches there. Then he was to go home Sunday.

He was greatly surprised. He came out and said of the Spokesman's Club, 'These are the best speeches I have ever heard in a Spokesman's Club.' All the men were happy and their wives were happy. Come to Sabbath services, everybody's happy, everything is fine. Nothing wrong. So, we go up to Boise, repeat. Just before he was ready to leave on Sunday he gathered Dolores and I in the front room, and he says, 'I normally give an evaluation for the ministers that I come out and visit.' Yes sir! So, we're sitting there. The long and short of it was that he couldn't find anything wrong with the churches or the brethren, or the Spokesman's Club, or with Dolores, or with me.

So he said, 'Now this paper you wrote on Galatians and sent in...'—he didn't pass it on to Herbert Armstrong either—'You shouldn't have used $125 of church money to rent that typewriter.' He didn't bring up about the disfellowshipment/reinstatement, but that was also there. He saved that for a later time. He tried to duly warn us, but it was awfully difficult for him to do it, because there was nothing wrong. He was stymied. Here is someone who wrote a paper and sent it in with all open-faced honesty. 'Here, this will help us understand the Bible even more.' I typed it in bulletin-type so it would be easy for Mr. Armstrong to read.

That went against the hierarchy. Then they waited about another year and a half before they began executing their plan to get rid of me. The long and short of it is, you can listen to The Rest of the Story #s 1 & 2, is that the day they were ready to come and expel me, the Director of Church Administration was fired by Herbert Armstrong for insubordination. Hello! Isn't that what he was trying to get me?

His Mafia henchman, an Italian plumber, was also fired. So, my enemies were removed. I didn't realize how much more there was going to be in the years ahead, but for a time that stopped a lot of problems within the WCG. Still did not turn back the tide of its eventual collapse. Just like our financial problem in America today.

If Romney gets in office—which he probably will—things will smooth out and get better and there will be more money, which will keep the tsunami from coming in on us in a disastrous way immediately. But sooner or later, it was doomed to come down.

So, that's the story behind it. But this is how Gal. 3 should have been translated and understood. So now we have it.

All Scripture from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version (except where noted)

Scriptural References:

• Galatians 3:19
• Jeremiah 7:21, 3-8, 4, 9-16, 21-24
• Galatians 3:19, 1-6
• Genesis 26:5
• Galatians 3:6-7, 29, 8-9, 12-15, 19, 15-18, 29, 19, 18-19
• Matthew 5:17-20, 48
• Galatians 3:19-29

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• 1st & 2nd Timothy
• Titus
• Exodus 32; 25
• Galatians 3:14; 2
• Genesis 15
• Revelation 21
• Genesis 12, 15, 17, 22
• John 12
• Revelation 21, 22

Also referenced:

Books:

• Code of Jewish Law by Ganzfried & Goldin
• Judaism: A Revelation of Moses or Religion of Men? by Philip Neal
• The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
• The Day Jesus the Christ Died by Fred R. Coulter

Sermons: The Rest of the Story #s 1 & 2

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 10-31-12
Formatted: bo—10-31-12

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