(Elder's Conference Review—Sabbath—PM)
Fred R. Coulter—May 5, 2007
When I began translating the New Testament from the Greek, I had no thought of doing a N.T. Those of you who have been with us a long time, you remember that we sent out the study translation with a wide margin. I did it because the brethren wanted to study verse-by-verse.
My first translation was an amplified translation of Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. That was a little different than doing close to as literal translation as you can from the Greek.
We started out in James and all the brethren said, 'Let's go to 1st Peter, and I said what if we go through all the general epistles. Fine! Like Jim brought up, when we're finished, we're finished.
Then we had to do another edition of A Harmony of the Gospels, so then I thought I would go back and do Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Then I started doing other books, and in 1995 someone sent me The Inclusive New Testament, which is basically the homosexual revision of the Word of God, to make it neuter gender! God the Father was now called in this, 'Father is a metaphor, so we've translated it mother/father. And the Son of man is the human one.' They eliminated as much gender specific as they could, even in the pronouns.
So, I stood there right before my library, when I was thumbing through that after getting it, and God convicted me that if we as the Church of God let that stand with no answer, then God is going to hold us accountable. That's when I determined to finish translating the New Testament.
Then once we got to it, we wanted to put the material in there to show that the lies spread in the world, that this was handed down work of mouth for over 300 years until the Catholic Church canonized it, which is the biggest, fattest, most satanic lie in the world! Yet, that is accepted by the scholars and the religious people of the world.
That's why we have the commentary in there that we have. Gary Stazak is the one who wrote the material for chapters 9-15, and did an excellent job on that.
The apostles wrote the New Testament under the inspiration of God, and John—with the help of Philip and Andrew—canonized it. God wasn't going leave it to 'Christianized' pagan religious leaders coming into an apostate Christian church to write the New Testament.
If you want to know what it would have looked like, look at the Gnostic Gospels that they found in Nag Hammadi, which they now say are older than the New Testament. When you watch the History Channel about the New Testament or whatever, they say, 'early Christian writings,' such as the Epistle of Thomas and the Apocrypha of Peter, and the Epistle of Mary Magdalene, and the Epistle of Judas.
If God had not inspired His apostles, especially John, the one that Jesus loved who was also of Levitical stock from the priesthood to canonize the New Testament after writing the book of Revelation.
What we have with the Old Testament and the New Testament is a Levitical document. That's what we have. The Old Testament is not Jewish, as Jews from the tribe of Judah. It is Levitical as with Ezra the high priest who canonized it.
Moses was a Levite, but Joshua wasn't, so he didn't write laws, commandments and statutes. But he directed the priesthood to do the recording. Samuel was a priest. The writers of 1st & 2nd Kings were prophets. Many of the prophets were also priests.
So, when I write the commentary for the Old Testament and have the whole Bible in Its Original Order, I'm going to make it very, very clear that God works through the people He has chosen to write it so that there will be no mistakes as to what the Word of God is. God didn't leave it to other people.
As I jokingly said with the blank dummy bible, that it's a bible for dummies. That's how most people would rather have the Bible.
I did not intend to do the Old Testament, but different ones said I ought to do the Old O.T. I don't know enough Hebrew to do and O.T. and I don't want to presume beyond what I know. In doing this whole project with the O.T. I pray every day:
O God, don't let me do anything presumptuous. Let it be right, let it be true, let it be Your Word, not mine.
So, we have a man—Mike Levy—who graduated with me in 1964 from AC who grew up in a Jewish home, knows Hebrew and attended the Hebrew Union College, and first heard the World Tomorrow program with a portable radio up against a window to get around the blockage of the buildings to get the radio waves so he could hear it. He is doing a word by word going through the English text to make sure that it's correct with the Hebrew. We're very thankful that he could do that.
What we have here that we're going to study through is next to the final version. We also have, putting this together, and every book that we have is complied by John and Hiedi Vogele and they work out of their home in Montana.
Some of the Churches of God today are going in the opposite direction. They are trying to centralize and develop the 'cash cow' that God destroyed in Pasadena. Whereas, it needs to be the other way around, decentralized. If you work in your own home you don't have to pay office rent.
I remember a couple—this is quite something—that lived in Hollister, retired and moved to Illinois and discovered our website and the church in Hollister. They came out to the Feast of Tabernacles last year and were baptized. A little twist of fate!
When he came out he wanted to tour the office and we gave a tour for all the brethren—about 40 there—and they were utterly shocked! We have two 800 foot offices side by side—that's it! We have three ladies working for us: Kimberly who's been with us over six years, Terry has been with us three years, and Alberta has been with us a little over a year. She does the audio cassettes and soon we'll be working things up for the master CDs that we have.
Terry does a lot of packaging and mailing and getting the books out and so forth. Kimberly takes care of all the office functions and so forth. They do really good work.
Herman and Cynthia were going through the office, he said, 'Fred, before I saw your office, I thought that when would go down to tour the office, you'd take us down somewhere in the industrial park and here would be a big metal building and you'd have everything in that.'
The reason is that we had to start out with nothing! So, we built as God provided. We are getting close to needing more space, and there may be an office next door available, so we'll just have to see what happens. I'm convinced that if you go out, especially with the record here in Cincinnati that they now want to transfer to Texas so they can have bigger offices for whomever that they're going to be in for a surprise from God.
Back to the Old Testament; this is how we started, because I've been through this about five times. We paid $20,000 for the rights to use the modern King James Version of the Bible as a base for the English, which was well worth it because it saved lots and lots of time.
John and Hiedi Vogele printed out on 8-1/2 by 11 landscape way, we had the modern KJV, the KJV and the NKJV and then I had a Hebrew Interlinear that I used so I could first check the Hebrew. Then compare the modern KJV with the regular KJV and then look at the NKJV.
The NKJV was somewhat of a help, but it's rather a flat rendition. I also compare that with the Schocken Bible and compared it with the Concordant Bible, and compared it with the American Standard Version. Then I double checked back with the Hebrew and edited it, re-edited it, and sent it to Michael, and re-edited it and so forth.
{the rest of the Bible Project news is left out of transcript—approximately 9 minutes}
Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning…" Notice the italic, because in the Hebrews it is "In beginning…" That becomes critically important because this is not the beginning when God began creating, but this is in reference to the earth for man.
"…God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was (vs 1-2).
See the star after earth, in the margin you come to v 2 and you will see the star, which gives us a clarification point, which then gives us both of the translations. Hebrew 'hayah' could also read became. Michael says that 'hayah' could be translated either way. So, we put was because when God began dealing with the earth to prepare it for man, it "…was without form and void…" (v 2). But in order to be was without form and void it also became without form and void.
Let's do a little 6,000-year arithmetic:
4025 4004
1975 1996
6000 6000
There are those who claim that the heavens and the earth are no older than 6,000 years. Well, we're already past that. The first chronology that you have is the one that we have as going back to 4,025B.C. and the other one is Usher's Chronology, which is 4004B.C.; either one they're both outdated!
Think of this: IF the universe and the earth altogether are only 6,000-years-old, then you have to say that for all eternity till 6,000 years ago God sat out there and did nothing!
As I mentioned in the conference and just briefly cover here, we know and have proved over and over again that the speed of light 186,000 miles per second. On one of the moon missions they put up a target on the moon which they periodically send a laser beam up and get it reflected back so they can get the exact position and movement of the moon. For all of you 'new moon' watchers, and all of you who have calendars contrary to the Levitical calendar of the Calculated Hebrew Calendar, listen up!
They did not know until 20 years ago all of the different perambulations of the moon, of which there are 5,000. However, those are all accounted for in the Calculated Hebrew Calendar. That's why God gave the Calculated Hebrew Calendar. There's more to it if you want more, we've got lots of material.
John 1:1—let's read something here that helps substantiate what we have in the Old Testament. You will see that it's translated similarly here:
John 1:1: "In the beginning…" Again, the italic because the Greek is 'en arche'; not 'he arche.' 'he' is the Greek word for the, so 'In a beginning…' or 'In beginning'
"…was… ['en'—can mean before the beginning relating to the earth] …the Word…"
There was a beginning when God created the heavens. That's very important to understand. God didn't sit around for all eternity to the last 6,000 years to decide what to do.
John 17:4: "I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work that You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me with Your own self, with the glory that I had with You before the world existed" (vs 4-5). That's what the Greek means!
So, when it talks about in beginning, that means in relationship to the earth. God tells us nothing about when He created the vastness of the universe.
If you want to know that the 6,000 year theory doesn't work, it's based on the theory that the magnetic force of the earth is becoming weaker at a regular rate and does not regenerate itself.
I watched a DVD on that and I followed through with the professor explaining it, and about an hour into the DVD guess what he said. However, there are times that the magnetic field regenerates itself! I said, 'You just lost your theory.' If their theory is based on a steady decline and it does not regenerate, yet, it regenerates, their whole basic premise is wrong!
Now a little more astronomical calculation from a bird's eye-view: The earth is 93-million miles away from the sun, so if you take the spring equinox and you shoot toward the North Star…
It's very interesting, Wayne told me that he's gone 600 miles north of where he lives and gets up closer to the North Pole and the only star you can really see is the North Star at that point.
So, let's say that in the spring you shoot a line through your big telescope and you get an angle toward the North Star, and come six months later and you're 186-million miles difference. So, you've got a big triangular base to measure it, if you know anything about trigonometry. You shoot another line up to the North Star guess what you can do? You can get a good approximation as to how far away the North Star is from the earth! It's millions of light-years away! That tells us that the universe is much older than 6,000 years! However, the renewing of the earth is about 6,000-years-old.
John 1:1: "…and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
There are people who don't even believe that, and they say that Jesus was not even in existence until He was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary.
Verse 2: "He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and not even one thing that was created came into being without Him" (vs 2-3). As God tells all evolutionists, 'Go get your own dirt!'
What we've done here with this marginal reference is that we've let people know that there's more to the verse than meets the first reading!
Genesis 1:2: "…and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters"—and you have to all the way through!
This also helps solve another problem and Mike Heiss has said that this is a correct translation and is the exact meaning of what the Greek is:
Genesis 2:1: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And by the beginning of the seventh day…" (vs 1-2). The King James says, "…on the seventh day…"
- Did God work on the seventh day?
- How far into the seventh day did God work?
There's always going to be someone coming up with a picky question. This eliminates that confusion.
Verse 2: "And by the beginning of the seventh day God finished His work, which He had made. And He rested… [meaning ceased] …on the seventh day from all His work, which He had made."
However, there are still things going on that God put into motion that He doesn't stop:
- the earth continues in its revolution on its axis
- going around the sun
- the law of gravity is always working
- all plants and trees are growing
- animals and human being are growing or getting older
Those things do not stop on the Sabbath! However, God says in the Sabbath commandment to do what with the animals of labor that you use? Give them rest! But He doesn't go out and say to give your vineyard a rest, or your trees a rest. That needs to be considered concerning the Sabbath Day, too.
To show God's involvement in our lives, because we're all made after the image of God—male and female—He rested to show Adam and Eve what the day meant. I've often wondered what that Sabbath was like! A unique Sabbath that has never occurred since. Maybe there were several following, we don't know! But how many or few there were, they were unique!
It also tells us that when God talks to man, it tells us that God can manifest Himself so that He looks like a man. That's why He made us in His image.
Let's come to the Garden of Eden after the creation of Adam. The creation of Adam and Eve were a unique creation. They were complete with a language, thinking equipped human beings. All others are created by pro-creation through father and mother. After God created Adam, He could talk to him.
Let's also understand a very profound, important thing, yet, simple as can be concerning creation: only a superior being can create whatever they make. An inferior being never creates something superior to himself. For example:
Have you ever seen a horse or a cow create a man? They can't create anything! If a horse, cow, monkey or ape cannot create anything except reproduce themselves, how much less bacteria are in the ground, which have no thought or intelligence, not even the same a cow or a horse, or an ape or chimpanzee. They have a certain amount of limited intelligence.
This is what made Lucifer angry! Lucifer was created out of spirit. God is above him and inhabits eternity. God's plan was to make man to bypass the angelic realm to become the very sons and daughters of God. So, God is reproducing Himself!
God started with Adam and Eve, and because He doesn't want robots… Men think that they're really doing good if they can get a robot to bring them a Bud Light to their chair while they're watching sports. Well, they can graduate to a well-trained dog.
God doesn't want that! He made us to be thinking, to be intelligent, made in His image to be after His kind at the resurrection. {Note sermon: What Would the World Be Like if Adam & Eve Had Not Sinned?}
Verse 15: "And the LORD God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and keep it." Notice that there is a star there, so you go down to the bottom part of v 15 in the margin and it means: to guard it! So, man is responsible for keeping and guarding and taking care of what God has created!
Verse 16: And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, 'You may freely eat of every tree in the garden, but you shall not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for in the day that you eat of it in dying you shall surely die.' And the LORD God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helper compatible for him'" (vs 16-18). Another star, the margin shows it means a counterpart, a sustainer beside him! That's the closest meaning in translation of helper.
Verse 19: "And out of the ground the LORD God had formed every animal of the field and every fowl of the air—and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them." So, God said, 'I'm going to bring by everything and whatever you name them, that's it. So, Adam had a language and could speak, think, analyze, look at, name and describe.
"…And whatever Adam called each living creature that became its name. And Adam gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field, but there was not found a helper compatible for Adam" (vs 19-20).
God had another lesson in it. Adam had seen everything that God had created and Adam named it, but there wasn't anything for him.
Verse 21: "And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall over Adam, and he slept. And He took one of his ribs, and afterward closed up the flesh underneath. Then the LORD God made the rib (which He had taken out of the man) into a woman… [built a woman] …and He brought her to the man. And Adam said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man'" (vs 21-23).
Did God tell Adam what He was going to do before He put him to sleep? Of course He did! He said, 'Adam, I want you to understand something, we haven't found anything here that's really compatible for you. I've made you so that you need a sustainer to stand beside you. You need a helper, someone compatible for you. You saw that none of these animals were, not even the apes and chimpanzees.
Why did God make them so close to human beings? The evolutionists think that they became human. NO! God didn't make them so that they would evolve. He made them to show that you can make something very close to what human being is, but if it doesn't have the spirit of man in it, it's still a beast!
So, whatever the evolutionists think, just think the opposite and you probably have the correct answer.
(go to the next track)
Genesis 2:24: "For this reason shall a man leave his father and his mother…" Adam knew that there would be children coming along, and he knew he was to be a father and she knew she was to be a mother.
"…and shall cleave to his wife—and they shall become one flesh" (v 24). Did God teach them the right functions of their bodies? Of course! That's all right there.
Verse 25: "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed"—because God taught them the right way!
Here's another thing the 6,000-year people cannot account for. They say that when Lucifer fell there was no destruction to the earth.
- How did the serpent get here?
- When did He fall?
- How long did it take for God to give warnings to Lucifer and the angels?
- Is God the same yesterday, today and forever? Yes!
- In dealing with mankind, even thought they sin, is He gracious, merciful and longsuffering? Yes!
- Is He wanting them to change their ways and return to Him? Yes!
- Does He provide a way and means to do that for them? Yes!
- Do you think God would have handled the beginning of the rebellion of Lucifer and the angels any differently?
- Do you think that rebellion happened in a flash of snapping your finger or blinking of your eye? NO!
- Just like with human beings, did He give them warnings and warnings?
- Is that part of the geological history of the earth before the first flood after the final rebellion? I don't know!
But if God gives us a chance to repent, the angels that sinned—before they came to the point of committing a sin that they no longer turn around from—
- Would God not give them an opportunity to make that right?
We don't know, it's not salvational, but at least it helps us understand the span of time that is very evident in the earth and the universe.
Genesis 3:1: "Now, the serpent was more cunning than any creature of the field, which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, 'Is it true that God has said, "You shall not eat of any tree of the garden"?'"
This tells us of some of Satan's tactics! First thing he wants you to do is correct him so he can answer back!
Verse 2: "And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may freely eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has indeed said, "You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die."' And the serpent said to the woman, 'In dying, you shall not surely die!'" (vs 2-4). In other words, even thought you die in the flesh, you're going to live forever! That's right in the Hebrew.
You've heard it said in the past that this is the beginning of the immortality of the soul; this makes it very clear that it was.
Verse 5—Satan continues: "For God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like God… [not like God is God, but in this way]: …deciding good and evil'—for themselves!
You don't have to depend on God. You're smart, intelligent, and wise. If you eat of this tree you'll be smarter, more intelligent, be wiser, and you can decided for yourself what is good and evil! How does that appeal to human nature? Lust of the eyes, pride of life, all of those things!
Verse 6: "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food…" We can blame the woman, but remember that Adam was sitting right there watching the whole thing! It also says that the woman was in transgression because she was deceived.
But Adam wasn't deceived, because Rom. 5 says that 'by one man sin entered into the world.' So, Adam sinned!
"…and that it was pleasing to the eyes… [sounds like a shopping trip in the supermarket today] …and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate" (v 6).
I wonder if Adam thought that she picked it, that he would be off the hook? Never know! But it doesn't say that she ran and found Adam over working in the garden, tilling the soil and said:
Adam, take a break, I've got some good fruit for you. I saw that the fruit of tree we're told not to eat of is really, really good. And the serpent down the road here told that this is good stuff!
He was right there with her. So, it brings up some questions, doesn't it?
Verse 7: "And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked…" That combined together shows that their eyes were closed to good, but open to evil!
"…and they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Then Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, 'Where are you?'" (vs 7-9).
An atheist reads that and says, 'How can this be an all-knowing God if He's walking in the garden and He doesn't know where Adam is?' God knew where Adam was! He just wanted to find out what Adam would say, and you know the rest of the story.
Gen. 4—You know the account of Cain and Abel. But let's see after Cain's offering was refused, because this shows us the whole thing we are to overcome.
Genesis 4:6: "And the LORD said to Cain, 'Why are you so angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well… [Cain, if you would have done it My way…shall you not be accepted? But if you do not do well, sin lies at the door…." (vs 6-7).
At the east gate of the Garden of Eden God placed cherubim, with flaming swords so that no one could get to the Tree of Life. So, apparently God lived in the Garden of Eden separate from Adam and Eve—they were on their own—and if they wanted God, they had to come to east entrance of the Garden of Eden. This has great symbolism in the tabernacle and the temple, because you come from the east to the west to worship God.
So, the door must have been the entrance to the Garden of Eden, and there must have been altar there on which to bring burnt offerings. There must have been a place to bring firstfruits and the tithe of the ground. But Cain thought he would bring any old thing to God, which became sin!
God says, "…Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it!" (v 7). Showing this very clearly: You're responsible for your own decisions and actions! If you do something that is not right, then you can recover yourself by doing what is right. Of course then, we know repentance in between!
Verse 22: "And Zillah also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron…."
The implication of that is denoted by the star in the margin: implements for killing and war!
Verse 21: "And his brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who corruptly play the lyre and the pipe." They corrupted music!
God invented the scale that we have today that is 7+1. Does that sound familiar to something you know? Yes! 'do, re, me fa, so, la, te—and complete do'! They perverted it!
That's why when you listen to some of the music that comes out of these demonic societies, it messes up your brain. Satan is harder at work at it, and he's got lots of electronic equipment to amplify it. That's why today teenagers should avoid like the plague MTV, teen music, hip-hop, rap and all of that 'crap'—the Greek word is 'skubalon.' That's what it does to your mind!
Satan wants to corrupt your mind by telling you how wonderful this is for teenagers. This is just designed for you, and 'your mom and dad don't know anything. They had music that was not kool.'
So, they pervert and corrupt the mind through music. If you don't think that is true, just try getting the commercial out of your head that the tune is dinging around and rolling around in your head and you can't get it out. How did it get in there? You heard the music!
They don't have music that you can listen to and enjoy, they have it so it blasts through at hundreds of watts of power to go through your whole system! You also have the corrupters in the neighborhood driving around with their windows rolled down and their base going BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! And they drive by your house and your house shakes! 'Man, it's kool; I'm just out here letting everyone know how stupid and dumb I am.'
Satan wants to get a hold of you when you're young in ways that you think are good for you, just like Adam and Eve.
So, every human being as they're growing up has their own 'Garden of Eden'—don't they! Yes!
I challenge all teenagers and young people, can you rise above the satanism and occultism in this world and love and serve God? You may not think much of your parents, because when you reach a certain age and see their sins and faults, you look at yourself and you think you're nearly perfect and forget all of your sins and faults and think that they have no right to tell you what to do, because they have faults.
Then you reject that and run out and do whatever you want to do, and guess what? You have your own sins and faults! Why don't you take the better course? Love your mom and dad and obey them with the promise of long life! Educate yourself properly and put good things into your mind and wait for God to provide for you the right one for marriage. Don't go out and make mistakes.
The worst thing that has happened to this nation is abortion and unwed mothers. Children need a father and a mother. Those who do such things are an abject rebellion to God and will reap the penalty and will be married to the State; that will be who your husband is. The State gives you welfare so you can continue in your sin.
So, all young women need know that you're going to be married to a husband that you love and bring children into the world properly, that will be blessed of God, or you're going to go your own way and you're going to be married to the State! One of the two!
All of you young men, if you don't educate yourself, learn some trades, learn to be responsible, learn to take care of yourself…God has given you the responsibility to take care of your wife and family and provide for them. If you don't learn that and prepare yourself, then you yourself will become a victim of the society and you will become a socialist cog in the coming world order! That's just a fact of life!
Verse 26: "And there was also a son born to Seth, and he called his name Enos. At that time men began to call upon the name of the LORD"—mighty men who called themselves gods!
One of the first questions that people ask is do angels… Even the Jewish 'kabala' says that fallen angels co-habited with women and brought forth a super race. Never happened!
Jesus said that the angels neither marry nor are given in marriage. What does it mean.
Genesis 6:1: "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and when daughters were born to them, that the sons of the mighty ones saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves from all whom they chose" (vs 1-2).
There might be implications of interracial marriage and things that shouldn't be with that statement. Very possible!
Verse 3: "And the LORD said, 'My Spirit shall not always strive with man in his going astray, for he is but flesh, and yet, his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.'" Today that's the maximum that men live!
Verse 4: "There were tyrants on the earth in those days, and also after that, the sons of God…"
- Who are they?
- Were they angels?
In one place it calls the sons of God angels but since angels can't marry and pro-create, it cannot mean angels. You'll see an asterisk there and you will see a footnote at the bottom.
These sons of God were not angels, but sons of mighty men!
"…came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. They were mighty men who existed of old, men of renown" (v 4).
Doesn't necessarily mean that they were married, because they may have been doing the same thing that Satan inspired Hitler to do, to get all the young women to come over here and mate with all these 'fine Aryan gestapo men and produce children for the Fourth Reich!' So, we don't know, and we'll have to leave it at that!
The earth was corrupt and filled with violence, I doubt if there was very much marriage going on just like it is today.
Then God saw the corruption on the earth and so forth. As we pointed out during the conference, God said that He was going to save the world through Noah, but He made Noah build the ark.
God has things that He wants us to do, but we work with Him, whether it be things in the Church, things not in the Church. That's why God gave talents for different people to do different things. That's why we have some people who are skilled today in carpentry, masonry, electronics, computers, landscaping, and various other trades, because they have talents to do that. The same way with women and the things that they can do.
Remember this, men, the world would be an awfully, terribly bland place without women! There wouldn't be any flowers out in front of the houses, there wouldn't be any drapes in the houses. Men are just functional, 'b o' with brains supreme!
Now, I want to cover something that helps clarify a point.
Genesis 28:10: "And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came upon a certain place, and stayed there all night because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and placed it at his head. And he lay down in that place to sleep" (vs 10-11).
It doesn't mean that he laid his head on the rock. Have you ever tried to go to sleep with your head on a rock? Even a soft pillow is sometimes a tough job. So, he laid down next to it!
Verse 12: "And he dreamed. And behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven! And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, 'I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your seed. And your seed shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south. And in you and in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed'" (vs 12-14).
As you know, that could not possibly apply to the Jews at any time in the history of the world. That's why there are twelve tribes, not one.
Verse 15—God continued: "And, behold, I am with you, and will keep you in every place where you go, and will bring you again into this land, for I will not leave you until I have done that which I have spoken of to you." Jacob was on his way to meet Leah and Rachel!
Verse 16: "And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and said, 'Surely the LORD is… [not has been] …in this place, and I did not know it.' And he was afraid and said, 'How fearful is this place!….'" (vs 16-17).
Can you imagine waking up and having that kind of dream? And that God personally spoke you and said:
I'm going to be with you? I'm going to bless you and watch over you.
That would make the hair stand up on the back of your neck! When Jacob got up in the morning the hair stood up all over him!
"…'How fearful is this place! This is nothing but the House of God… [Bethel] …and this is the gate of Heaven!' So, Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone, which he had put at his head, and set it as a memorial pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place The House of God. But the name of that city was Luz at first. Then Jacob made a vow saying …" (vs 17-20).
Now compare v 20 with the King James: "…'If God will be with me…" There's no if concerning it, because God was that He would be with him!
FV: "…'Since God will be with me, and will keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, and I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the LORD be my God. And this stone, which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house. And of all that You shall give me, I will surely give the tenth to You'" (vs 20-22).
Not conditional, if, but factual since! May seem like a slight difference but very important.
Isn't it nice to have a Bible that you don't have to be in doubt as to what evening means?
Exodus 12:6: "And you shall keep it… [the lamb] …up until the beginning of the fourteenth day of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it between the two evenings."
In the English this means from one sunset to another sunset, but that doesn't mean that in the Hebrew. It rarely ever translated correctly, so we have a star for a marginal reference:
'ben ha arbayim'—between sunset and dark at the beginning of the fourteenth day (See Exo. 16:8-13, which conclusively proves that 'ben ha arbayim; begins immediately after sunset. Hebrew 'ba erev,' which ends the day.)
The first time I sat in church services, the minister read that and said that 'this means in the beginning of the day' and then came over to v 15 and said that 'this means the end of the day.' Both of them said 'evening' and I thought: How do we know?
Now we have it clarified. Now I want to cover something else.
Exodus 16:11: "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, "Between the two evenings you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the LORD your God."' And it came to pass, at sunset, that the quails came up and covered the camp. And at sunrise the dew lay all around the camp" (vs 11-12).
You must have the quail come before you can eat them. Have you ever had dinner at home before your wife got back from the grocery store and eaten the things that she's bringing from the store to have for dinner? No!
That's why it's important that sunset the quail came up.
- What does this show?
- Did God keep the Sabbath in Gen. 2? Yes!
- Did He also keep the Sabbath in Exo. 16, which day this was? Yes!
- What did God do? He waited for the sun to set, the Sabbath was over, then He sent the quail!
The quail comes and they eat them after sunset between the two evenings—between sunset and dark—so let's read the footnote:
God spoke these words on the Sabbath Day, the 15th day of the 2nd month. The Sabbath Day ended at sunset, Hebrew 'ba erev.' God then sent quail at sunset, and the children of Israel ate the quail after sunset and before dark, in the time period between the two evenings, Hebrew 'ben ha arbayim.' In using these two Hebrew terms, God has firmly established that the time period 'between the two evenings' (ben ha arbayim) comes immediately after sunset (ba erev) and not before.
You are going to see that we are going to, with this Bible, forever end a Monday Pentecost, and eliminate totally the confusion. It's also in the Hebrew, and you're going to see that it's been there all the time, and all these years—including me—we didn't know this until Mike Heiss pointed it out to me.
Leviticus 23:9: "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, "When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest of it, then you shall bring the premier sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest…. [that comes from the Schocken Bible translation by Everett Fox] …And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD to be accepted for you. On the next day after the Sabbath…" (vs 9-11).
In Hebrew the Sabbath is 'ha Shabbat.' Everywhere it is 'ha Shabbat' it is the seventh day Sabbath always! Holy Days are call a Sabbath. Mike brought this up to his professor at the Hebrew Union College:
Professor, I have a question: Since we have learned that 'ha Shabbat' means the Sabbath, and 'Shabbat' can refer to a Holy Day, why is it that the Pharisees count from the first Holy Day rather than the day after the weekly Sabbath?
He had no answer except tradition!
Verse 15: "And you shall count to you beginning with the next day after the Sabbath, beginning with the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete…. [seven complete weeks, each ending with the 7th day Sabbath] …Even unto the day after the seventh Sabbath you shall number fifty days…." (vs 15-16).
The 50th day is always the 1st day of the week after the 7th Sabbath, which is also the first day of the 8th week. Eight is always a new beginning. This helps add more meaning as to why the first resurrection is on Pentecost.
Verse 23—this going to blow you away, it did me: "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel saying, "In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath…" (vs 23-24)—not the! It's been there all the time in the King James, but it took that comment by Mike to turn the light on.
"…a memorial of blowing of ram's horns, a Holy convocation" (v 24)—a day of horn blasting! A Sabbath!
Verse 32—speaking of the Day of Atonement: "It shall be to you a Sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. In the ninth day of the month at sunset, from sunset to sunset, you shall keep your Sabbath."
Verse 37: "These are the Feasts of the LORD which you shall proclaim to be Holy convocations…"—which are appointed times of God. He set the appointment and He gave the calendar, and you do it God's way. Remember Cain!
"…to offer an offering made by fire to the LORD, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice… [the KJV says 'meat' offering, but it means grain offering] …and drink offerings, everything on its day; besides the Sabbaths of the LORD, and besides your gifts, and besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings, which you give to the LORD. Also, in the fifteenth day of the seventh month when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a Feast to the LORD seven days. On the first day shall be a Sabbath… [Holy Day] …and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath" (vs 37-39).
The only time a Holy Day can be referred to as the Sabbath is when the Holy Day falls on a weekly Sabbath.
I'm going through here giving you some key Scriptures to see how many of the consternating problems of interpretation have bothered the Churches of God for years and years have been solved.
That's why it's important that someone who understands the Sabbath and Holy Days of God be able to produce a Bible that will be helpful to people. I don't care what the world thinks, but if it can help serve and teach the brethren, that's what counts.
Numbers 33:3: "And they set out from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the next day after the Passover Day, the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians, while the Egyptians were still burying all their firstborn whom the LORD had stricken among them…." (vs 3-4).
They're starting to leave at sunset, and what is happening? There are so many dead bodies of the Egyptians around, so they may have started burying earlier in the day on the day portion of the Passover! They were still burying at sunset leading on into the Exodus.
It was the full moon and the pillar of fire by night, and the high hand of the Lord leading them out on the Night to be Much Observed, a fantastic night! Remember that they were heading east, so they could see the full moon rising over the horizon as they were going. What a fantastic thing that was.
Deuteronomy 6:3: "Hear therefore, O Israel, and be diligent to observe it, so that it may be well with you, and that you may greatly multiply, as the LORD God of our fathers has promised you, in the land that flows with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel. Our one God is the LORD, the LORD" (vs 3-4).
Hebrew: Our Elohim is YHVH/YHVH. Or transliterated Our one God is Jehovah/Jehovah. Why is that important? One Elohim consisting of the Father and the Son!
Let's also understand something else, this is the only English Bible in the world to have Old and New Testament in its original order. David Stern who did the Complete Jewish Bible has the Old Testament in its original order, proper order, but not the New Testament. Furthermore, I don't think there's another Bible in any language that has the O.T. and N.T. in its original order anywhere in the world.
That's not a matter of bragging and boasting or putting ourselves forward, but that is going to really raise some eyebrows.
(rest of info on Bible project info left out of transcript to end of audio)
Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version (except where noted)
Scriptural References:
- Genesis 1:1-2
- John 1:1
- John 17:4-5
- John 1:1-3
- Genesis 1:2
- Genesis 2:1-2, 15-25
- Genesis 3:1-9
- Genesis 4:6-7, 22, 21, 26
- Genesis 6:1-4
- Genesis 28:10-22
- Exodus 12:6
- Exodus 16:11-12
- Leviticus 23: 9-11, 15-16, 23-24, 32, 37-39
- Numbers 33:3-4
- Deuteronomy 6:3-4
Scripture referenced, not quoted: Romans 5
Also referenced:
Books:
- A Harmony of the Gospels by Fred R. Coulter
- The Day that Jesus the Christ Died by Fred R. Coulter
- Schocken Bible: The Five Books of Moses by Everett Fox
Sermon: What Would the World Be Like if Adam & Eve Had Not Sinned?
FRC:bo
Transcribed: 6/20/19