Comparison of the Law in Nehemiah
and the Teaching of Jesus Christ
Fred R. Coulter, October 8, 2006
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Track 1 or DownloadGreetings brethren! We know that you had a good day yesterday for the first Holy Day. And this is a time for us to get together to understand God's Word; to go through it to learn each day to search the Scriptures, to learn the meaning of it so that we can understand what God has for us, His plan for us.
What I want you to understand as we go through this is the tremendous thing of how many people are keeping the Feast of Tabernacles in this day, which is far more than the children of Israel kept after they came out of the Babylonian captivity. Let's see what Ezra was doing.
When they got back from the Babylonian captivity, the whole thrust of teaching the people of God changed considerably, because now it became instructing and teaching all the people from the Word of God, and of course, Ezra and the Great Synagogue canonized the Old Testament, and he was a priest that God selected.
Let's see about Ezra the priest and see what he did, and let's understand that Ezra was the grandson of Hilkiah the priest who then discovered the Law when they were cleansing the temples during the days of Josiah and had a revival for twelve years before the children of Israel and Judah went into captivity into Babylon.
Ezra 7:10: "For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel."
Obviously God inspired him to understand that the only way that there is going to be a modicum of faithfulness with the children of Judah is to:
- get the Scriptures canonized
- get them set in a form
- get the scrolls of the Scriptures distributed to all the synagogues throughout all the Persian Empire, the Roman Empire and the Greek Empire
All where the children of Israel were scattered so that they would be able to know and understand and be faithful because of the teachings. He fully understood, as did Daniel, that they were sent off into captivity because of their sins:
- rejecting God
- not keeping the Sabbath
- not keeping the Holy Days
- not keeping the Feasts of God
Let's see what Ezra was doing and Ezra was what the Jews now call 'the second Moses.' You can read of that in The Christian Passover book about the canonization of the Old Testament.
Nehemiah 8:1: "And all the people gathered themselves as one man into the street before the Water Gate."
Let's understand how absolutely small the number of those Jews was who came back, probably no more than 18-20,000, because very few of the Jews wanted to come back to Jerusalem because they had everything so well and good in Babylon, they had everything that they needed right there. Why come back to Jerusalem and suffer is the way that a lot of them would look at it. So, they were gathered there:
"…And they spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the Law…" (vs 1-2). He was a scribe and a priest. That means that he was dealing directly in the Word of God.
"…before the congregation, both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month" (v 2). So then, after instructing them, they read in the Law, they gathered together.
Verse 13: "And on the second day… [the day after Trumpets] …the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, were gathered to Ezra the scribe, even to understand the words of the Law."
Here's quite a thing! Here is a special council to try and understand what they were to do now that they were back.
Verse 14: "And they found written in the Law, which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the Feast of the seventh month… [the Feast of Tabernacles] …and that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem…" (vs 14-15).
This is the second day of the seventh month. If they would get this out, the people could prepare to come up on the 14th day of the month so they could start the Feast of Tabernacles on the 15th.
"…saying, 'Go forth to the mountain and bring olive branches and oil tree branches and myrtle branches and palm branches, and branches of thick trees to make booths, as it is written.' And the people went out and brought them and made themselves booths, each one upon his roof, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the Water Gate, and in the street of the Gate of Ephraim" (vs 15-16).
They made all these temporary dwellings to prepare for all the people to come in. The roofs were flat so they built these on top of their flat roofs. What would happen, they would be able to go up there and dwell in these booths and then people who came from out of town could also come and live in the house and go up and dwell in a booth. It was really quite a thing that they did.!
Verse 17: "And all the congregation of those who had come again out of the captivity made booths and dwelt in the booths, for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day, the children of Israel had not done so…." That's amazing to understand. We can say, with the exception of when Solomon dedicated the temple.
"…And there was very great gladness" (v 17).
Now let's notice how the Feast was conducted, and so unto this day this is exactly what we do; we follow what Ezra said, and we follow what the apostles said.
Verse 18: "Also day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read in the Book of the Law of God…. [the Word of God has to be preached and taught] …And they kept the Feast seven days, and on the eighth was an assembly, according to the ordinance." This was quite a thing that took place.
It had not happened "…since the days of Joshua..." We're looking at a period of about 800 years! When you go back and read the book of Judges, how after Joshua and the elders died, how the children of Israel went after the false gods—the gods of the nations around them—and worshipped Ashtoreth and Balaam. You know what happened: They didn't keep the Feasts, they didn't honor God! Even when they returned, lots of times they only partially returned, and their hearts were never right with God. That's quite a thing to understand.
Let's come to the days of Jesus. We're going to spend a lot of time in John 7-9 today. Let's understand that Jesus was doing exactly the same thing that Ezra was doing. He was teaching, teaching the people during the Feast.
Years ago I went through John 7-9 during the Feast of Tabernacles. It was also suggested by Amos Robinson in the Cincinnati area. His suggestion fit in just right, and was something that we need to do, and just like Ezra read through the Law all during the seven days of the Feast, which is what we do with the Word of God.
- we read in the Law
- we read in the Psalms
- we read in the Prophets
- we read in the Gospels
- we read in the General Epistles
- we read in the Epistles
- we read in the book of Revelation
How many people keep the Feast of Tabernacles today? Regardless of who they are and where they are in keeping the Feast of Tabernacles? There are probably so many groups around that do keep the Feast. If they follow what God wants, and if they follow the Word of God, and teach the Word of God, God will bless them, God will teach them, and they will understand the Word of God! This is what God wants.
Every year when we keep the Feast of Tabernacles, God wants us to be strengthened in His Spirit, strengthened in understanding. He wants us:
- to have the ability to love Him more
- to serve Him more
- to believe His Word even more
- to believe in Christ even more
- to have the kind of faith that God wants us to have
So that we can attain to eternal life!
Now let's begin right here in John 7, and we're going to go through much of this verse-by-verse, and we're going to learn an awful lot. There are some tremendous lessons for us. Remember: When we are coming together before God during the Feast of Tabernacles, this is a special time where God then is dwelling with us, and He delights in the things that we do, especially if we:
- follow His Word
- follow the teachings of Christ
- preach love
- preach Truth
- preach grace
- preach forgiveness
- preach the things that give us:
- understanding
- faith
- hope
- love
- conviction
for the things that are right!
Stop and think about this now: of all the people in the world—which is now close to 8.5-billion people—how many keep the Feasts of God? Very, very few!
John 7:1: "After these things, Jesus was sojourning in Galilee, for He did not desire to travel in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him." It talks quite a bit about "…seeking to kill Him" in this chapter.
Verse 2: "Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was near."
What we need to also understand, the Feasts of God—God clearly says in Lev. 23 that these are His Feasts—don't belong to the Jews. They did not invent them; they did not designate these days! God gave them to all of Israel! So, when it's saying, "…the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles…" here, it's not saying that it's owned by the Jews, and only the Jews should keep them.
John is giving a significant bit of understanding in that phrase, which is this: the Jews were not keeping the Feasts of God as they should, and they were not keeping them in the way that they ought to. Especially when you consider that they were out there trying to find Jesus to kill Him.
Let's understand something concerning the Gospel of John: it tells us many things about the way that God wants us to know, and to learn, and to be taught of Christ. John gives us some significant understanding in the phrases like: "…the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles…" That's what John said concerning the Passover.
We know the Jews were not keeping the Passover the way that they should, and so this is a signal that we are not to keep the Feasts the way that the Jews do. Very important for us to understand today, because we've been assaulted from the right and from the left. The extreme right, are those Judaizers who are coming into the Church trying to get people to follow sacred names.
Just think on this, in sacred names for just a minute: you read about the calling of the Apostle Paul, and when he was knocked to the ground, Christ spoke to him in Hebrew. In writing the New Testament, Paul did not put in there the sacred names. Neither did the apostles, because the truth is this: the sacred names today are family names: the Father and the Son, and we are brethren. Think on that with sacred names!
Then they try and come in with: you have to have prayer shawls, you have to have tassels, you have to have praise dancing, and all of this. These are all remnants of Judaism brought in because they do not worship God in Spirit and in Truth, and they do not have the Spirit of God, so they have to work up all these emotional things and all of these little doodads for people to do.
John 2:13: "Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem." He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money exchangers sitting there. Jesus drove them all out. Why? Because they were making the house of God a house of merchandise, and more than that, they were cheating on the exchanging!
When John says "…the Jews' Passover…" or "…the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles…" he's telling us that the Jews were not keeping it correctly. Of course, if you don't have the right attitude, and if you have the wrong practices, you are not keeping it correctly.
Here is where a lot of people like to say, 'Well, you know, Jesus didn't go up to the Feast.' But let's analyze this a little bit:
John 7:3: "For this reason, His brothers said to Him…"—that's James, Simon and Judah and one of the other brothers, He had four brothers altogether.
"…'Leave this place and go into Judea, so that Your disciples may see the works that You are doing; because no one does anything in secret, but seeks to be seen in public. If You do these things, reveal Yourself to the world.'" (vs 3-4).
So, they kind of had an attitude somewhat like the scribes and Pharisees, because even with Jesus as their half-brother, they still didn't understand that He was the Messiah, that He was the Son of God, because it says:
Verse 5: "For neither did His brothers believe in Him." That is, at that time. Later when He was resurrected, they did believe because He showed Himself to James.
Verse 6: "Therefore, Jesus said to them, 'My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but it hates Me because I testify concerning it, that its works are evil'" (vs 6-7).
That's exactly the comparison that we have today. The works of the world are evil, and they won't hear, they won't listen, they won't understand.
But, v 8: "You go up to this Feast…." So, if He was doing away with the Feast for the New Covenant He would have said, 'Well now look, you don't need to go up to this Feast now. You don't need to keep this because in a short while, I'm going to do away with it.' He didn't say that!
Verse 8: "You go up to this Feast…." There's a command by Christ to go to the Feast, and after all, He was the Lord God of Israel Who gave the commandments to Moses to give to the children of Israel.
"'…I am not going up to this Feast now, for My time has not yet been fulfilled.' And after saying these things to them, He remained in Galilee. But after His brothers had gone up, then Jesus also went up to the Feast, not openly, but as it were in secret" (vs 8-10).
He didn't want to be seen, but He still kept the Feast of Tabernacles. He still obeyed the Word of God, which at that time was to go keep the Feast in Jerusalem.
Today, we keep the Feast wherever God shows that we can keep the Feast in a way that we need to keep the Feast, and He puts His Presence there because in the New Testament, Jesus said, 'Wherever two or three are gathered together, there I am in the midst of you.' So, wherever we keep the Feast, that's where we keep the Feast, and Christ has designated that. He went up in secret.
Let's see what was happening. The Jews really knew a lot, many of them understood that He was the Messiah, and there was also a great debate.
- Was He the One that God had sent?
- Was He the Messiah?
- Was He not?
- Who was He?
- Was He a rabbi?
- Who taught Him?
All kinds of things! Just like today, people can have all kinds of opinions, people can think of all kinds of things, and because they have opinions, they think their opinions are right and good and true. But you see, the whole thrust of John 7-9 is:
- the Truth of the Word of God
- the Truth of the Spirit of God
- the Truth of the words of Jesus Christ
Verse 11: "As a result, the Jews were seeking Him at the Feast, and said, 'Where is He?' Now there was much debating about Him among the people. Some said, 'He is a good Man.' But others said, 'No, but He is deceiving the people'" (vs 11-12).
Now we have everything in these conversations that is thrown against all the Churches of God to keep the Feasts of God. The Protestants and Catholics say, 'Oh, you're deceiving the people into keeping the Feasts. Don't you know these things were done away with?' Well, if they were done away with why didn't Christ make it abundantly clear here? No, they have never been done away with!
Verse 13: "However, no one spoke publicly about Him for fear of the Jews. But then, about the middle of the Feast, Jesus went up into the temple and was teaching" (vs 13-14).
Just like Ezra He taught day-by-day through the Feast, and this is what He did all through the Feast. What we're reading here is a summary from the middle of the Feast to the beginning of the Last Great Day (v 7). This is a summary of what went on for about three and a half or four days.
Verse 15: "And the Jews were amazed, saying, 'How does this Man know letters, having never been schooled?'" We know for sure that if any of the rabbis had taught Him any of these things, which they didn't because we know He was taught directly by God the Father! You can read that in the Passover book. So, they wanted to know where He learned these things.
Verse 16: "Jesus answered them and said, 'My doctrine is not Mine, but His Who sent Me.'" This is important for us to understand: Jesus did not teach His own words; they are from God the Father!
Now let's see what He told the scribes and Pharisees at that time. This is also what he told them during one of the Feasts after he healed one of the men, the man on the Sabbath there. Let's understand what He's telling them. Understand how Jesus laid it on the line to them, and it provoked them, but it was a witness to them, and there are a lot of things that we can learn from it.
John 5:31: "If I bear witness of Myself, My testimony is not true." Same way with anyone else, if you're a teacher and you're not teaching the Word of God, then you're testifying of yourself; same thing with any of the brethren.
Let's see what He answered them after they accused Him of making Himself equal with God.
Verse 19: "Therefore, Jesus answered and said to them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, the Son has no power to do anything of Himself, but only what He sees the Father do….'" Of course, He saw Him on a daily basis without a doubt.
"…For whatever He does, these things the Son also does in the same manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him everything that He Himself is doing. And He will show Him greater works than these, so that you may be filled with wonder" (vs 19-20).
That's what's important to understand when we read the New Testament and we read the sayings of Jesus Christ, and we read the God breathed Scriptures that the apostles wrote, what we're doing we are reading the words of God the Father. Now keep that in mind, and that will help you understand how great that the New Testament and the Word of God really is, and this is why the New Testament interprets the Old Testament. He's talking of John the Baptist, let's see what He says to them:
Verse 32: "There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the testimony that he witnesses concerning Me is true. You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the Truth. Now, I do not receive witness from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved" (vs 32-34).
So, He wanted them to be saved. The reason He told them these things was so that they could repent, and that's why any correction that comes out of the Word of God is so that we can repent, that we can change, that we can be saved.
Verse 35: "He was a burning and shining light, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light. But I have a greater witness than John's; for the works that the Father gave Me to complete, the very works that I am doing, themselves bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me" (vs 35-36).
Notice how all of this is revealing the Father, and everything that Jesus did was because of what the Father:
- showed Him
- taught Him
- explained to Him
- gave Him the words to speak
Verse 37: "And the Father Himself, Who sent Me, has borne witness of Me. You have neither heard His voice nor seen His form at any time."
This means that when Moses saw God in the Old Testament, he saw the One Who became Jesus Christ. You all know that so we won't go into it in any great detail here.
Verse 38: "And you do not have His Word dwelling in you…"
- if you resist Christ
- if you resist the words of the New Testament
- if you reject the words of the Old Testament
"…you do not have His Word dwelling in you…" And after all, what is the whole key of the whole goal of the New Testament through the power of the Holy Spirit? To have written in our heart and in our mind the laws and commandments of God! Is that not true? Well they didn't have that.
Verse 38: "And you do not have His Word dwelling in you, for you do not believe Him Whom He has sent. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think that you have eternal life; and they are theones that testify of Me. But you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life" (vs 38-40). Quite a testimony!
Verse 41: "I do not receive glory from men." That's a very important thing to understand. Anyone who is teaching and preaching, never let anyone stroke you as to how good you are, and what you do, and how fantastic that this is or the other thing is. Give yourself some spiritual watershed and just let it flow off to the side, because what will happen then if you get caught up in your vanity, and get caught up in yourself, then there's going to be some correction coming whether you are a teacher or whether you are not!
If Christ has saved you, and has done all of these things, and brought us the words of God the Father, then it all comes from God. We have nothing that we didn't receive! We always need to keep that in mind. That's why Jesus did not receive glory from men.
Verse 42: "But I have known you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves." So, they're missing two things:
- they didn't have the Word of God in them
- they didn't have the love of God in them
It tells us that without the Word of God dwelling in you, and without the love of God, there is no salvation! Think on that for minute! That's exactly what He is saying here. Now notice, to compound this and add to it He says:
Verse 43: "I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; but if another comes in his own name, you will receive him."
- you complement each other
- you tell each other how good you are
- you stroke each other
- you build each other up
when you do that you
- exclude God
- exclude Christ
- exclude the Word of God
Now if you want to see this performed, go on the Trinity channel and watch all these preachers that just fawn over each other, and tell each other how good they are and what a great work in God they are doing. Listen, if they don't preach the Word of God, preach the Word of Christ, there's no Truth dwelling in them; it's just that simple.
Verse 44: "How are you able to believe, you who receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?" Now think on that!
That's very important, because this helps define what Jesus said back in Matt. 22 and Mark 12, that you are to love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your being, and that means to believe. If you don't have the Word of God, and the love of God dwelling in you, you can't believe!
Verse 45: "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, even Moses, in whom you have hope."
"…There is one who accuses you…" That's a present tense participle, which means that the words of Moses being the words of God are constantly active and defining things according to the way of God. In a sense, Moses' warnings in the Old Testament are living and are accusing against them. The laws that God gave are there and Moses was the one who wrote them, and every time you read it says, 'The LORD spoke unto Moses saying speak unto the children of Israel saying…' That's quite a thing we need to understand here.
This tells us about the Old Testament in relationship to Jesus Christ; v 46: "But if you believed Moses, you would have believed Me; for he wrote about Me. And if you do not believe his writings, how shall you believe My words?'" (vs 46-47). Now that's something!
Let's see that the Old Testament and New Testament go hand-in-hand, but we also need to understand that Jesus gives the correct interpretation of the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, and then the New Testament, under the inspiration of God the Father and Jesus Christ, interprets the Old Testament. That's why the New Testament is greater than the Old Testament.
After Christ was resurrected and came to them on the evening of the first day of the count toward Pentecost:
Luke 24:44: "And He said to them, 'These are the words that I spoke to you when I was yet with you, that all the things which were written concerning Me in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.' Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures" (vs 44-45).
That's a key, important thing, which is the dividing line between a 'religious person' and someone that God is calling. Now like one woman wrote recently, that she hadn't been doing much to, even though she grew up in the church and so forth, she just kind of put it all aside and went out in the world. But when God was beginning to call her, she had a yearning and desired to study the Word of God, and what she did because she remembered about the Sabbath, she studied every Sabbath on the Word of God, and guess what happened? God opened her mind and it just gave her all the understanding that she needed to begin to understand and come to repentance in order to be baptized.
That's quite a thing, this is what Jesus is talking about here. When He opens our minds, we began to understand, because God the Father is calling us and Christ is making it possible for us to understand!
John 7:16: "Jesus answered them and said, 'My doctrine is not Mine, but His Who sent Me. If anyone desires to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it is from God, or whether I speak from My own self" (vs 16-17).
Now let's see another part here in the Gospel of John. John is literally full of fantastic, simple, easy to understand words. It's not written in complicated Greek and it's not that difficult to really understand because the translation of the Gospel of John, cannot hinge on technicalities of difficult words because God inspired him to write in a very plain and straightforward way in what is called Koiné Greek.
Now let's see what Jesus said concerning how He taught:
- the words
- Who they came from
- what they are
- what they were
- what we need to do with them
John 12:37: "Although He had done so many miracles in their presence, they did not believe in Him." That's why Christ would not do a sign or a miracle to prove that He was the Messiah, even though they saw all of that; now
Verse 38: "So that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled who said, 'Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' For this very reason they could not believe because again Isaiah said" (vs 38-39).
Here's something that happens: if people don't believe, automatically, there's a curtain that comes over the mind, and they are blinded!
Verse 40: "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their hearts, and be converted, and I would heal them."
If you want to understand a little more fully about this, read chapter 12 in the book Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which? It explains about the blindness and the hardening of them.
Verse 41: "Isaiah said these things when he saw His glory and spoke concerning Him. But even so, many among the rulers believed in Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, so that they wouldnot be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God" (vs 41-43).
Here's another profound lesson we need to learn: we cannot put any man between us and God! We cannot refuse to repent and come to Christ because of men, because of politics, because of relatives, or anything like that.
Luke 14 tells us what we have to do, and when we read this we're also going to understand that this is what Jesus also required of Abraham.
Luke 14:25: "And great multitudes were going with Him; and He turned and said to them, 'If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers and sisters, and, in addition, his own life also, he cannot be My disciple'" (vs 25-26). This means to love God more in comparison to.
What did God require of Abraham? He said, 'Abraham, I want you to get up, I want you to leave your father's home, I want you to leave your father's country and I want you to go into a country that I will tell you. I will bless you and make your name great, and I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you, and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.' That was a prophecy of Christ so he had the same requirement that Christ is giving to any who would follow Him:
Verse 27: "And whoever does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." So, the teachings of Jesus that we need to understand is that we cannot have any person, any thing, any idea, any position, any doctrine between us and God! If we repent and respond to God's calling then it's a total death in the burial of baptism, and a total dedication to God. That's what it's all about. "And whoever does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple."
This is exactly what He's telling them back here in John 12. Even though they believed, they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God! They were willing:
- to be political
- to compromise
- to not come to Christ
because the thing for them was too much; they didn't want to loose face to the other people.
John 12:44: "Then Jesus called out and said, 'The one who believes in Me does not believe in Me, but in Him Who sent Me…. [you have to believe in God the Father] …And the one who sees Me sees Him Who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world so that everyone who believes in Me may not remain in darkness. But if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world" (vs 44-47). That was His mission at that time. Judgment then began after He was resurrected.
Verse 48: "The one who rejects Me and does not receive My words has one who judges him; the Word, which I have spoken, that shall judge him in the last day."
- that's why Jesus didn't teach His own words
- that's why Jesus didn't teach His own ideas
- that's why He spoke the words that God the Father gave Him to speak
- that's why He did the things that God the Father did
Verse 49 verifies this: "For I have not spoken from Myself…" in other words, it didn't originate by Him walking down the road one day and, BING! all of a sudden He's got this idea, 'Oh, this is a great thing. Oh, I'm so glad I thought of that.' Like one vain preacher, he was reading in the Gospel of John about That Prophet and, BING! the idea came into his head, 'I am that prophet.' That was not from God, because That Prophet refers to Christ, not to any other human being.
Verse 49: "For I have not spoken from Myself…" didn't come from His own ideas or just from His own human nature.
"…but the Father, Who sent Me, gave Me commandment Himself, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life. Therefore, whatever I speak, I speak exactly as the Father has told Me'" (vs 49-50).
(Part 2)
Let's continue on with Jesus' message in teaching during the Feast of Tabernacles and remember, this is a compilation of what He taught from the middle of the Feast: days 4-7 and beginning into the 8th day.
John 7:18: "The one who speaks of himself is seeking his own glory…" That's especially true for all who are elders and ministers and teachers. What we do is:
- serve the brethren
- teach the Word of God
- give them the words of salvation
- help them to learn and understand how they are to live their lives before God
- so they can love God
- so they can walk in faith, believe in hope and live in love
- so they can qualify for salvation
Now that we have all the Word of God available to us, it's very important that we use all the Word of God; that we use the teachings of Jesus Christ, and for the Feast of Tabernacles, to see what Jesus taught. Just like Ezra did back in the book of Ezra, what did he do? He read out of the law day-by-day! We're going to read out of the Gospel of Jesus Christ until we finish this section here on John 7-9, because this has all to do with the Feast of Tabernacles and is very important for us to know and to understand.
"…but He Who seeks the glory of Him Who sent Him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. Did not Moses give you the Law, and not one of you is practicing the Law?…." (vs 18-19).
What you need to understand is that Judaism is not the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses is the Word of God. Judaism is all the works and writings of men and the traditions of men, which they have used to replace the Word of God! As Jesus said:
- that rejects the Word of God
- that makes void the Word of God
- that sets up the traditions of men as more important than the Word of God
What are they seeking in that case?
- they're seeking their own glory
- they're seeking their own honor
- they're not seeking the honor that comes from God
"…'Why do you seek to kill Me?' The people answered and said, 'You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill You?'" (vs 19-20.) You're out of Your mind!
Yes, they were seeking to kill Him, many places it's recorded. Rather than after doing a wonderful healing, instead of thanking God, praising God, glorifying God, coming over to Jesus and saying, 'Oh, Jesus what a marvelous miracle that You did. Teach us the Word of God. Show us His way. It's obvious that You are a man sent from God.'
Now let's notice what they did because none of them kept the Law of Moses. One of the greatest myths that is put out by Judaism today, regardless of the branch of Judaism, is this:
- we are the people God
- we are the chosen of God
- we have always done what is right before God
- we just cannot understand why all of you hate us so much, and why you persecute us
They aren't understanding the true facts. What they are going through is because they have rejected Jesus Christ, and, no, they do not keep the Word God; they do not keep the Law of Moses as Jesus said.
Now let's look here, and see what they did to Jesus after He did this miracle. Now even the words that I spoke, if it were heard by someone from Judaism who is not really convicted of the Truth, and convicted of Jesus Christ, they might think to do to me, and any other one who says the same thing, that they were thinking to do to Jesus. When their minds are blinded, and their hearts are hardened, and they do not keep the Law of Moses, and they do not recognize Jesus; there is no way they can understand the truth, and all of the things of the New Testament become competition. That's why Jesus:
- came to the Jews
- was a witness to the Jews
- was a minister to the circumcision
Mark 3:1: "And again He went into the synagogue, and a man who had a withered hand was there. And they were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbaths, in order that they might accuse Him…. [look at that attitude] …Then He said to the man who had the withered hand, 'Stand up here in the center.' And He said to them… [He was looking around on them] …'Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbaths, or to do evil? To save life, or to kill?' But they were silent, and after looking around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as sound as the other" (vs 1-5).
And all the people rejoiced, and all the people were happy, and they came up and said to the man, 'Well what does your hand feel like? How is it to have both hands whole again?' No!
Verse 6: "Then the Pharisees left and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against Him as to how they might destroy Him." They were seeking to kill Him all the way through!
Now let's look at what happened when He stood up in His own local synagogue, the one that He would go to on Sabbath days when He was growing up, and let's see what they did to Jesus after He read to them out of the book of Isaiah.
Luke 4:16: "And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and according to His custom, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath Day and stood up to read. And there was given Him the book of the prophet Isaiah; and when He had unrolled the scroll, He found the place where it was written, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; for this reason, He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal those who are brokenhearted, to proclaim pardon to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth in deliverance those who have been crushed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.' And after rolling up the scroll and delivering it to the attendant, He sat down; and the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him. Then He began to say to them, 'Today, this Scripture is being fulfilled in your ears.' And all bore witness to Him and were amazed at the words of grace that were coming out of His mouth; and they said, 'Is not this the son of Joseph?'?" (vs 16-22).
Just a man, who does He think He is getting off with this?
Verse 23: "And He said to them, 'Surely, you will say this parable to Me: "Physician, heal Yourself! Whatever we have heard being done in Capernaum, do also here in Your own country."' But He said, 'Truly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country. For in truth, I say to you, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up for three years and six months, and there was great famine upon all the land; and Elijah was not sent to any of them, but only to a widow in Sarepta, a city of Sidonia. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them were cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian'" (vs 23-27).
Verse 28: "Now, all in the synagogue who heard these things were filled with indignation. And they rose up and cast Him out of the city, and led Him to the edge of the mountain on which their city was built, in order to throw Him down headlong; but He passed safely through their midst and departed" (vs 28-30).
Yes, they were seeking to him over and over again. You can read that all the way through. But you see what happens when someone speaks the truth and they really don't want to hear it, they say, 'Oh you're crazy, you're insane, you're demon possessed' and that's what they said of Jesus.
As we go through here there are a lot of things we're going to learn and a lot of things we're going to see and understand.
John 7:22: "Now then, Moses gave you circumcision—not that it was from Moses, but from the fathers—and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man."
Now when you also understand the probable true date of the birth of Jesus, which we proved in A Harmony of the Gospels and in The Holy Bible in It's Original Order, A Faithful Version Appendix E: When was Jesus Christ Born? was probably the Feast of Trumpets, which was on a weekly Sabbath. So, the Holy Day in the year that Jesus was born was on a weekly Sabbath, which meant that Jesus was circumcised on a Sabbath. It's relevant to a practice which in order to fulfill the Law of Moses, they circumcised on the Sabbath, and if Jesus being born on the Sabbath then He had to be circumcised on the next Sabbath.
Verse 23: "If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the Law of Moses may not be broken,whyare you angry with Me because I made a man entirely whole on the Sabbath?" Now that's going back to John 5 where He healed the man who had the infirmity for 38 years.
Verse 24: "Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment." I'm going to give three sermons on Judge Righteous Judgment. Today that's a serious problem that we have even within the Church. So, it's going to be very important that we learn righteous judgment and it's going to be important from the point of view: how are we going to learn to help judge the world under Jesus Christ if we don't know how to make righteous judgments now, if we're not capable of making the smallest judgment in a correct manner now. We're not going to be able to do it.
Verse 25: "Then some of those from Jerusalem said, 'Is not this the One Whom they seek to kill?…. [they admitted exactly what Jesus said they were trying to do] …But look, He is speaking publicly, and they are saying nothing to Him. Can it be that the authorities have recognized that this Man truly is the Christ? Now, this man, we know where He comes from. But the Christ, whenever He may appear, no one knows where He comes from'" (vs 25-27).
He came from Galilee. "…no one knows where He comes from" is not true! They knew that He would be born in Bethlehem. You can read that in Matt. 3 when the wise men came and came to Herod he wanted know why they were there. They said they came to worship the King of the Jews. So he called all of the religious authorities and said, 'The Christ, where is He to be born?' And they looked at the Scriptures and they knew it, they said, 'In Bethlehem of Judea,' and that's exactly where He was born. But God worked it out in such a way that they weren't living in Bethlehem, but when it came time for the taxes, Joseph took Mary—who was about ready to deliver—and they went up to Bethlehem, and while they were there Jesus was born. They stayed there a short while, went down to Egypt, and then came back to Nazareth. People didn't know that. So they said, "…no one knows where He comes from."
Verse 28: "Then Jesus spoke out, teaching in the temple and saying, 'You know Me, and you also know where I come from..."—because He told them, 'I am from above.'
{note sermon series: Who Was Jesus? He made it very clear Who He was. And He also made it very clear that He was God manifested in the flesh. So they knew!
"…yet, I have not come of Myself…" (v 28). He didn't just stand up one day and say, 'Oh I'm God's Messiah! What do you know!' No! He didn't do that.
"…but He Who sent Me is true, Whom you do not know…. [they didn't know the Father. Christ came to reveal the Father] …But I know Him because I am from Him, and He sent Me" (vs 28-29).
Let's see something about one of the most important aspects of Jesus' ministry, what He was to do. This shows us that the Lord God of the Old Testament had to be Jesus Christ and was not God the Father. Let's see what He is doing here in great detail that He said is one of the very reasons why He came.
Matthew 11:25: "At that time Jesus answered and said, 'I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to babes. Yes, Father, for it was well pleasing in Your sight to do this. All things were delivered to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son personally chooses to reveal Him'" (vs 25-27). Now that's quite a statement!
- Do you know of the Father?
- Do you believe in the Father?
- Do you worship the Father?
- Do you know you have the Holy Spirit of the Father?
Jesus revealed Him to you personally, and He chose to reveal it to you!
Think of the weight and the responsibility of that great and fantastic calling that Jesus has given. See, that's something we really need to understand! Jesus says, 'You know where I came from and I know Him, because He sent Me.'
Now let's come back to John 7:30: "Because of this saying, they were looking for a way to take Him…"
The most incredible thing to the Jews who boxed themselves into a position contrary to the true understanding of the Scriptures of the Old Testament; note booklets:
- The Two Jehovahs of the Psalms
- The Two Jehovahs of the Pentateuch
- Defining the Oneness of God
Because they clearly revealed that there were two; one Who was the Father, and one Who became the Son. That's very important for us to understand and for us to really realize and grasp, but because the Jews wanted to close everything off, they further tighten down the doctrine that there is only One God and part of the forces of Judaism coming into the Church is to try and eliminate that knowledge, and unfortunately too many people are falling for it.
"…but no one laid a hand on Him because His time had not yet come" (v 30)—at the time of Passover was the time when that would take place. God made it so that they could not do anything. They were stymied in what they were going to do because God is not going to do anything before the time. That's why we have the set Feasts; that's why we have them in the way that we have them, and when we have them, in the due time. It also says that Christ was killed at the time. We know that He was destined to be born at the set time (Gal. 4).
Rom. 5 tells us about Christ and we know that the set time looking back at it now after it's already taken place, was the Passover. Romans 5:6: "For even when we were without strength, at the appointed time…"
John 7:30: "…His time had not yet come." God is able to do whatever is necessary to make it come out exactly as He wants. Think about this and how men come along with their traditions, and how men come along with their twisted interpretations to say that the Passover was not on a Wednesday, it was on a Tuesday, it was on a Thursday, it was on a Friday, any day but the day that is clearly shown when Christ died. 'We'll keep this calendar which shows it's on a different day. We'll reject everything that has to do with the Jews, and we will choose Good Friday, so we can have an Easter Sunday morning resurrection.' NO!
It's at the set time, at the appointed time Christ died for the ungodly, which also tells us that God does everything on time. God uses His Holy Days to fulfill His will and to reveal His plan and purpose.
That's why we have the book Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which? And when you read that, you'll understand all the things that men have done:
- to change the Word of God
- to make it conform to paganism
- to make it conform to their own traditions
and in doing so:
- they reject the Father
- they reject Christ
- they set their own ways
- they set their own traditions, they seek their own glory
- they seek their own doctrines
- they seek the things that they wanted to do
If we're going to be true Christians, which we are, and have the Spirit of God, which we do, then we are going to be constantly, as it shows in John 7:
- orienting our lives to the way of God
- living by every Word of God
- having our mind filled with the Word of God
- filled with the Spirit of God
- coming to Christ
- to learn
- to change
- to grow
- to overcome
- to understand the great calling that we've been given
Let's see that they all had opinions, they had all things that they were doing and so forth.
Verse 31: "Then many of the people believed in Him…" We're also going to see as we progress along, to believe in Him is more than to say that this is the Messiah! It's a whole lot more than that.
"…saying, 'When the Christ comes, will He do more miracles than those that this Man has done?'…. [they're all talking among themselves] …The Pharisees heard the crowds debating these things about Him…" (vs 31-32).
This is Fox News, everyone having an opinion: What do you think? What do you know? What is your opinion? That's why you've got go by the Truth of God!
"…and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to arrest Him" (v 32). They said, 'You go out and arrest Him and bring Him in here.'
Verse 33: "Then Jesus said to them, 'I am with you yet a little while, and then I go to Him Who sent Me. You shall seek Me, but shall not find Me; and where I am going, you are not able to come'" (vs 33-34)—it's impossible for you to come. And this was a difficult thing for the Jews to understand.
Let's see a parenthetical statement that John wrote that ties in with one of the other Scriptures that we have read that 'you have neither heard His voice nor seen His shape at any time."
When we understand the Gospel of John was edited just before John died, here's one of the edits that he had:
John 3:13:"And no one has ascended into heaven, except He Who came down from heaven, even the Son of man, Who is in heaven."
Let's think about this for a minute: All the other apostles died or were martyred. None of them were in heaven. None of the saints who came into the Church beginning in 30A.D.—and received the Holy Spirit of God—when they died went to heaven. The truth is when you die, you go to the grave; you don't go to heaven, you await the resurrection! That's the truth of it.
Now also let's think about this and 'knock into a cocked hat' one of the main doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church that Mary that when she died was assumed bodily into heaven. John wrote, because he knew Mary and he know when she died, he said, "And no one has ascended into heaven, except He Who came down from heaven, even the Son of man, Who is in heaven." Very profound statement!
So, when we compare everything by the Word of God, this helps us understand the Truth of God that the souls do not go to heaven. As a matter of fact, as we have learned, souls going to heaven is one of the doctrines of Gnosticism. There are varying degrees of Gnosticism in all Sunday-keeping churches. In the Sabbath-keeping churches there may be some small degree of it, but we need to get rid of those teachings because, as it says there, those are the teachings of Balaam. Those are the teachings of the way of Cain.
No one is able to go to heaven. Why? Because Christ is the Firstfruit, and no one is going to be resurrected, as we know because of keeping Pentecost, until Christ comes!
Verse 35: "Therefore, the Jews said among themselves, 'Where is He about to go, that we shall not find Him? Is He about to go to the Diaspora among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? What is this saying that He said, "You shall seek Me, but shall not find Me"…'" (vs 35-36).
When He died and was put in the grave and was resurrected, you know they looked everywhere for His body; you know that they were seeking to find out who stole the body because the Pharisees paid the guards a great amount of money to say the disciples came by night and stole His body, and the Jews believe that even to this day. And you know they would love to have the body to know where it was so they could display it to the world to show that He was a counterfeit, but they couldn't find Him; no body. The disciples saw Him, the apostles saw Him, and up to 500 of the brethren saw Him after He was resurrected as a testimony to the resurrection.
So they said, v 36: "'What is this saying that He said, "You shall seek Me, but shall not find Me"; and, "Where I am going, you are not able to come"?'"
So, He literally turned the Feast upside down. You talk about everybody over in this corner whispering about this: 'What do you think?' Well, you see the truth of the matter is, it doesn't matter what anyone thinks, the truth of the matter is, what did Jesus say, and the truth of the matter is, the Truth of the Word of God. All of our opinions and speculations just like here are futile.
Verse 37: "Now, in the last day, the great day of the Feast… [the beginning of the Last Great Day] … Jesus stood and called out, saying, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink." And that reinforces what He said, 'If you seek, you shall find; if you knock, it shall be opened; if you ask, it shall be given'; but you have to come to Christ! That's the opposite, they wouldn't come to Him. They didn't know where He was going, so Jesus said:
Verse 38: "The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."
Let's see what He says about concerning the Bread of Life and showing how this is done; John 6:32: "Then Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven; but My Father gives you the true Bread from heaven. For the Bread of God is He Who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.'…. [the Jews didn't understand that] …Therefore, they said to Him, 'Lord, give this bread to us always.' Jesus said to them, 'I AM the Bread of Life; the one who comes to Me shall never hunger; and the one who believes in Me shall never thirst at any time" (vs 32-35)—'the one who believes Me, he shall never thirst' (John 7).
Now let's see little more out of the Beatitudes concerning the same thing: hungering and thirsting; wanting, loving and desiring the Word of God!
Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." You see how all the Word of God continuously fits together as a wonderful and fantastic building and dwelling to teach us the Word of God: 'line upon line; precept upon precept; here a little, there a little,' so that we can understand it?
Let's see about this and the Word of God and the Spirit of God; John 7:38: "The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said…" very important qualifier. Not believing as you think, not believing as you have been told by a religious teacher, but believing as the Scripture has said, which then is belief, repentance, baptism, etc.
"…out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (v 38). He said this because just as the seventh day was ending and the eighth day of the Feast was beginning, they had a special ceremony called the Ceremony of Waters. What they did is they got water from the temple spring, the spring of Gihon, and they would take this water which flowed pure—some of the purest water in all the area there—because it was needed for the Temple to do all the things of the Temple. Then they would take these big pictures of water, and the priests would ceremonially go around the altar of burnt offerings, and they would pour out the water, and that was in anticipation for a blessed harvest for the next year.
Now Jesus gives it new meaning, and He shows that this has to do with the Spirit of God; v 39: "But this He spoke concerning the Spirit… [concerning the Spirit of God] …which those who believed in Him would soon receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified."
Now we know in Act 2 because of Pentecost, God poured out His Spirit in a tremendous way. Let's look at some of the prophecies of pouring out of the Spirit and how that it would eventually be on all flesh—that means Jews, Israelites, and Gentiles.
Ezek. 39 is where God talks about for the house of Israel, for the children of Israel, and how He's going to pour out of His Spirit upon them.
Ezekiel 39:27: "'When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; then they shall know that I am the LORD their God Who exiled them among the nations. But I have gathered them to their own land, and have not left any of them there. Nor will I hide My face from them any more, for I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel,' says the Lord GOD" (vs 27-29). That's at the beginning of the Millennium when they repent. There's the house of Israel.
Now let's see the house of Judah and let's put this in the context also of those who were there at the temple during the time when the Holy Spirit was given, when the apostles were preaching on the Day of Pentecost because this also is a partial fulfillment of that, and the pouring out of the Spirit upon the children of Israel who were there.
Zechariah 12:9: "And it shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the people of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication…." (vs 9-10). This is when God is going to intervene and bring them to repentance through His grace, because:
Verse 7: "The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the people of Jerusalem may not be magnified above Judah."
What's going to happened? Here's something that's important understand, v 10: "…And they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced…"
Let's apply that to all those Jews assembled there on the day of Pentecost in 30A.D. when the Holy Spirit was poured out. Weren't a lot of them there in the crowd saying, 'Crucify Him!', as we have covered, and did they not look upon Jesus whom they had pierced? Yes, so it was fulfilled then. Now the future fulfillment when Christ begins to redeem Israel and Judah as He's returning then to say, 'They will look upon Me Whom they have pierced' when they see the Son of man coming, they're going to be looking upon Him.
"…and they shall mourn for Him…" (v 10). He is going to pour out the Spirit upon them. Now let's see how the Holy Spirit is going to be poured upon all flesh.
Joel 2:27: "And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and there is none else; and My people shall never again be ashamed. And afterward it shall be that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh.…" (vs 27-28).
That's why you have the Gentile conversion there in Acts 10 beginning with that, and then the whole ministry of Paul going to all the Gentile nations, and then you have God's Spirit being poured out upon the 144,000 and the great innumerable multitude, upon all flesh. This carries on over into all the Millennium where the Spirit of God will be made available to all people and like Jesus prophesied: '…out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water' showing that conversion is going to come to the whole world.
John 7:40: "Now, after hearing these words, many of the people said, 'This is truly the Prophet.' Others said, 'This is the Christ.' But others said, 'Does the Christ then come out of Galilee? Does not the Scripture say that the Christ comes from the seed of David, and from Bethlehem, the town where David was?…. [He was born there] …Therefore, a division arose among the people because of Him. Now some of them desired to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him" (vs 40-44).
Those who were sent to arrest Him were confronted with all these different opinions of the people, and some said, 'Let's arrest Him' and others said, 'No, we've never heard anyone speak like this.'
Verse 45: "As a result… [they gave up on it] …As a result, when the officers came to the chief priests and the Pharisees, they said to them, 'Why did you not bring Him?'" That's why we sent you, why didn't you arrest Him?
Verse 46: "The officers answered, 'Never has a man spoken like this man.'…. [you discredit the messenger]: …Then the Pharisees answered them, 'Are you also being deceived? Has even one of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in Him?" (vs 46-48). Yes, Nicodemus did, and yes, Joseph of Arimathea did.
Now notice their attitude, notice the attitude of what happens when you have a hierarchical priesthood that looks down upon the people, and considers themselves to be above the people, and higher than the people, and greater than the people.
Verse 49: "But these people who do not know the law are accursed." That's the way too many of the religious leaders look upon the people. The people are only there to pray and pay and to give money and obey, so that they can have:
- power
- religious power
- political power
This exposed Nicodemus so Nicodemus had some qualms of conscious in this:
Verse 50: "Then Nicodemus (being one of them, the one who came to Him [Jesus] by night) said to them, 'Does our law judge any man without first hearing from him in person, and knowing what he does?'" They answered and said to him, 'Are you also from Galilee? Search and see, for no prophet has ever come out of Galilee.' And each one went to his house" (vs 50-53).
There are a lot of lessons here in John 7 about the Feast of Tabernacles that teaches many things. It is just like as Nehemiah did reading out of the Law. We read out of the Law yesterday, and today we read out of the Law of the New Testament the teachings of Jesus during the Feast of Tabernacles. Now tomorrow we're going to get into John 8 and John 9 and see what else Jesus taught.
All Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version
Scriptural References
- Ezra 7:10
- Nehemiah 8:1-2, 13-18
- John 7:1-2
- John 2:13
- John 7:3-16
- John 5:31, 19-20, 32-47
- Luke 24:44-45
- John 7:16-17
- John 12:37-43
- Luke 14:25-27
- John 12:44-50
- John 7:17-20
- Mark 3:1-6
- Luke 4:16-30
- John 7:22-29
- Matthew 11:25-27
- John 7:30
- Romans 5:6
- John 7:30-34
- John 3:13
- John 7:35-37
- John 6:32-35
- Matthew 5:6
- John 7:38-39
- Ezekiel 39:27-29
- Zechariah 12:9-10, 7, 10
- Joel 2:27-28
- John 7:40-53
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- Leviticus 23
- Matthew 22
- Mark 12
- Galatians 4
- Acts 2; 10
Also referenced:
- Books:
- The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
- Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which? by Fred R. Coulter
- A Harmony of the Gospels by Fred R. Coulter
- Sermon Series:
- Judge Righteous Judgment by Fred R. Coulter
- Who Was Jesus?
- Booklet:
- Judge Righteous Judgment
- The Two Jehovahs of the Psalms by Carl Franklin
- The Two Jehovahs of the Pentateuch by Carl Franklin
- Defining the Oneness of God by Carl Franklin
FRC: bo
Transcribed: 7/23/17