Bible Studies

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Our Fathers Have Inherited Lies
By David Wiseman
“Oh Jehovah, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations shall come to You from the ends of the earth, and say, ‘Our fathers have inherited only lies, vanity, and there is no profit in them.’” Yiremyahu (Jeremiah) 16:19 (LITV)
David Rebbe vs. John Preacher
Entering a restaurant, two nicely dressed gentlemen took a seat at a table marked “reserved.” One was dressed in a business suit, navy with baby-blue pin-stripes running snappily down a creased and pressed jacket and creased and pressed pants, that looked as though they ought to crackle when he walked. Beneath he wore a clean white shirt and a white and gold-striped tie. Towering above his companion, and most in the room, he had a handsome face and slight shoulders. A bookish man, certainly.
The other man was much shorter, barely reaching over five feet off the ground. He wore kakis that, though not crisp, were nice, and a golf shirt. Between where his shirt was tucked in and his pants protruded some dangly-thingies. They were white and blue and tied in a series of odd knots. Sitting brightly on his head of bushy brown hair sat a round hat he called a “keppah.”
Both of them carried Bibles. The tall man carried a slim, glossy, King James Version, while his friend lugged an interlinear that would have gone in the oversize section if it had been a library book. The tall one, John Preacher D.D., had once told his friend, David Rebbe, “Your Bible is bigger than you are.”
Smirking knowingly he replied, “Speak softly and carry a big Bible.”
After ordering, they set their Bibles on the table, and began to talk. Mr. Preacher began. “So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?”
David flipped his Bible open. “Matthew 5:17-18.” John followed him there. “Read it to me.”
“ ‘Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.’ ”
“Okay, that’s what the KJV says. But that’s not right. They have it right until ‘till all be fulfilled,’ but that’s where they go haywire. The word ‘all’ is the Greek ‘pas’ which means every, or everything. The first time ‘fulfill’ appears in that passage it’s ‘playroo’ which is ‘fulfill.’ But the second time, it’s a different word. ‘Ginomai’ is what appears in the Greek. It’s used over and over and over again in the Bible, like in Matthew 14:23. Read that one.”
Clearing his throat, John read, “ ‘And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, He was there alone.’ ”
“Can you guess what word ‘was come’ is in the Greek? ‘Ginomai.’ Okay, now read Mark 4:35 for me.”
John leafed through his Bible slowly, until he found the passage, then read, “‘And the same day, when the even was come, He saith unto them, “Let us pass over unto the other side.”’”
“There, Ginomai is translated the same way, ‘was come.’ It’s that way over and over again. I count it as thirty-nine times. It only appears as fulfilled three times in the King James Version. Go to Matthew 24:34.”
John read, “‘Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.’”
But in the LITV it says something that makes a lot more sense.” David flipped his own Bible open and leafed through. “‘Truly I say to you, in no way will this generation pass away until all these things have occurred.’ That makes a lot more sense than ‘fulfilled’ in the context. Now read Luke 21:32 if you would.”
“‘Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.’”
“And again, the LITV says it differently. ‘Truly I say to you, in no way will this generation pass away until all these things occur.’ So, in the end, it makes a lot more sense to translate it as, ‘until everything has occurred.’”
There were several moments of silence. “So, the point is…?” John asked.
“That,” David replied, “in that passage Yeshua said that the Law, meaning the Law of Moses, wouldn’t pass away until everything had happened, until the end of everything, like it says in Numbers 15:15,” he paused and flipped through, then started again, “‘As for the congregation, there shall be one statute for both you and for the alien that lives with you, a never-ending statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the alien be before Jehovah.’ He said it was a never-ending statute.”
John smiled, “But that is addressed to the Israelites, the Jews. Not to the whole world.”
“That’s not what it says in Numbers 15:15. It says, ‘there shall be one statute for both you and for the alien that lives with you.’ Not only that, but in Romans 3:19 the LITV says, ‘Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those within the Law, so that every mouth may be stopped and all the world be under judgment to God.’ (Emphasis added) and then in Galatians 3:7, ‘Know, then, that those of faith, these are sons of Abraham.’ Yeshua even said, in Matthew 15:24, ‘But answering He said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”’ How can you not be a part of Israel?”
“In Romans 16:25&26, ‘Now of Him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith,’”
David came back, “But those who are of faith become children of Abraham, like it says there in Galatians 3.”
For a moment John recoiled, but then came back with strength. “But also in Galatians 3 it says,” He shuffled pages forward and backward until he found the place he was seeking, “Chapter 3, verses 21-24, ‘Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.’”
“If Paul is trying to get across what you’re saying he is, then he’s contradicting himself. Look there at verse 23. In the LITV it says it, ‘…we were guarded under law, having been locked up to the faith being about to be revealed.’ But earlier in the chapter he said, in verse 18, ‘For if the inheritance is of law, it is no more of promise; but God has given it to Abraham through promise.’ And in Romans 4:3-4 Paul says, ‘For what does Scripture say? “And Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.’ Now to one working, the reward is not counted according to grace, but according to debt. But to the one not working, but believing on Him justifying the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.’ (LITV) And Paul also says, earlier in the chapter in Galatians, verse 11, ‘And that no one is justified by law before God is clear, because, “The just shall live by faith.”’ Which is quoting Habakkuk 2:4, a pre-Yeshua book.”
“Hold, on. I just lost you.”
“Well, how could Paul say that we were ‘locked up to faith’ in verse 23 if he said that we were always justified by faith in verse 11?”
“Hmmm…”
“If you look at that chapter, everything comes to a climax in verses 24 and 25, where it says, ‘So that the Law has become a trainer of us until Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But faith coming, we are no longer under a trainer,’ First of all, you have to realize that the word ‘until’ is added in the translation. They’re assuming that that is the word that belongs there.”
“What else could belong there?”
“That would make sense? I have no idea.”
Another silence stood for several seconds. “Are you saying that we are saved by works like they were in the Old Testament? Because it says…”
Vigorously shaking his head, David answered, “No, not at all. Like Habakkuk 2:4 says, ‘`Behold, the soul of him is puffed up and is not upright; but the just shall live by his faith.’ (LITV) Deuteronomy 30:16 says what the Law is for, ‘…in that I am commanding you today to love Jehovah your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands and His statutes, and His judgments, and you shall live and multiply, and Jehovah your God shall bless you in the land where you are going in, to possess it.’”
“So even the animal sacrifices? And what about the priesthood? Hebrews clearly talks about the abolition of the Levitical priesthood.”
“Yes, even the sacrifices, because James 2:10 says, ‘For whoever shall keep all the law, but stumbles in one, he has become guilty of all.’ And Hebrews is almost entirely referring to two passages in the Law. Exodus 19, and Deuteronomy 30.”
“Hebrews 7:11-12 says, ‘If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.’ And, James said if you fail in one that you fail in all of the Law, so what’s the point, since we obviously can’t keep all of it?”
“First of all, you have to realize that the part in your Bible that is in parenthesis is added. It’s a comment made by the scribes. It doesn’t even make any sense. The Law wasn’t given under the Levitical priesthood. It established the Levitical priesthood, which didn’t exist before then. There wasn’t a need for it until Exodus 20. The change of law, or the change of covenant that he is talking about is actually talked about in both Exodus 19 and Deuteronomy 30. Exodus 19:6 says, ‘and you shall become a kingdom of priests for Me, a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the sons of Israel’ (LITV) and then Deuteronomy 30:6, ‘And Jehovah your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love Jehovah your God will all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.’ (LITV) The author of Hebrews talks about this more clearly later on, in chapter 8, verse 10 he makes it clear what he’s talking about. ‘Because this is the covenant which I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, giving my laws into their mind, and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ (LITV)
“Then, about James, it is not true that we cannot keep the Law. Deuteronomy 30: 11-12 says, ‘For this command which I am commanding you today is not too wonderful for you, nor is it too far off. It is not in the heavens that you should say, “Who shall go up into the heavens for us, and bring it to us, and cause us to hear it, that we may do it?”’ (LITV) so we can keep it.”
John was a little taken aback by this long stream of words, delivered with total calm. Quickly he was back on his feet. “What about Romans 3:28-30? ‘Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.’”
“I don’t know,” a sly smile spread across David’s face, “What about verse 31? ‘Then do we make the Law of no effect through faith? Let it not be! But we establish Law.’” (LITV)
“What about later in Romans, in…Romans 7:9, ‘For I was alive without the Law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.’?”
“Paul explains right below there, in verses 12&13, ‘So indeed the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Then that which is good, has it become death to me? Let it not be! But sin, that it might appear to be sin, having worked out death to me through the good, in order that sin might become excessively sinful through the commandment.’ (LITV)
“While we’re on the subject of Romans, how do you explain Romans 2:13? ‘For not the hearers of the law are just with God, but the doers of the Law shall be justified.’” (LITV)
“Well, he’s assuming you know that you can’t possibly keep all of the Law. Like it says in Romans 3:23, ‘For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,’”
“Or is it possible he’s referring to what James is in James 2:18, ‘But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’ (LITV) Like James said in the verse before, ‘So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.’”
“But he’s talking there about feeding the hungry and such. He says so in the previous verses. ‘If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?’”
“But those commands are included in the Law. Help the widows and the orphans. Don’t oppress the poor. They’re in the Torah.”
Again, there were several seconds of silence, then David began, “So, can you answer the evidence I’ve brought to you? I think I’ve answered all the verses you’ve presented.”
Deep trenches dug their way across John’s forehead. “I’ll have to do some more research.” By now they had finished eating, so John stood up. “It was great to see you. We’ll have to talk again some time. Right now I have to get back.”
David took his nodded, and followed him to the cash register, and they left, and each did what was right in his own eyes.

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