Issued: 6/11/2021 Revised: 11/4/2023

PLEASE NOTE:  Because Bible versions sometimes differ from each other in crucial ways, the version quoted here will be the one that best clarifies the point being made.  For a quick comparison between versions, please go to: http://www.biblehub.com.

   All bracketed material may be authorial comments, attempts at proper syntax, or minimal rewordings of Scripture for the sake of clarity and continuity.  These emendations will not be italicized.

   The “/” will be used to signify “and/or.”  The symbol “↔” is used to connect verses corroborating each other and so establishing doctrinal truths (Matthew 18:16↔2Corinthians 13:1).

   In differentiating between Yahweh Son [Jesus] and Yahweh Father [the Most High God], lower case letters have been used when discussing the former; upper case letters are reserved for the Only and Most High God.  Since Jesus was at pains to differentiate himself from Father, we have followed his lead here.

   The term neo-Christians will be used to differentiate between false Christians and Jesus’ true followers.

Jesus the Judge

   Abraham’s justification by faith was followed by the changing of his name, Abram [exalted father], to Abraham [father of many nations] (Genesis 17:5).  Though Jews have always claimed an exclusive monopoly on him (Luke 3:8; John 8:39; Acts 13:26), the ‘nations’ implied in Abraham’s name-change—of which the Jewish nation was one, really encompassed all faithful Judeo-Christians the world over.  Thus for Paul he/she “is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is of the heart (↔Jeremiah 4:4), by the Spirit [in terms of faith], not by the letter [Mosaic Law]; and his praise is not from people, but from God” (Romans 2:29).  Consequently Abraham, by virtue of believing fully in things neither tangible nor visible (Genesis 15:4-6↔Hebrews 11:1,13,39), became father to all Christian believers not in terms of ethnicity but of faith (Romans 4:13, 9:8; Galatians 3:7,18, 4:28; Ephesians 3:6).

We saw in Part II that the divine Name Giver was Yahweh Son/Jesus—or as he is called throughout the Old Testament, Yahweh of hosts.  We also know that Yahweh Father has never been seen or heard by any human being (John 1:18, 5:37; 1Timothy 6:16); so that the Yahweh speaking to Abraham in Genesis 17:1-21 had to have been Yahweh Son proxy God.  In Genesis 17:22 we are told that once their dialogue was over, “God went up from [Abraham].”  Since this particular encounter was not in a vision, as the one in Genesis 15:1,6, it is clear there had been a ‘face to face’ encounter that would not have been possible with Yahweh Father.

A more significant meeting takes place at Mamre, where again Abraham sees Yahweh Son proxy God accompanied by two “men” [angels (Genesis 18:22↔Genesis 19:1)]; refers to Yahweh Son as “Lord” [obviously outranking his angelic companions]; and kneels before him, the type of worship rendered only to either Yahweh Son (Hebrews 1:6) or Yahweh Father (Revelation 22:9).  Having washed his feet and partaken of food (Genesis 18:8), and following the tradition begun with Noah (Genesis 6:13↔Amos 3:7, 4:17), Yahweh Son told Abraham of the intention to destroy Sodom (Genesis 18:17-21); whereupon Abraham, in an effort to intercede for people worthy of forgiveness, addressed Yahweh Son as “the Judge of all the earth” (Genesis 18:25).

   This epithet settles the issue of Son’s identity; for who is the Judge of all flesh if not Jesus?  “The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22).   And the Apostles followed suit:  “He [Jesus] commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God [Father] appointed as Judge of the living and the dead.  For God [Father] has set a day [unknown by Son (Mark 13:31-32; Acts 1:7)] when He [Father] will judge the world with justice by the man [Jesus, no longer in his previous form as Yahweh Son proxy God (Philippians 2:6-7), but as a resurrected, immortal man (Luke 24:39; Colossians 1:8] He [Father] has appointed… [and has] given proof of this to everyone by raising him[Jesus]from the dead” (Acts 10:42, 17:31; Revelation 2:8↔Revelation 22:13).  To which Paul added, “God [Father] shall judge the secrets of men [through] Jesus Christ” (Romans 2:16).

    As is always the case with Scripture, besides establishing the fact that Jesus and not the Father [Who will be in attendance (Daniel 7:9)] is the officiating judge on Judgment Day (Daniel 7:10↔Romans 14:11), two other points are being made clear as well.  First, the Father  is technically the ultimate Judge, because the moral precepts and laws by which Jesus will judge the acts of men were set by Him—as Jesus later explained,  “My doctrine is not mine, but His who sent me” (John 7:16).  In other words, no doctrine that Son ever voiced in Scripture was of his own devising:  Whether from Heaven or on earth, he has always been the Spokesperson for the invisible, silent Father (John 1:18, 5:37).

   Confirming the Father’s ultimate judge-ship, we have the following:  “It is God [Father] Who judges; He brings one down and exalts another” (Psalm 75:7↔Daniel 4:37, 5:21; Ezekiel 21:26).  And,  “You have come to God [Father], the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:23-24).  And finally, ^“Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say:  ‘You are just in these judgments, O Holy One, You Who are and Who were; for they have shed the blood of Your holy people and Your prophets, and You have given them blood to drink as they deserve…Yes, Lord God Almighty,  true and just are Your judgments’”(Revelation 16:5-7).  Which brings us back to David, “And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God [Father] is Judge Himself” (Psalm 50:6).

   The second point being made touches upon the roles played by all three divine persons in the redemptive plan:  Father, Holy Spirit, and the created “Light,” Yahweh Son/Jesus [John’s argument in 1John 5:6-7].  These roles exist so that we can differentiate amongst all three in terms of rank and individuality.  Father appoints Son Judge, while Holy Spirit plays no role in any sort of judgment.  Son sentences or absolves based on laws—none his own—dictated by Father, so that in effect they act as One Person doing a task that requires two minds:  Law Maker [Father] and Law Enforcer [Son].  ‘Shadow’ in this arrangement was Moses, who Yahweh Father chose to prefigure Son’s ministry thousands of years before his incarnation: “I [Father] will raise up for them a prophet like you [Moses]… and I will put My words in his [Jesus’] mouth.  He will tell them everything I command him” (Deuteronomy 18:15,18↔Acts 3:22).   And furthermore, even Holy Spirit becomes another conduit relaying Father’s will, for when “He, the Spirit of truth…will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come” (John 16:13).

   Beginning with Isaiah 33:21-22, “The Majestic…Yahweh [Father↔Hebrews 8:1; 2Peter 1:17] is our Judge… our Lawgiver…our King; it is He who will save us,” let us tackle the same issue from a different angle.  As has already been argued, Judge, Lawgiver, King, and Savior, are appellations equally applicable to Yahweh Father and to Yahweh Son; but it is possible to link all three attributes more particularly to the latter.  Abiding by the Scriptural rule that the testimony of two or three Biblical witnesses decides every issue (Deuteronomy 17:6; 2 Corinthians 13:1; 1Timothy 5:19), we have already established that Jesus is the acting/de facto Judge of all flesh.  And just as Moses was Israel’s lawgiver [shadow], Jesus [substance] came to earth to reveal Father’s laws to mankind at large (John 1:18):  “There is a Judge [Father] for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them on [Judgment Day]; for I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken” (John 12:48).

   Please note that before saying these words, Jesus appeared to contradict himself:  “I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47).  But not really:  During his earthly ministry, Jesus had come to save souls by setting examples to follow (John 13:15); and having been made sinful by taking men’s sins upon himself (Isaiah 53:5-6), Jesus was in no position to pass judgment on sinners—as indeed he warned sinners not to pass judgment on other sinners (Matthew 7:1-5).  Now, however, he had told men what Father expected from them; so that whereas ignorance of Father’s will had been a mitigating factor in men’s favor, willful disobedience after knowing was unforgivable (John 15:22↔Romans 5:13).

   It was only following his resurrection that Jesus earned the right to judge all flesh in Father’s stead (Acts 17:31); for which reason Paul spoke of Jesus’ second coming as being “unrelated to sin (Hebrews 8:29),” meaning that the justified Jesus would then be able to pass judgment on sinful others.  And not only him, but those amongst the redeemed chosen to serve as jury members for evildoers (Matthew 19:28; 1Corinthians 6:3↔Daniel 7:9; Revelation 20:4).  Therefore John 5:22 pointed to a future role Jesus was to perform, but was not being played at the time he uttered those words.

   It would only be in future that Ezekiel 34:11-12,17,20 would come to pass:  ^“For this is what [Yahweh Son] says: ‘I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.  As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep.  I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds an darkness [his second coming (Matthew 24:29-30)]…As for you, my flock…I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats…I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.’”  Moreover, “[Yahweh Son] is coming–He is coming to judge the earth.  He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness” (Psalm 96:13).  And if “coming on clouds,” this cannot refer to the Divinity Who dwells in unapproachable light and can never be seen by men in their present, mortal state (1Timothy 6:16); but to the resurrected Jesus who abdicated his Yahweh Son proxy God-ship to become incarnate (Ephesians 2:6-7) in order to sanctify his people with his blood.

   Sounds familiar?  “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King [Son↔Revelation 19:16] will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world’” (Matthew 25:31-34).   And this last phrase, “since the creation of the world,” ties in with Paul’s assertion that Father’s plan of redemption had been foreknown and completed before time began (Ephesians 1:3-5; Hebrews 4:3-4); to which Peter, in reference to Jesus’ messianic role, agreed:  ^“He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake” (1Peter 1:20).

Jesus, Bearer of the Saving Sword

   So much for Jesus’ messianic role as Judge of all flesh; let us move on to his role as Sword Bearer.

In antiquity the sword was the weapon of choice to fight battles.  Targets could be impaled quickly, inflicting deep, debilitating/fatal stab wounds.  By rending the flesh, it could expose underlying tissues and organs.  In Hebrews 4:12 Paul applied these properties to the word of God:  “For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  The significant noun here is “word,” providing a link to John 1:1:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was [Yahweh Son proxy] God,” which as has been amply demonstrated in Parts I-VI of this series refers to Yahweh Son Angel proxy God, who became incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth.

When applied to Jesus, the epithet “Word” references him as Father’s Spokesperson, or more specifically, Father’s ‘voice,’ since Father has never spoken to men (John 5:37).  In the Old Testament, depending on which Books he appeared, the speaking God was either Yahweh Son Angel God or Yahweh Son proxy God—the same being.  Under either identity, Yahweh Son performed the preeminent role Paul ascribed to Jesus:  Sole mediator between Father and men (1Timothy 2:5), since Paul understood Jesus to have been the same person no matter in which age he had been at work (Hebrews 13:8).  Also it was Paul who equated Father’s word with the sword of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 6:17); not as a weapon to kill, but as the Gospel that had to be preached while waging war “not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” channeled through men (Ephesians 6:12).

   Thus the symbolism in Revelation 1:13, 17:18 and 19:13,15 as applied to Jesus:  “In the midst of the seven candlesticks one like the Son of Man…and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword (Father‘s word spoken by Son↔Hebrews 4:12)…When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead [same as Daniel (Daniel 10:5-6,8-10↔Revelation 1:13, 19:12-13)]. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.  I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive forever and ever!  And I hold the keys of death and Hades’” (Revelation 1:13,17-18↔Isaiah 22:22; Revelation 3:7).¹   “He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God…From his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations” (Revelation 19:13,15).

   That this is Jesus is obvious from his admission that he was dead for three days, whereas Father is Eternal (Genesis 21:33; Deuteronomy 33:27; 1Timothy 1:17); and that following his resurrection, Father gave Jesus all authority over heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18; Revelation 1:18).  So who is the speaker in Revelation?  Jesus in his new appointment as Interim God from resurrection until end times, when even he will return to Father absolute authority over all things (1Corinthians 15:24-28).  More about this in Part VI.

   Now, during his earthly ministry, Jesus was very specific in Matthew 10:34 as to the reason for his coming:  “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I have not come to bring peace, but a sword”[not his but God’s word—John 14:24].  Why a sword?  Because contrary to the bromides and platitudes that pass today for Christian teaching, the objective of preaching has always been to pass on the “hidden wisdom” needed to understand the deceptions Satan deploys against humankind.  Remembering that he who kills with a literal sword will die likewise (Matthew 26:52; Revelation 13:10), in the war between good and evil spiritual battles are waged with spiritual gear, not man-made weaponry; so that our ‘war outfits’ are equally spiritual in nature:  “The full armor of God…the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place…the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one… the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:13-17).

   That Jesus proclaimed himself the bringer of God’s “sword” takes us to Hosea son of Nun, whose name Moses changed to Joshua (Numbers 13:16).²  Now Moses was Yahweh Angel proxy God’s stand-in(Exodus 20:19-22); so through Moses Yahweh Angel proxy God performed his messianic name-giving attribute by changing Joshua’s name.  It was in his capacities as judge, lawgiver, Yahweh’s mediator, and now name-giver, that Moses became emblematic of the Messiah to come (Deuteronomy 18:15), so that Jesus could validate his ministry on grounds that “if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me” (John 5:46).

   It follows, then, that changing Hosea’s name to Joshua served a specific purpose:  To establish the link between Hosea/Yeshua son of Nun, who would battle to secure the promised land [shadow] for the Israelites, and Yeshua/Jesus, who from Heaven would guide his host of faithful followers to secure God’s Promised Kingdom [substance].  And the proof is crystal clear:  “When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man [not the unseen God] standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand.  Joshua went up to him and asked, ‘Are you for us or for our enemies’? ^‘Neither,’ he replied, [not the unheard Deity], ‘but as Prince³ [hence the name, Yahweh of hosts] of [Yahweh Father’s] army I have now come.’  Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, ‘What message does my Lord have for his servant?’  The [Prince] of Yahweh [Father’s] army replied, ‘ Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy’.  And Joshua did so” (Joshua 5:13-14).

    Where have we heard something similar before?  When Moses approached the burning bush and the Angel God, Yahweh of hosts, asked Moses from inside the flames to “take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:2-5).  And to whom does the specific word “Prince” refer to?  To Jesus, the Prince of Shepherds (1 Peter 5:4), and the Messiah, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).  Prince of Shepherds specifically means High Priest, as Acts 23:5 confirms, and which is, of course, a reference to Jesus’ future role as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:5-6).  [To be discussed in Part VI as well].

  In short Joshua’s commission to secure the promised land, then overrun by peoples worshipping alien gods, prefigured Jesus’ own spiritual, world-wide battles to secure an everlasting realm for God’s people—both Jewish and Christian.  The anti-Semitic hate-mongers within Christendom are quite wrong in their assumption that God has washed His hands off the Jews; for as Paul clearly states, “Israel [Jews] has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles [Christians] has come in, and in this way all Israel [the entire Judeo-Christian family] will be saved [i.e., redeemed].  As it is written: The Deliverer [Jesus] will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.⁴  And this is My [Father’s everlasting] covenant with them when I take away their sins.’  As far as the gospel is concerned, they [Jews] are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the Patriarchs, for [Yahweh Father’s] gifts and His call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:25-29).

   Hence the stated overall objective in Ezekiel 37:16-22 and Jeremiah 31:33-34, respectively:

“You, son of man [play on words, Ezekiel as stand-in for Son of Man?], take for yourself one stick and write on it, ‘For Judah [Christians] and for the sons of Israel [Jews],[Judah’s] companions’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph [unborn Gentiles] circumcised in heart exalted by God (Romans 2:28-29↔Jeremiah 4:4)…and all the house of Israel [Jews], and companions[Gentile fellow citizens].’  Then join them for yourself one to another into one stick that they may become one in your hand… I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them [Jews and Christians] one nation in the land…and one king [Jesus—Isaiah 22:21-22↔Revelation 3:7, 22:16)] will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided [in terms of religion] into two kingdoms…[at which time]I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people…For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

   Let us dig deeper into some of the above.  Since all Scripture is “dictated” by the Holy Spirit (2Peter 1:21), and as everything must be corroborated by the testimony of two or three witnesses (Matthew 18:16; 2 Corinthians 13:1), three ‘speakers’ can be identified within the Romans and Jeremiah verses.  In Romans 11:26, the reference to a “Deliverer out of Zion” comes from Isaiah 59:20 and by default is attributable to the Holy Spirit, Who never uses any pronoun to identify Himself when speaking.  He who makes a new covenant with Judeo-Christians by virtue of “taking away their sins” by the shedding of his blood (Matthew 26:26-28; Hebrews 9:22; 1John 1:7) is obviously Yahweh Son proxy God/Jesus.  And He whose gifts and call are irrevocable, Who will put His law in the minds and hearts of the people He calls His own is by definition Yahweh Father.

Satan, Bearer of the Killing Sword

   Having discussed the saving power of God’s sword in the hands of goodness, comments are in order regarding the destructive power of another type of sword in the hands of evil.  The logical place to begin is in Revelation 6:4 and 6:8:  “And another horse came out–a fiery-red one; and power was given to its rider to take peace from the earth [by wars], and to cause men to kill one another; and a great sword was given to him…I looked and a pale-colored horse appeared.  Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades came close behind him; and authority was given to them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword or with famine or pestilence or by means of the wild beasts of the earth [symbols for unrighteous human beings].”

   If Satan is the rider named “Death” (Hebrews 2:14; Revelation 9:11), it would appear that the other three Revelation riders are high-ranking angels amongst Satan’s host.  But the most important thing to notice is that these angels are given their implements of destruction:  However blood-thirsty they may be, Satan’s angels have no intrinsic power or authority to act at will; which leads to the conclusion that even they must be empowered by the Almighty, since nothing happens on heaven and earth outside Father’s control (Job 12:16-25; Daniel 4:17,26,35, 5:21; John 19:11).  But it is clear that the red [the color of blood?] horse rider’s sword has the power to instigate and wage wars amongst men.

   The rider on the pale horse is Satan himself, ruler over the empire of death [our world (Hebrews 2:14)]; the “god of this age” who blinds the understanding of unbelievers (2Corinthians 4:4), the “prince [commander] of unseen powers” channeled through disobedient men (Ephesians 2:2).  Also note that while riders one, two and three are given specific destructive implements, only the fourth rider, Satan, is allowed to wield them all.  The allocation of a “fourth part of the earth” under his purview is a clear reference to Satan’s own admission in Luke 4:6-8:  “And the Devil said to [Jesus], ‘To you will I give all this authority and this splendor [all the kingdoms of the world and their glory]; for it has been handed over to me, and on whomsoever I will, I bestow it.’”  Thus, as the Father empowers Jesus to fight evil, so does He allow Satan to wage his battles against good.  Despite all literature and films to the contrary, Satan, though immensely wise and powerful, cannot even ruffle a feather of his wings without Father’s consent.

   Remembering that historical counterparts [shadow] in Scripture were human vectors for the executioner [substance] acting through them, where else in Scripture do we find evidence of this synergy between controlling heavenly powers [Yahweh Father or Yahweh Son] and controlled executioner [Satan]?  Let us first begin with Ezekiel 30:22:  “Thus says [Yahweh Father]:  ‘Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt [i.e., Satan, the power behind the historical ruler (Ezekiel 29:3)]…I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand [ensuring his defeat]…I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon [again, Satan, the power behind the historical ruler (Isaiah 14:4-17)], and put My [homicidal] sword in his hand [against the wicked (Jeremiah 25:31—note “Judge” epithet)].”

   Still more comprehensively, Ezekiel 21:3-32:

“Behold, I am against you [transgressing Judeo-Christians everywhere↔Isaiah 63:10]; and I will draw My sword out of its sheath and cut off from you the righteous and the wicked…against all flesh from south to north…Every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint and all knees will be weak as water (↔Luke 21:25-26)…A sword, a sword sharpened and also polished, sharpened to make a slaughter, polished to flash like lightning…[though] it [referencing not the sword, but its wielder] rejects and views with contempt the scepter of My Son…[it will be placed] into the hand of the slayer [Satan]… And what if the [homicidal sword-wielder↔John 8:44] despises even the scepter [proxy God Son’s rule↔Job 41:33-34]?  He shall be no more [Satan will be destroyed]…You profane and wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, whose time of punishment has reached its climax…Remove the turban and take off the crown [Satan stripped of all power↔Isaiah 22:16-19]; things will no longer remain as they are:  Exalt that which is low [the righteous↔Isaiah 51:22-23] and abase that which is high [unrighteous powers that be]…[when] he [Jesus] comes whose right it is, and I will give it to him…I will pour out My indignation on you [Satan]; I will blow on you with the fire of My wrath…You will be fuel for the fire (Revelation 20:9-10)…You will not be remembered (Isaiah 43:25, 65:17; Ecclesiastes 1:11; Revelation 21:4).”

   Finally, we have Exodus 12:23:  “[Yahweh Son proxy God] will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts [of those who followed Moses’ instructions],[Yahweh Son proxy God] will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer [Satan] to come into your houses to strike you.”  Let us note that Yahweh Son’s role here is confirming compliance, but the actual “destroyer” is someone else who must be permitted to strike people dead.   And finally 2Samuel 24:16:  “When the angel [Satan] stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it [by pointing his sword towards the city(1Chronicles 21:16)], [Yahweh Son] relented of the disaster [changed his mind, unlike Yahweh Father (Numbers 23:19)], and said to the angel who destroyed the people, ‘It is enough.  Now stay your hand.’”

   Over the centuries and still to this day, neo-Christians have promoted their idea of Father as a vengeful, sadistic Deity; and verses like these, not fully understood, have contributed to that perverse view—simply because neo-Christians have been and still are unable to differentiate between Yahweh Father and Yahweh Son.  But if Father is love (1John 4:8); and if the same spring cannot pour forth both fresh and bitter water (James 3:11), how can people of faith ever conceive of God as a source of evil?  By not living up to the terms of Father’s covenants, men are not exempted—if defaulting on such covenants—from stipulated consequences (Deuteronomy 28:15-67).  Allowing evil to happen is not the same as choosing the type of evil befalling human beings.

   As clearly seen in Job 1 and 2 as well as in aforementioned Scriptures, the sadism attributed to Yahweh Father in ignorance and to Yahweh Son on the basis of Old Testament calamities is all Satan’s doing.  His highly successful campaign to defame Father and Son would not have been possible without the help of misguided Judeo-Christians of all ages—especially in our own.

¹ Isaiah 22:22: “I [Yahweh Father] will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder.  He will open, and no one will shut.  He will shut, and no one will open”;later reaffirmed in Revelation 3:7:  “These things say the Holy One and the True One, he that has the key of David; he that opens, and no man shuts; shuts, and no man opens.” 

² English transliteration of the Hebrew name Yeshua, itself a shortened form of the name Yehoshua, which is a contraction of two Hebrew words:  the prefix Yeho or Yehu, meaning Yahweh, and shua, meaning to “save,” “deliver,” rescue.”  Put together:  “Yahweh saves,” “Yahweh delivers,” “Yahweh recues,” all of which describe Jesus’ roles in God’s plan of redemption.

   Yeshua is the correct name for the person we know as “Jesus,” which comes from the Latin Iesus, and is also an Anglicized form of the Greek Yesous.  All these efforts, Greek, Latin and English have obscured the meanings implicit in the Hebrew name, thus obliterating Scriptural links that are vital trails in the full understanding of Jesus’ divinity.  Because the damage done is now irreversible, we will continue using the name Jesus to refer to Christ, the Messiah.

³ Besides the obvious definition of “prince” as a king’s heir, the word is also used to denote top ranking officials in different endeavors:  Judicial powers (Exodus 2:4); tribal chiefs (Judges 7:25); imperial commanders (Daniel 10:13,20); high priests (Acts 23:5); and even Archangels like Michael (Daniel 12:1) and Satan himself (John 14:30↔Ezekiel 28:14)—in short, top ‘males’ in their respective fields.  However, they are all “princes” in the sense that they occupy their positions because Yahweh Father King has put them there (Daniel 2:21, 4:35, 5:21↔Romans 13:1-2; 1Peter 2:13-14).

   In Joshua 5:13-14, Yahweh Son proxy God is identifying himself as Yahweh Father’s Prince, both as His absolute heir (↔Psalms 2:8) and as top commander of Father’s heavenly army; the same meaning is implicit when he describes Michael as one of this top ‘aide-de-camps’ (Daniel 10:13).  Also “Prince” links Jesus to other messianic roles (Daniel 8:11; Isaiah 9:6-7; Jeremiah 30:21↔Ezekiel 44:3).

⁴ An interesting choice of names:  Why Jacob and not Israel?  For the same reason Paul argued that Abraham was justified prior to circumcision, when he was still technically a Gentile:  To make it clear that what mattered to God was not ethnicity but ‘nation-less’ faith (Romans 4:9-12).  Likewise Jacob was justified by Yahweh Son Angel God during their wrestling match; so that unborn generations Jacob himself embodied  [the ‘potentiality’ angle (Hebrews 7:9-10)], not the tribal leaders he had already engendered (Genesis 32:22), would like Jacob prioritize and struggle for a redemption to be earned (Genesis 32:38) by enduring trials and tribulations (↔Hebrews 12:5-8; Revelation 12:11)—unlike Jews assuming Yahweh was in their bag through ancestral ties (Matthew 3:8-9).