Issued: 8/27/23

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

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

   The Bible ends in global conflagration, not in an era of spiritual renewal as preached from today’s pulpits.  The Kingdom of God, which is in effect a return to Eden and God’s original conception, will emerge from the ashes of the present world, complete with a new earth and new cosmos (Isaiah 66:22; Matthew 24:35; 2Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 21:1).  Even the sea will be no more (Revelation 21:1).

   This tells us that despite millenary attempts to teach men God’s ways (Jeremiah 35:15), Christianity, like Judaism before it, will fail.  Even before he was crucified, Jesus questioned whether he would find faith upon his return (Luke 18:8); and prophecies like Matthew 24:10-13,24 and Revelation 9:20-21 clinch his assessment.  Of course all of this had been foretold in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 31:29; 2Chronicles 6:36-39; Jeremiah 29:12-14).  When Paul wrote about global apostasy preceding Jesus’ second coming (2Thessalonians 2:3-4), he was extrapolating from those sources.

   Now more than ever the Internet and other media/social forums have made possible the fulfillment of Matthew 24:14, thus meeting the criterion preceding Jesus’ return and Judgment Day. Without knowledge of Scripture, Judgment would not be fair; “for where there is no [knowledge of the] law there is no transgression” (Romans 4:15), and “I wouldn’t have become aware of sin if it had not been for the Law” (Romans 7:7)—i.e., knowing I have transgressed, I am liable for judgment.  Sinfulness is innate in men (Genesis 6:5; Ecclesiastes 8:11, 9:3), not in terms of genes but of human choices:  “God made humankind upright, but they have sought many evil schemes” (Ecclesiastes 7:29); and in John 8:44 Jesus corroborated that reality.  Still, there are those who choose to follow God’s ways; and a subset of human beings who, though no converts in the strict sense of the word, act in accordance to Christian principles, being, as Paul put it, “a law unto themselves” (Romans 2:14-15).  If Jesus’ words can be used as a census, transgressors will always outnumber compliers (Matthew 7:13-14, 22:14).

Objectives and Related Issues

   Since knowledge of God’s laws is the prerequisite for Judgment, preaching was a means to serve that end.  But preaching accomplishes other equally important goals, which we discuss below in no particular order. 

   The most obvious, which we have examined before, is raising spiritual progeny for Jesus, a theme implicit in Genesis 38:9, Deuteronomy 25:5-6, Ruth 4:10, but explicit in Galatians 4:19 and Philemon 1:10.  The former three are shadow to the substance of the latter two, so that it can be seen that the sexual intercourse needed to accomplish the former no longer plays a role in the spiritual interaction between Jesus and his wife/Church (Ephesians 5:22-23) in the latter.  Yet in both cases the objective of raising issue to a departed, firstborn brother is the same, Jesus being that brother in the divine scheme of things.  Paul’s choice of words in Galatians 4:19, “I am suffering birth pains for you,” links us both to Genesis 3:16 and Revelation 12:2,5,17, where Eve, first Adam’s “flesh,” ¹ is shadow to the Church, last Adam’s/Jesus’ body (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 5:30),² both of whose descendants were to be “conceived” in painful circumstances (Genesis 3:15;1Corinthians 15:45-50; 2Timothy 3:12).

   Next comes the “family” angle, which from God’s point of view means looking after each other across national, ethnic, racial, social boundaries/divisions (Galatians 3:28).  In computer jargon, this was God’s “patch” to correct the human proclivity of prioritizing blood over faith, so that the onus was on everyone to do his/her best on behalf—irrespective of kinship—of everybody else.  From the Biblical standpoint, mortal humanity issued from Adam and Eve pre-Flood and from Noah and his children post-Flood (Genesis 10:32), which means that Noah’s family were—as we know understand it—genetically-related to each other and to former generations, as indeed humanity issuing from them has become.³  But when Jesus referred to the Apostles as brothers/sons of a Heavenly Father (Matthew 23:8-9) and to his audience as his extended relatives (Mark 3:33-35), he was referring to family on faith grounds, though the customary duties and responsibilities toward each other applied in both cases (Galatians 6:10; 1Timothy 5:8).

   One of those duties was preaching, fraught with consequences ranging from inter-familial conflicts (Matthew 10:35) to violent opposition from many quarters (Matthew 10:21-22; John 15:18-19); but sharing one inviolable caveat:  Only males were commissioned to preach.  Thus we see that first Adam, not Eve, was punished with tilling the field (Genesis 3:17-19); and unless we chose to believe this was limited to farming, it is an obvious reference to last Adam’s/Jesus’ sowing the seed in the soil from which first Adam was made—meaning men’s hearts.  In this parable we find ‘farming’ terminology:   Jesus (Matthew 13:37; Mark 4:14) sows the seed throughout the world (Matthew 13:38); the good seed is the word of God (Luke 8:11) which fructifies in the hearts of good and noble men (Luke 8:15); unlike those with inconstant hearts easily deceived by Satan and his minions (Ezekiel 33:32; Matthew 13:4; Luke 8:13↔Ephesians 4:14; Hebrews 6:4-6; James 1:8; Revelation 3:16); and those with hearts so choked with worldly trappings that God’s word cannot root in them (Matthew 13:7; Luke 8:14).⁴

   Now, Eve’s pregnancies as well as those of Jesus’ Church produced male and female issue; but if Biblical chronologies are a guide, only males were named in genealogies, both physical (Matthew 1:1-17) and spiritual (Luke 3:23-38), stretching down to Jesus.  Which do not exclude females, considered to be one entity with male parent or husband—as God conceptualized in Genesis 5:2; hence Apostolic teachings regarding husbands as heads of wives (Ephesians 5:22-23; 1Peter 3:5-6) and fathers as heads of virgin daughters (1Corinthians 7:36-38).  This is the ideal way, presupposing husbands and fathers who are guided by the Holy Spirit; whereas the male abuses we see in human practice are deviations from divine norms.  So while Biblical family trees are traced through heads of household, related females, though unnamed, are reckoned in them.

   In Luke 3:37 we find Enoch, the earliest preacher on record teaching about the second coming of Jesus and the Last Judgment (Genesis 5:22-24; Jude 1:14-15).  Thereafter from preacher Noah (2Peter 2:5); to uncircumcised father of the faithful, Abraham (Romans 4:9-17); to proxy ruler but outranked in terms of throne, Joseph (Genesis 41:40↔John 14:28); to judge and lawgiver, Moses; to every Israelite judge and king;⁵ to every major and minor prophet; to every Apostle Jesus called before and after his death and resurrection—every bearer of divine doctrine has been male, for all to lesser or greater extents have foreshadowed the Son of Man.⁶

   However, preaching was more of an obligation than a duty.   Ezekiel 3:17-21 made that clear:  If anybody failed to warn others of the error of their ways, they would suffer the consequences but so would the defaulting preacher.   Paul understood this all too well:  “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast about, for this obligation has been entrusted to me.  How terrible it would be for me if I didn’t preach the gospel” (1Corinthians 9:16)!   Why was Paul—indeed all Christian males—‘obligated’ to preach?  Primarily as a profession of faith:  “I believed, therefore I spoke; we also believe, therefore we also speak” (2Corinthians 4:13↔Psalms 116:10; Matthew 5:14-16); but also to live up to loving others as ourselves, Jesus’ second greatest commandment (Matthew 22:39; 2Timothy 2:10).  One cannot remain uninvolved when watching the unenlightened headed for disaster.

   Naturally there are dangers involved:  If Satan wants to destroy men, he will deploy human minions to suppress preachers of God’s truths—as history has repeatedly shown.  According to Paul, Satan enslaves men through fear of death (Hebrews 2:15); so come Jesus, he exhorted to overcome that fear by willingly risk dying for him (Matthew 16:25).  It was a non-negotiable deal as the command to sacrifice Isaac; for we must not believe that Abraham congaed his way to Mount Moriah looking forward to slitting his son’s throat.  God had given him a promise in Isaac’s person; and though his only choice in the matter was following instructions, Abraham reasoned Yahweh was powerful enough to raise Isaac from the dead (Hebrews 11:18-19), or at the very least perform some sacrificial victim switcheroo before the fatal cut was made (Genesis 22:7-8,13).

   Unwelcomed news—no doubts about it—that the God Who wants to give us immortal lives may ask for the oftentimes painful necessity of forfeiting our mortal ones.⁷  And though it may be easier said than done, this too is a profession of faith, is it not?  That one forfeits the life one is sure of for the sake of an existence yet to materialize.  Now Jesus was willing to embrace that challenge to redeem his universal family; but Jesus had come from God, had seen God, had spoken to God, had created all things with God’s power to call into being everything that was not; so in a way his faith rested on solid evidence, unlike men’s who must believe sight unseen.  In fact Jesus was at his most human when dying on the cross, he lamented God’s abandonment (Matthew 27:46); for it was then than the enormity of God’s alienation from men truly ‘hit’ him.

   It is from Peter and Paul that we must get our cues.  In Peter’s case Jesus called his bluff when boasting about his willingness to stand by Jesus when others failed him (Matthew 26:30-34).  We all know the story:  Fearing for his safety, Peter denied knowing Jesus—which as Mark 8:38 states made him a candidate for outright rejection.  However Jesus knew there was more to Peter than one human frailty; and following his resurrection, it was to Peter that Jesus entrusted ministering to the Jews (John 21:15-17; Galatians 2:7).  This time, though, there was a need to atone for his betrayal by being slated for future martyrdom; and though Peter had been told of his impending death (2Peter 1:14), John 21:18-19 suggests that Peter needed Jesus’ aid going the extra mile..

   Now Paul was different.  He is traditionally thought to have been beheaded; as a Roman citizen (Acts 22:25), crucifixion was not for him.  Yet Paul always comes across as gung-ho to face dangers and even death (Acts 20:22-23, 21:13; Philippians 1:23).  One can hardly blame him; for unlike Peter’s sin of betrayal, Paul had been an abettor of Christian persecutions and complicit in Stephen’s stoning (Acts 7:58, 8:1-3, 22:4-5, 26:9-11).  Thus in the spirit of “an eye for an eye,” Paul was required to undergo the persecutions and floggings that his victims had suffered, a reality that was not lost on him:  “I carry the scars of Jesus on my own body” (Galatians 6:17)—not stigmata as is commonly believed, but of the punishments Jesus had allowed Satan’s minions to inflict on Paul (2Corinthians 11:25).  Wishing it to be all over, death to Paul was the ultimate liberation (1Corinthians 15:55-57)—as it was to Elijah (1Kings 19:4)

   We must not ignore the element of personal fear.  By design and intent, Christianity lives up to its designation of “baptism by fire.”  When Paul discusses God’s manner of disciplining those He has embraced, he does not talk about TLC as human parents are wont to display, but of “scourges” (Hebrews 12:5-6).  Scourges imply lots of suffering/big trouble, which just as Jesus did is/are what Christians are expected to endure and confront (John 16:33; Romans 8:17; 1Peter 1:6-7, 4:12-17↔Jeremiah 25:29; Ezekiel 9:6).  This scourging is symbolically represented as cleansing men from their impurities (Psalms 66:10; Proverbs 20:30; Isaiah 1:25, 48:10; Daniel 12:10; Zechariah 13:9; Malachi 3:3), where the cleansing agent is either caustic or flammable—meaning painful.  And if we read Hebrews 11:39-40 correctly, it is a cleansing God applies throughout the ages, so that no one generation is exempted from trials and tribulations which must be endured by all seeking legitimacy as His children (Hebrews 12:7-8), yet  tailored to each individual’s level of endurance (1Corinthians 10:13).

   With fear arises the specter of cowardice, not getting involved or fearing repercussions.  Cowardice is never an option:  It is in fact one criterion which dooms the souls of men (Revelation 21:8).  The Garden Jesus promised us lies in another order of things; but in this world he left us if not his crown of thorns, certainly a forest of thorny dilemmas we must confront on our way to God:  The world will hate you as it has hated me (John 15:18), so while in it, you will suffer (John 16:33) and there is no avoiding it (2Timothy 3:12).  Thus when the Apostles were told to stop preaching the Gospel, they defied the religious elite (Acts 5:29); and having been saved by Gamaliel’s arguments to let God settle the issue, they were flogged (Acts 5:26-40).  [Be it said in passing that Gamaliel’s lenient approach to Old Testament norms appear to have rubbed off on his most famous pupil and dismantler of some Mosaic rites, Paul (Acts 22:3)].  Paul, needless to say, understood there was a spiritual assist in overcoming cowardice (2Timothy 1:7). 

   An example of un-involvement was Jonah, who went on the lam trying to escape Yahweh’s command to warn Ninevites of destruction.  Nothing doing:  Jonah was made to face the music after spending three days and nights in the stomach of some sea animal created for that purpose (Jonah 1:17).  Jonah appears not to have been the “love-thy-neighbor-as-yourself” sort; for no sooner had Yahweh backtracked on his intention to nuke Nineveh, the fact that he had been made to look bad made Jonah angry (Jonah 4:1-3).⁸  Certainly Jonah was not as meek as Moses (Numbers 12:3) nor as compliant as Samuel (1Samuel 3:19); which goes to show that even a man as hard-hearted as him, or as opportunistic as Balaam (Numbers 22), or as scheming as Caiaphas (John 11:49-52) can play important roles in God’s plan.

   Jeremiah was the non-confrontational, fearful type.  He tried to wriggle out of being Yahweh of hosts’ envoy (Jeremiah 1:6↔see Jeremiah 15:16); Yahweh would have none of it (Jeremiah 1:7).  Although Jeremiah openly bemoaned the fact he had become a pariah amongst his people (Jeremiah 15:10,15-18), Yahweh warned him to accept his commission or he would disown Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:17)—literally allowing Satan’s human minions to “break” Jeremiah.  This may seem to contradict the free will God gives people to choose between good and evil; but here we are being told that when it comes to souls at stake, the obligation to preach is non-negotiable and costly to self.  There was too much riding on Jeremiah to let his human fears undermine the importance of a ministry foretelling future Christian apostasy.

   Jesus, who was neither meek nor mild when it came to Gospel preaching (Matthew 23:23,33), was the perfect example of embracing martyrdom so that the word of God might prevail:  He argued he could have escaped his crucifixion by invoking angels to defend him, but to validate Scripture, he had to go down (Matthew 26:52-54)—the selfsame decision he expected followers to make (Matthew 16:25).  The Apostles were hip to that fact:  True preachers would always suffer opposition, persecution, and even death, while false ones would be lionized by the world at large (1Thessalonians 3:3; 1John 4:5-7).  It is a lesson largely lost on professed Christians, especially those who put their faith in popular or beloved evangelists.

   Preaching is one of the means by which citizenship in the Heavenly Jerusalem is obtained.  This, however, applies to males; females have their own qualifying requirements.  Hebrews 4:3 tells us that God’s works were finished from “the foundation of the world;” and as suggested by Hebrews 11:16, the City described in Revelation 21:10-23, is a done deal.  Please note that the doors around the City’s wall are inscribed with the names of the male tribal leaders of Israel, which may be a way of showing us that Abraham’s faith-descendants—heirs to God’s promise—made access to the City possible because salvation came from the Jews (John 4:22).  Yet the foundations upon which wall and City rest are inscribed with the names of male Apostles, so that that the entire structure rests not on Judaic principles, but on Christian doctrine by which Jews and Gentiles are guaranteed life eternal (John 11:25-26; Romans 1:17).

   Like most things in the Bible, there was a human copy to this celestial counterpart, just as Moses’ sanctuary was patterned after a heavenly model (Hebrews 8:2-5).  The historical human shadow to the heavenly substance was the rebuilt Jerusalem after the Babylonian Captivity, which is recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah.  Nehemiah 3 in particular records the building of 10 doors⁹ by different groups of Jews along the walls enclosing the city, though these doors are not what survive today.  The Bible does not make a connection between those builders and the tribes they belonged to; but extrapolating from Revelation 7:4-8, some link to tribal progenitors might be the case.

   Of interest are the Christian overtones of these narratives.  In Ezra the focus is on the building of God’s house, for which only male Levites 20 years or older were called to supervise the work, amongst them sons of Judah, which was Jesus’ tribe (Ezra 3:8-9; Hebrews 7:14).  Under Jesus, Judeo-Christian converts are God’s house (Hebrew 3:6), which is to say the human-bricked Church of which Jesus is the cornerstone and the original Apostles the rest of the foundation (Acts 4:11; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1Peter 2:5).  While the builder/preachers must be male, the ‘bricks’ are both male and female, for other than preaching, as was the case with women serving Jesus (Luke 8:3), females as members of Jesus’ body have other roles to perform.  Thus while in Nehemiah 3:12 we find Shallum’s daughters helping their father in restoring Jerusalem’s walls, no females are listed amongst the builders of God’s Temple.¹⁰

   Also we find evidence of the unity which is the Christian ideal (Ezra 2:64, 3:1,9↔Ephesians 4:3-6), as opposed to the divisiveness that exemplifies Satan’s MO in all human endeavors (Proverbs 11:29; Matthew 12:25; Titus 3:10-11).  As was the case with the early Christian church, there were voluntary contributions to support the work (Ezra 2:68-69, 3:7).  And as expected, there was opposition based on kickbacks and trumped out charges (Ezra 4:4-24↔Mark 14:55-59).  Like Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun.

Conclusions

   If our correlation between Genesis 3:17-29 and Matthew 13:37-39, Mark 4:14-20, Luke 8:5-15 is correct, preaching, in the final analysis, is punishment by way of atoning for past transgressions.  As such it not supposed to be ‘fun’ or an enjoyable experience:  It is meant to be wrought with difficulties and stress preachers to the max.  Jesus’ call for patience (Luke 21:19); his argument that righteous perseverance yielded crops through endurance (Luke 8:15) were synthetized by Paul in Hebrews 12:3:  “Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.”  This is why the themes in Isaiah 35:3-4 and Hebrews 12:12-14, as well as Yahweh of hosts’ message to Joshua (Joshua 1:6-7,9), are courage and endurance in face of unending and exhausting opposition.

   Near the end of his ministry, Jesus suggested but did not go into details of what his Apostles were bound to face:  They were not ready for it (John 16:12).  Only after he resurrected and ‘blew’ into them the life-giving spirit as he had done with Adam (Genesis 2:7↔1Corinthians 15:45; John 20:22) was the understanding of the Apostles ‘opened’ (Luke 24:45); so that then it became possible to tell them what lay ahead (John 21:21-25).

   Yet it was no mystery.  Ezekiel, for example, had been told what to expect:  Do not fear anything; preach though they will never listen (Ezekiel 2:3-7); “they come to you as people come, and sit before you as My people and hear your words, but they do not do them, for they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their gain.   Behold, you are to them like a love song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words but they do not practice them.  So when it comes to pass—as surely it will—then they will know that a prophet has been in their midst” (Ezekiel 33:31-33).  Here too we find elements of courage and endurance:   “The Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet (Ezekiel 3:2↔Job 4:4; Isaiah 35:3; Hebrews 12:12)”; and “speak to them whether they listen or refuse to listen” (Ezekiel 2:5↔2Timothy 4:2).

   Thus there was a tradition of telling preachers what their lot would be (Psalms 126:6):  Grueling labor in the expectation of delayed reward; for no Christian worker past or present has been or is rewarded until this world passes (Matthew 20:1-15; Hebrews 11:13,39).  Just as in human enterprises, workers are paid collectively on some prescribed pay date; and preachers, though vital but not above any Christian co-worker, must toil under similar terms.  Jesus did not receive compensation for his labors until he resurrected (Matthew 28:18; Revelation 1:18, 5:5-7); his Apostles, though working men, juggled money-earning with ministerial work; and poor Paul, who travelled thousands of miles to spread the Gospel, prided himself on working with his hands to supply his needs without depending on others (Acts 20:34; Romans 13:8).

  In the Old Testament tithes went to support Levites, and even they had to offer Yahweh the best out of their gifts (Numbers 18:21-32).  Jesus did away with priests (Luke 16:16); they could not be trusted to do their duty (Ezekiel 22:26; Zephaniah 3:4; Malachi 2:7-8); they had used their office to exploit the people (Ezekiel 34:2-10); so it was necessary to cut them off as go-betweens between men and God.  Jesus vacated their jobs and took over both as sole Teacher (Matthew 23:8) and sole intermediary between men and the Most High (1Timothy 2:5).  It should not be lost on us that when Paul says there is only one God and one intermediary, he is clearly telling us that God and Jesus are different beings of unequal rank.  Simply put, 1 + 1 = 2.

  Besides the remission of human sins with his ‘sprinkled’ blood (Hebrews 9:19-22, 12:24), and having set an example to follow (John 13:15), Jesus’ greatest accomplishment was his empowerment to ‘anoint’ his followers with the Holy Spirit (John 15:26; 1John 2:27); for as giver of the Spirit, he validated his roles as mentor and teacher.  Yet the ‘instructing’ was left to the Holy Spirit Who, in synergy with the Most High, relays knowledge tailored to and appropriate for each individual soul (John 16:13; Romans 8:26-27).  It has to be this way in order to fulfill prophecy (Isaiah 54:13↔John 6:45; Hebrews 8:10-11↔Jeremiah 31:34).

   Why then is Christendom mired in apostasy?  Because Christians have never followed rules, allowing and abetting religious leaders to reinvent Jesus’ doctrine into everything it is not.  Whereas as sincere atoners, we should consider ourselves physically in yet spiritually out of this world, we actively partake of temporal delights God expects us to reject (Isaiah 22:12-14; James 4:3-4).  We are all for fun and games; yet the divine exhortation is to “lament, mourn, and weep” (Hebrews 12:11; James 4:9; 1Peter 4:12-14).  We should lament being separated from God; we should mourn not only out of respect for everything Jesus endured on our behalf but because we are not yet able to share fully in his bounties; and we should weep for his coming, not only in anticipation of liberation and immortality, but for an end to the human suffering Satan unleashes upon this world (John 12:31, 14:30↔Luke 10:18; 1Peter 5:8-9; Revelation 12:9,17).

   But then we want our cake and eat it too; and while there is no way of estimating Jesus’ time of arrival (Matthew 24:44; Mark 13:32; Acts 1:6-7,11; 1Thessalonians 5:2; 2Peter 3:10), why not make the most of it in the interim?  Jesus called this mindset hypocritical and punishable (Matthew 24:48-51); which is also the mindset of those absolutely convinced God is so loving that He will forgive every transgression.  Like cowardice, hypocrisy is another criterion for being dumped in the lake of fire and brimstone (Revelation 21:8).

   Who is partially at fault?  Preaching wolves dressed in designers’ clothing:  Sheep wool has been upgraded to vicuña.  Yet we have been instructed to recognize them by what they do and preach in order to steer clear from them (Matthew 7:15-20; Luke 6:45; 1John 2:6); but so ingrained in human nature is the herd mentality that in order to fit in and feel safe, we follow our executioners into the pit.  Like the Corinthians Paul chided for responding to preaching styles rather than message substance (1Corinthians 1:12-13), we too are seduced by preacher appeal and hedge our bets on the one who feed us the bromides we wish to hear.

  Nothing new here, folks:  Yahweh called our bluff in Isaiah 30:9-10.  Not for us all those dreary doomsday scenarios:  Though nature is literally falling apart around us heralding dire consequences to come at an accelerated rate (Luke 21:25-26; 1Thessalonians 5:3), our false preachers tell us everything will work out in the end.  Not so according to Jesus:  When he spoke about mindsets in Noah’s and Lot’s generations, all doomed but doing the same things we love to pursue, he was talking about us, the generation of his coming (Luke 17:26-30), who like those others will not understand until it is too late (Matthew 24:37-39).

  But our catastrophe will not be exactly like those others.  In Noah’s time, the human race and air-breathing animals were destroyed (Genesis 7:21-22); in Lot’s time, nuking was limited to Sodom, Gomorrah and surrounding cities (Genesis 19:24-25).  This time around, once the time for repentance is over (Zephaniah 2:2-3), an unprecedented Great Tribulation rife with horrors will take place (Matthew 24:21; Revelation 16:17-21); yet during these times, though not exempt from suffering, untold numbers of people will find God and ultimately be spared (Revelation 7:9,13-14)—by grace if not by merit.  After all, God intended that some remnant of humanity would continue on an earth conceived to endure (Isaiah 45:18); which does not preclude the fact that our world as we know it will be burned away (Isaiah 65:17↔Revelation 21:1; Matthew 24:35; 2Peter 3:10) and made anew from scratch on some preexistent foundation (Genesis 1:2; 2Samuel 22:16↔Psalms 18:15; Psalms 104:5).  The nations we call home will no longer exist, nor will those wondrous oceans that keep nations divided:  Mount Zion will fill the whole earth (Isaiah 66:20; Daniel 2:35; Micah 4:2-4).

   It behooves us, therefore, to heed Jesus’ advice:  “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly” (Luke 21:34); always mindful of our duties and limitations as Gospel preachers.  For we are not called to be teachers of men but pointers in the right direction (Luke 11:13; James 1:5); or to presume spiritual leadership over anybody (Matthew 20:24-27); or to embrace denominational teachings that divide the body of Christ and make a mockery of everything he championed.  Read our lips: Those who do these things are his enemies and ours.

  Let us instead follow Paul’s advice:  “Therefore go to him outside the camp [organized religion] and endure the insults he endured.  For here we do not have a permanent city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:13-14); where at last we will be with him, his crop safely gathered, and with him finally allowed to rest.

¹ In terms of Scripture, flesh and body are interchangeable; but whereas Adam’s and Eve’s flesh/bodies were mortal, Jesus’ and the Church’s are immortal.

² Ephesians 5:30 is a perfect example of the human inclination of editing God’s words to suit interpretative deficiencies.  Please see below:

New Revised Standard Version:  because we are members of his body.
World English Bible:  because we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones.

   What NRSV and others miss is Paul’s extrapolation from Genesis 2:23 and his understanding that Adam/Eve were shadow to the substance of Jesus/Church (Romans 12:5; 1Corinthians 6:15, 12:27); so that the flesh/bones correlation must be preserved.

³ This is mere speculation, since it cannot be validated by other Scripture:  Is it possible that the 144,000 of Revelation 7:5-8 are similarly related?  By no stretch of the imagination can these “first fruits” be strictly ethnic Jews; so is Scripture talking here about genetic descendants of those tribes, or in the spiritual sense that Paul argued (Romans 2:29; Galatians 3:29)?

⁴ Please note how “thorns” symbolizing the unrighteous thematically link Genesis 3:18, Isaiah 27:4, Ezekiel 2:6; and note how Ezekiel is addressed in 2:1:  Son of man.  Rings a bell?

  Also note how Paul used “farming” terms to describe his preaching labors:  I planted the seed, others watered it, but God made it grow (1Corinthians 3:6↔Matthew 15:13); as well as his comparing apostles to oxen who plow the field (1Corinthians 9:8-11).

⁵ Unlike Judges and Prophets directly chosen by Yahweh of hosts, Deborah assumed charge on her own (Judges 4:4,7).  Yahweh’s choice was Barak, who unheeding Yahweh’s direct command (4:6-7), chose to be guided by Deborah as the rest of the people were doing (4:5).  Because Barak put this trust in Deborah (4;8), Yahweh paid him tit for tat by giving Barak’s victory to a woman (4:9,21).

   It is not without meaning that female usurpers of male rule, like Jezebel and Athaliah, were evil and worshippers of Baal, one of Satan’s contrived gods (1Kings 16:31, 19:1-2, 21:1-16; 2Chronicles 22 & 23).  And following Satan’s MO, these gods are always associated with a female helpmate (Deuteronomy 12:2-3: Judges 6:25).  

⁶ None of this is going to settle the issue of Christian female preachers:  They are here to stay to the bitter end.  However, it is their existential choice, though a misguided and costly one.  Like all of us, they have been told in the Bible what their roles in the dissemination of the Gospel should be.

⁷ In God’s plan of salvation, there seems to be a specific number of martyrs that must be reached (Revelation 6:11).  Peter and Paul were counted amongst these, but not John (John 21:21-23); though judging by Jesus’ cryptic response, John may embody every Christian not necessarily slated to be martyred.  Jesus, of course, was arguing that it was nobody’s business what he chose to do with his preachers.

⁸ There is more to this story than meets the eye.  First, the fish was neither a whale nor probably an existing species:  Verse 1:17 suggests this was a one-off creature, big enough to swallow Jonah, with a stomach free of digestive juices and ventilated to support air-breathing Noah for three days and three nights, and capable of going ashore from sea depths to shore to vomit Jonah.

   It also shows us that Jonah had gotten his Yahwehs mixed.  Certainly the “gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love” attributes apply to the Most High as proclaimed by Yahweh of hosts parading before Moses (Exodus 34:6), but not the “relenting” bit or changing His mind once a course of action has been stated—as per Numbers 23:19; James 1:17.

   It bears repeating that this is one of the ways in which Scripture teaches us that the Most High/Father and Yahweh of hosts/Jesus/Son are not the same Person, though both Gods by nature and by appointment, respectively.  This inclination to go back on his word when human suffering was at stake (2Samuel 24:16) may be one of the reasons why Jesus had to suffer God’s discipline; or as Paul put it, “Son though he was, he learned obedience through his sufferings” (Hebrews 5:8).  And learned he did, judging by his ruling style post-resurrection (Revelation 19:15).

   Therefore the Yahweh dealing with Noah was Yahweh of hosts, not the Most High Yahweh Who has never spoken to men (John 5:37), but the Yahweh of hosts who continuously did (Genesis 16:7-13, 18:20-33; Exodus 33:11; Daniel 10:9-19; Jonah 4:4,9-11.

⁹ To wit: Sheep Gate (Neh. 3:1); Fish Gate (3:3); Old Gate (3:6); Valley Gate (3:13); Dung Gate (3:13); Fountain Gate (3:15); Water Gate (3:26); Horse Gate (3:28); East Gate (3:29); Inspection/Judgment Gate (3:31).

   Throughout its long history, Jerusalem’s proper has shifted over its terrain; and under the rule of its many conquerors, the number of doors along its walls has changed.

¹⁰ Much could be said about Zerubbabel and his connection to Jesus, but his would take us too far afield.  Be that as it may, Zerubbabel is the topic of much scholarly controversy.