The Music of the Bible Revealed: Song of Songs 1:1-17 (YouTube)

The direct link to the video is here.

The Music of the Bible Revealed: Psalms 1 (YouTube)

The direct link to the YouTube video (and to my channel featuring many similar videos) is here.

Sermon: Mario Hernandez, “Pride and Humility”, July 1999, Los Angeles, CA.

The Aleppo Codex (Jeremiah 10:21-11:8)

Thanks to Kivsah and to DougY the owner of the site involved for pointing me to this audio sermon by Mr. Mario Hernandez, who is now an evangelist in the Living Church of God.

I think the Hebrew text to the left (in its subject matter) happens to fit very nicely with the title of the sermon. Here are the verses that I had in mind:

(Jeremiah 10:23 HOT) ידעתי יהוה כי לא לאדם דרכו לא־לאישׁ הלך והכין את־צעדו׃
(Jeremiah 10:24 HOT) יסרני יהוה אך־במשׁפט אל־באפך פן־תמעטני׃
(Jeremiah 10:25 HOT) שׁפך חמתך על־הגוים אשׁר לא־ידעוך ועל משׁפחות אשׁר בשׁמך לא קראו כי־אכלו את־יעקב ואכלהו ויכלהו ואת־נוהו השׁמו׃

(Jeremiah 10:23 RSV)  I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
(Jeremiah 10:24 RSV)  Correct me, O LORD, but in just measure; not in thy anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.
(Jeremiah 10:25 RSV)  Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the peoples that call not on thy name; for they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.

Blessings in Jesus Christ (ברכות בישוע המשיח),
John Wheeler (יוחנן רכב הסופר)

Repost: Herbert W. Armstrong and the “Whole, Pure Gospel”

I have Mr. Wallace Smith (above: one of the presenters on the broadcast Tomorrow’s World) to thank for this truly “massive missive”, Herbert W. Armstrong and the “Whole, Pure Gospel”. I have never seen him write this much in his blog on any subject whatever, which means he is truly impassioned about it! (And so I will let him speak for himself on it.)

Blessings in Messiah (ברכות במשיח),
John Wheeler (יוחנן רכב)

via Repost: Herbert W. Armstrong and the “Whole, Pure Gospel”.

RADIO CHURCH OF GOD & HERBERT W ARMSTRONG – HISTORICAL TRAIL

Ark Model 02 (HWA)

I received an e-mail today from Craig White on a Web page he’s developing, including photographs of items owned by the late Herbert W. Armstrong. One of them is a model of the Ark of the Covenant (left) of the kind that’s sold in Bethlehem. I have one too, but this one also has jewelry fashioned to represent the Ten Commandments, the pot of manna and Aaron’s rod that budded, all kept inside of the Ark.

Somewhat modified for summary purposes, here is the text that Craig mailed to me and others:

Greetings,

I recently took photographs of HWA’s model aircraft and special bounded books he authored and uploaded them here. (…) These items were procured by a friend. The model plane was sold on EBay by a WCG executive that despised HWA! (…) The entire historical trail that I am developing may be found here. (…)

So far it looks to be an excellent resource!

Blessings in Messiah (יוברכות במשיח),
John Wheeler (יוחנן רכב)

The Music of the Bible Revealed: Psalms 150

It’s taken me a long time indeed to get this video created, and much longer than I would’ve liked to get back to creating videos of this sort. But being squeezed between work requirements and health issues as I increasingly am, I realized that I can do just two basic things: my work as a consultant for the Living Church of God, and my work in preserving and promoting The Music of the Bible Revealed – which includes making videos like these.

Blessings in Messiah (ברכות במשיח),
John Wheeler (יוחנן רכב)

The Feast of Tabernacles 2011 (Repost)

Wheat (Wikipedia)

According to the received, calculated Hebrew calendar – a calendar that works according to the same essential principles in force in Jesus’ day and even in Moses’s day – tonight is the first night of the Feast of Tabernacles. [In Hebrew the name is Chag ha-Sukkot: (חג הסכות).] More literally it is the Feast of Booths, but Tabernacles has more of a ring to it and based on the King James Version, we in the Living Church of God call the Feast so.

Among the biblical texts relating to these days are the following (I like to cite the Revised Standard Version preferentially due to its combination of style and overall accuracy):

(Leviticus 23:33 RSV) And the LORD said to Moses,
(Leviticus 23:34 RSV) “Say to the people of Israel, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the feast of booths to the LORD.
(Leviticus 23:35 RSV) On the first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work.
(Leviticus 23:36 RSV) Seven days you shall present offerings by fire to the LORD; on the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the LORD; it is a solemn assembly; you shall do no laborious work.

(Leviticus 23:39 RSV) “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall keep the feast of the LORD seven days; on the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest.
(Leviticus 23:40 RSV) And you shall take on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.
(Leviticus 23:41 RSV) You shall keep it as a feast to the LORD seven days in the year; it is a statute for ever throughout your generations; you shall keep it in the seventh month.
(Leviticus 23:42 RSV) You shall dwell in booths for seven days; all that are native in Israel shall dwell in booths,
(Leviticus 23:43 RSV) that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”

(Deuteronomy 16:13 RSV) “You shall keep the feast of booths seven days, when you make your ingathering from your threshing floor and your wine press;
(Deuteronomy 16:14 RSV) you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns.
(Deuteronomy 16:15 RSV) For seven days you shall keep the feast to the LORD your God at the place which the LORD will choose; because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.
(Deuteronomy 16:16 RSV) “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place which he will choose: at the feast of unleavened bread, at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed;
(Deuteronomy 16:17 RSV) every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.”

The Feast of Tabernacles and the other great pilgrimage feasts were revealed before the sacrificial system was instituted (cf. Exodus 23:15-17; 34:18-24). In Leviticus 23 all the Festivals of the LORD are spelled out, with their basic sacrificial requirements of the time. In Numbers 28-29 they are more fully put in the context of the sacrificial system and linked to the observance of the days of the New Moon. Jesus kept the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles and its associated eighth day or Last Great Day, taught during it and performed miracles during it (John 7:1-10:21). He also pointed out that their observance by Christians would not depend on a specific location for worship or (by implication) of the existence of the sacrificial system, but rather of worship “in spirit and in truth” – with the right attitude and with right understanding (John 4:19-24).

Most regrettably, several of the Ante-Nicene Catholic Church Fathers used a misinterpretation of the following text as a pretext for throwing out the Sabbath, Festivals, Holy Days and New Moons with the sacrificial system:

(Isaiah 1:13 NKJV) Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies– I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.
(Isaiah 1:14 NKJV) Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.

They also misprepresented Colossians 2:16-17, even to the point of removing an emphatic pronoun which changes the whole meaning of verse 17. The Byzantine Text makes the same omission, forcing the insertion of the elliptical verb thus: “but the body (is) of Christ“. But the Received Text and the GNT NA27 (the standard modern critical edition) have “but (let) the body of the Christ (judge these matters)” – “the body of the Christ”, an indivisible definite noun phrase, referring symbolically to the Church (cf. Colossians 1:18 and Ephesians 1:22-23). It is remarkable that no one outside the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God has seen this distinction or thought through what it truly means (not even the editor of the often-helpful Complete Jewish Bible). Even the grammatical nicety that a noun phrase in Greek either must have pronouns attached to each noun or else to neither seems to have been overlooked, even though the presence or absence of one pronoun changes the whole meaning of verse 17.

In the future, under Jesus Christ’s world rule, the whole world (practically speaking, representatives thereof) will keep the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem specifically (Zechariah 14:16-19). The Living Church of God publishes a booklet, The Holy Days – God’s Master Plan, that describes why Christians should keep it today in anticipation of that glorious time.

Blessings in Messiah (ברכות במשיח),
John Wheeler (יוחנן רכב)

Protected: Philadelphia and Laodicea – Part 01

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“But Why Call It ‘The Lord’s Supper’?”

BUT WHY CALL IT “THE LORD’S SUPPER”?
A Sermonette by John Wheeler

INTRODUCTION:

• In the Church of God, we understand that the Eternal God instituted the Passover service for Israel “forever” and “throughout your generations” (cf. Exodus 12-13).

o Jesus intended that the Passover service continue after His death and resurrection.
o However, as the Son of God He had the authority to change the symbols of its observance from a roasted lamb, bitter herbs and unleavened bread to unleavened bread and wine.
o This is the main reason why we call the service He instituted the New Testament Passover (in contrast to the Old Testament Passover).
o Why then does 1 Corinthians 11:20 call that service “the Lord’s Supper”?

SPS:

• Today, I’ll discuss why this question matters to the religious world at large.
• Then, I’ll discuss why the question should matter to us – by explaining what Paul meant when he used that phrase.

BODY:

• The concept of a “New Testament Passover” had been rejected by “mainstream” Christianity by the mid-second century AD if not sooner.

o The early Catholic Church Fathers – that is, those writing before the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD – never used the phrase “the Lord’s Supper”, so far as I can discover.
o They consistently called their corrupted version of the service “Eucharist”, from the Greek word for “communion” in 1 Corinthians 10:16.
o Now 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 does refer to the same service that Paul describes as “the Lord’s Supper” in 1 Corinthians 11:20, but it does not use “communion” as a proper name.
o The Protestant Reformers and later commentators, rejecting both Catholic tradition and terminology while substituting their own, used “the Lord’s Supper” to refer to their own corrupted versions of the New Testament Passover.
o While both “communion” as an action and “the Lord’s Supper” as a proper name are both biblically based, “mainstream” Christianity uses these words to disassociate the hearer from any connection with the despised “Jewish Passover” and its symbols.
o But the real heirs of the apostolic Church continued to call their service “Passover”, even as they used the symbols Jesus Christ ordained rather than those originally ordained for Israel.

• Thanks to “guilt by association”, some in God’s Church have questioned whether we should use even “the Lord’s Supper” as a description of the New Testament Passover.

o Some of our past explanations of this verse aimed to make it seem as if Paul referred to the Passover supper that Jesus ate with his disciples before changing its symbols, and that Paul was discouraging the Christians in Corinth from eating that Passover supper.
o But Paul was doing nothing of the kind, as we shall see.

• In the context of 1 Corinthians 10:16, there are two equally valid ways of saying “the Lord’s Supper”, depending on what emphasis Paul meant.

o Both translate into English as “of the Supper of the Lord”.
o But depending on the word order and the vocal accentuation, the sense can be either the Supper which the Lord merely possesses, or the Supper which is in the Lord’s honor.
o The Greek text shows that the second emphasis is meant.
o The verb “to be” is also given special emphasis in context, and is accompanied by the absolute negative particle.
o And so were Paul speaking in English, he would emphasize the words like this: “When you come together into the same (place), it is absolutely not to eat of the Supper of the Lord.”

• Albert Barnes shows that Paul meant something like this:

o “It cannot be that such practices as are allowed among you can be a part of the celebration of that supper, or consistent with it. Your greediness 1Co_11:21; your intemperance 1Co_11:21; your partaking of the food separately and not in common, cannot be a celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Whatever, therefore, you may profess to be engaged in, yet really and truly you are not celebrating the Lord’s Supper.”

• Paul therefore calls the service “the Supper of the Lord” as contrasted to a normal, “secular” supper, such as the Corinthians were actually eating.

o The contrast is not made with the Passover supper that the Jews still ate (which was equally ordained in honor of the Lord, the accusations of the early Church Fathers notwithstanding).
o That point was already understood, as the Lord Jesus had changed the symbols of that service for Christians.

• Albert Barnes goes on to say this:

o “[The Lord’s Supper is] that which the Lord Jesus instituted to commemorate his death. It is called ‘the Lord’s,’ because it is his appointment, and is in honor of him; it is called ‘supper’ (deipnon), because the word denotes the evening repast; it was instituted in the evening; and it is evidently most proper that it should be observed in the after part of the day. With most churches the time is improperly changed to the morning – a custom which has no sanction in the New Testament; and which is a departure from the very idea of a supper.”

• But Barnes insists on something which likewise has no sanction in the New Testament:

o “The apostle here particularly refers to their ‘assembling’ to observe the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. At that early period it is probable that this was done on every Lord’s Day.”
o This of course is nonsense. Paul specifically upheld every one of the Ten Commandments in his writings, including the Sabbath, and kept the Sabbath himself – just as Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath Day had while on earth.
o And while Jesus had the right to change the symbols of the Passover supper, He never changed the command to observe either Passover Day or the service to be held on it.
o Rather, He set the example for us to follow, and Paul cites it later on in 1 Corinthians 11.
o The heirs of the true apostolic church have continued to keep that New Testament Passover service from the close of biblical times to the present day.

CONCLUSION:

• So why does all this matter to us?

o The proper name of the service remains “the Passover” – the Lord’s Passover.
o It is still in honor of Him, as the original Passover service was.
o But its other proper name is “the Lord’s Supper”, describing it as an evening meal neither given to satisfy hunger or thirst nor to encourage drunkenness, but to proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
o Jesus Himself likened the bread and the wine in that supper to His flesh and His blood – which means that they symbolize several different things at once.
o That is why we need to consider carefully and discern their symbolic meaning, which we can only do if we examine our lives and our motives first.
o If we treat those symbols like a common meal, we eat and drink judgment upon ourselves, for they represent the profound changes in body, soul and spirit that Jesus Christ demands of each and every one of His disciples.

The Traditional Chironomy of Hebrew Scripture (1966)

(This is a repost of a blog on The Chronicles of Johanan Rakkav.)

Chironomy or cheironomy (here and in several references here) is the art of using gestures of the hand and fingers, and in some cases of the arms, to represent musical values. It goes back to high antiquity (see this page and this page on my Web site The Music of the Bible Revealed).

Since 1993 I have been in the possession of a documentary made by Prof. Saul Levin (SUNY - Binghampton) back in 1966 at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, “The Traditional Chironomy of Hebrew Scripture”. It recorded for posterity three styles of synagogue chironomy (attached to the te`amim or musical accents of Hebrew Scripture) before the march of time and modern culture caused their loss. Prof. Levin kindly sent me a VHS of the documentary, I had a friend put it on DVD, and now it is on YouTube in four parts.

Many of you will not find the synagogue chant easy listening. Some have wondered why Suzanne Haik-Vantoura was so scathing in her critique of the more primitive forms of chant such as are found on these videos. Indeed they are colorful, and often even very passionate, but they are folk music of the simplest kind, with very little in the way of inherent melodic syntax. While they do have structural form which has been documented in such places as the Encyclopedia Judaica, they hardly represent the kind of “art song” that perforce would have been sung by the professional musicians of high culture such as were found in the Temple at Jerusalem.

Blessings in Messiah (ברכות במשיח),
John Wheeler (יוחנן רכב)