The Beatitudes

 The Beatitudes

By Richard P. Joseph

07/25/2025

In Matthew chapter 5 we read what is commonly called the beatitudes.  Many of the prophets attempted to teach these things but the people never seemed to get it.  It always came back to “how to follow the letter of the law the best”.  Seemingly they never understood that there was a deeper meaning to the law.  Paul rightly dubbed the law as the ministry of death.  The Spirit of the law is the higher calling.  In the beatitudes Jesus called blessed those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and those that suffer for righteousness sake.  He never mentions the law.  Remember, this is a jew talking to jews in the first century.  But is he really talking about the law?  Maybe he is.  

Next he tells them that you are blessed if you are persecuted for My name's sake because those that apply the law also persecuted the prophets who did what Jesus was doing.  He then calls his followers salt and light in the world.  While the Jewish leadership was busy killing the prophets and setting heavy doctrinal burdens on the people, Jesus is calling those that follow him and meet the standards set above, salt and light to the world.  A definite shift is taking place here.

Verses 17-20 are very interesting as he explains that he didn’t come to abolish the law but rather to fulfill it.  In fact, I prefer that he was the fulfillment of the law.  He then turns around and tells them that not one jot or tittle will pass from the law until all is fulfilled.  Then he sounds like a pharisee and tells them whoever breaks one of these commandments will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.  Then he doubles down and says that your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.  This is something to scratch your head over.  While his jewish followers were to keep the law until the parousia (AD70) when heaven and earth passed away, did he really expect his followers to keep the law better than the priests who kept it nearly perfectly?  I don’t think so, in a literal way.

While the priesthood kept the letter of the law precisely, they neglected the spirit of the law nearly completely.  Throughout Jesus’ ministry he constantly used physical things to explain spiritual truths.  For example, this is why Catholics are led so far astray as they cling to the physical and can’t seem to understand that Jesus was really referring to the spirit.  While Catholics think they are really eating Jesus' physical body, which would make them a cannibal, they can’t grasp what Jesus said.  “That which is flesh is flesh and that which is spirit is spirit”.    In the same way, Jesus is presenting the “new law”; one of spirit, not flesh.  By loving God and loving your neighbor, you would easily surpass the priests.  By being humble and meek and forgiving your enemies, you move even more up the ladder.  By cleaning your thoughts and mind, you again move closer to what Jesus is talking about.  By understanding that sin starts in you, not in your actions, you then can start real personal reform.  Anyone who clings to the physical meaning of the beatitudes will never really understand it.  Not by following a judicial law can we be cleansed but by cleansing our heart from the inside out.  But what about those who would cling to the law?

Jesus seemed to give a warning to those Scribes and Pharisees who were standing in the shadows waiting for him to slip up.  In Matthew 5:25 Jesus is giving them an invitation to reconcile with God before the upcoming judgement.  

 Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. 

What the Pharisees failed to understand is that they were actually on their way to court.  Jesus was giving very good advice for them to reconcile with their adversary (Almighty God) before they end up in prison with a life sentence.  Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened in AD 70 as they were judged and jailed.  Their modern day offspring still didn’t get the memo!   This is also good advice for us living today as we ourselves need to come to that point in all of our lives and do the same thing.  Be reconciled to God and move from death to life.  From judgement to grace.  From the physical to the Spiritual.  So to answer my previous question, Jesus is talking about the law, just not the old physical law but rather the law of grace which greatly surpasses the law of judgement. 

They call me Mellow Yellow

 They call me Mellow Yellow

By Richard P. Joseph

In the 1960’s there was a popular song on the radio by a guy named Donovan called “They call me Mello Yellow”.  I really don’t know how it got any play time as it was a stupid song, with no message and not pleasing at all to the ear.  I guess the hook line was simple enough for dumb kids to walk around humming it.  But there is a word game I’d like to play in this article.  It is the English word mellow.  

If we in America hear the word “mellow” phonetically speaking, we all would think of someone who is calm and non-aggressive.  However, in the ancient world influenced by Hellenism, if someone said, phonetically, “mello” they would think of something totally different.  In ancient Greek the word mello is a term that denotes imminence.  It usually defines an event that is soon coming or “about” to happen.  This word would not be used to denote something that is far off or in the distant future.  Since the new testament scriptures that are now extant are all in Greek, the word mello can be found all throughout it.   This definitely matters when the subject of eschatology comes up.  But if you read my articles consistently you would already know that I believe that the entire new testament is really a document of eschatology.  It is a story of a change in formation.  From beginning to end it tells of one era coming to an end and a new era beginning.  A fall of one system and the rise of another all the while maintaining that the God of creation is the organizer of all that is happening.  One system is being fulfilled which gives way to the creation of a redeemed world where man is restored to God through Jesus Christ.  So where does the word mello come in?

While reading the new testament in English we don’t always get the feel of the passage as they did 2,000 years ago.  Since I have not studied ancient Greek, and most of you didn’t either, we need to use the technology that we have today in order to take a deep dive into scripture.  The word mello appears 109 times in the new testament and variants appear many more times.  Obviously we are not going to look at all of them but only a few in order to make the point that when people start telling us that the second coming of Christ is in the future, you can tell right off that they probably don’t know that the new testament was actually written in Greek and they certainly never looked up any of the words.  Mello drives the narrative.  It puts things in perspective.  It creates a more realistic view of what is happening at that present time.  So let’s take a look at just a few instances of that word in context. 

Matthew 2:13

 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.”

In the above passage the word “will” is mello.  In other words, Herod isn’t going to “some day in the distant future try to kill the baby Jesus”  He is going to do it soon and that is exactly what he attempted to do.  As soon as the Magi left, he ordered the execution of every baby boy in Bethlehem.  I am surprised that the futurist preachers are not preaching on Herod still trying to kill Jesus.  The word mello was clearly understood by those living at that time that Herod meant business and he meant it soon.

Matthew 3:7 

 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

John the Baptist, who was the transition prophet between the old and new testaments made it very clear to the current Jewish administration that there was a soon coming reckoning.  He used the word mello to reiterate that the current leadership was going to experience a severe judgement.  The judgement was for them in that generation, not for us or anyone else.  John’s message had an imminent context to it and they understood it clearly.  This judgement isn’t for some future generation thousands of years later and the word mello made that clear.  

Acts

30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

Here Paul is speaking in Athens and uses this word to describe the coming judgement which accompanies the second coming of Christ.  Paul uses mello to indicate that this upcoming judgement is something that was about to take place.  That word eliminates the “thousands of years” doctrine that all futurist pastors are now preaching.  If this was the only time it was used then someone could make an argument against it but the fact remains that any time that the parousia of Christ is mentioned, it nearly always has some sort of time stamp associated with it, not in the least, the word mello.

If you are a serious bible student and a modern day disciple of Christ then you are in luck.  We have today the tools that all generations past never even thought of.  There are apps such as E-SWORD and BIBLEGATEWAY and many others that can assist you in studying the bible.  We have all of the bible in one book, we have multiple translations, and last but not least, we have the internet where you can communicate with millions of people in seconds.  All of this can be either dangerous or beneficial so be careful.  Always stick with conservative thinking sites and be cautious of anything that diminishes the deity of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is God in the flesh and is to always be glorified.  Study and show thyself approved.  Pray and always trust scripture taken in context. 

An Open Door

 An Open Door

By Richard P. Joseph

6/17/2025

Revelation 4:1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”

As I talk to people about the bible the same subject comes up over and over again, modern Israel.  The Zionist doctrine has so permeated the Christian community that it is the major underpinning of nearly all sermons concerning eschatology.  In fact they use the Zionist thought as a basis of understanding the bible.   Also, most pastors separate themes in categories such as history, miracles, eschatology etc etc.  I don’t.  I can safely say that eschatology is the major theme of the New Testament and you must understand history and miracles etc in that light.  The blatant overarching theme in the New Testament is that Judaism had run its course, it failed to atone for their sins, therefore God offered his sacrifice on the altar which paid the price for all sin, thus the law became obsolete and the vineyard that God planted has been handed over to a nation (the church) that will produce fruit worthy of it.  The problem that most modern day Christians have is that they simply cannot leave that old vineyard.

For some odd reason they cannot comprehend that Judaism has passed and that modern day Israel is no longer the owners of the vineyard.  However, anyone who has read the New Testament can plainly see that from beginning to end this theme takes prominence.  Let’s look at John 1:11-12:

  11 He came to His [c]own, and His [d]own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the [e]right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Re-read that about 10 times until you get it.  He came to the Jews who did not know him.  That is because they were not his.  Those that did know him were of God, they were those who “believed”, not those that were simply “born” a Jew.  The unbelievers were those of the “flesh” (Abraham’s physical offspring).  But those of the “spirit” (God’s children by belief) knew Jesus and followed him.  That is why, right off the bat, John the Baptist warned the Jews about the wrath to come (in their generation).  

Luke 3:8

Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

Again the subject of the seed of Abraham comes up, right from the start and continues throughout the New Testament.  The entire book of Revelation is about this transfer of ownership until it concludes that there is a New Heaven and Earth, that is a new covenant, not of the flesh but of the spirit.  Jesus became the fulfillment of the old covenant and is the king of the New Covenant.  Please read the entire chapter 10 of John real slow.  The point I am trying to make is spelled out in no uncertain terms in that chapter.  

John 10:1-5

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.

Look especially at verse 6.  They still don’t understand it even today.  They are still mulling over what Jesus and all of the apostles shouted from the rooftops.  After AD 70 the Jews had no claim to be the chosen people; that has been transferred to the Christians.  No ifs, ands, or buts about it.  Jesus clearly called the Jewish leadership “hirelings” and the true believers can’t even hear their voice.  Jesus is the true “door” to heaven.  All who came before him are thieves and liars.  Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, nobody comes to the father but through him.  Not through the law or through Israel but through Jesus.  Only.  That’s it.  Done.  It is finished.  Period.  

As you study the bible, stop and contemplate the meaning of what is being said and how those people at that time and in that culture would interpret it.  We simply cannot interpret it using modern thinking.  It must be interpreted in context.  Keep studying and keep praying and keep following the Good Shepherd. 

What about the Pygmies?

 What about the Pygmies?

By Richard P. Joseph

6/8/2025

Just search the internet or engage in social media and there is a prophet on every corner (or page).  Ever since I was a kid I listened to preachers documenting the “End Times” in fake time.  Menachem Begin, Ronald Reagan, Anwar Satat and just about every other world leader was named as the antiChrist and every war in Europe, or the Middle East was a sure harbinger of the second advent of Christ. 

And most of this comes from the Western Christianized countries.  Everything is interpreted from our point of view.  Whether it is famines, earthquakes, wars, treaties, military movements, presidents or kings, they are all interpreted from the Western point of view.  But what about the Pygmies?

There are a few different tribes of Pygmies in Africa and Asia but I never hear their interpretation of scripture.  Is their view less valid than ours?  Why is our perspective more important than theirs?  Or, I remember when I got my first Air Force assignment and was sent to Anchorage, Alaska.  The first night we got there we were sleeping and got rocked out of bed by an earthquake.  This was something new to a guy from Michigan.  I suppose I could have ran out in the streets and cried “the Lord is coming”.  That would have been just as valid as the preacher proclaiming it from the pulpit.  In fact there was a volcano during our stay in Alaska.  The eruption spewed tons of ash into the atmosphere blocking the sun for days.  This also could have been interpreted as a sign of the second coming.  Why not?  Which perspective is correct, or are all of them correct?  That is why my article called “Who, what, when, where, why” is probably my most useful article.  It is an article that explains the basics of biblical hermeneutics.  

Hermeneutics is very important.  Back in 1983 I got on one knee and proposed to my girlfriend.  She must have been crazy cuz she said yes.  Then we did nothing for several thousand years and other people found out that we were engaged and they started predicting that someday we would be married to other people on the other side of the earth!  That might sound a little ludicrous but that is exactly what our pastors have been preaching.  The truth was, we got married a few months later and lived happily ever after (except when I get her mad).  We proceeded to have six kids and now have multiple grandchildren.  When I proposed it was me proposing to her (who), in 1983 (when), in Temperance, Michigan (where), on my knee (how), because I loved her (why), to be married (what).  I never proposed to anyone thousands of years later but in a thousand years my offspring will be a testimony of what happened way back in 1983.  My most fervent prayer is that the Holy Spirit move through all of my future generations to bring them into the marvelous light of Jesus Christ.  They won’t have to keep waiting for me to marry their great great great great grandmother.  That marriage was consummated and fulfilled.   They are the very proof of that.  Our earthly mission was complete and they are part of it.  My vows of marriage were complete and it has produced fruit that many generations will enjoy.  

When Jesus and the apostles spoke of the Parousia (the visitation  of Christ) it was always in imminent language.  It always had time stamps to it.  The only valid point of view is that of those living at that time.  When they began observing those wars, earthquakes, and other social convulsions they would have been correct to interpret them as End Times events.  Those events are not ambiguous or amorphous.  They were well defined and history bears out those events in real time.  All was completed by AD 70 and we are the offspring.  We are the testimony.  We are the proof.  Jesus did not leave us orphans.  Jesus did not leave us confused.  He said what he said and did what he said.  

In other words, how did modern Western society become the spokesperson for ancient Hebrew scripture?  How come the West is more important than the Pygmies, or the Chinese, or the Eskimos or the apostles?  The only correct interpretation is from those apostles that were there at that time.  All others are frauds. 

At the Well

 At the Well

By Richard P. Joseph

5/8/2025

The fourth chapter in the gospel of John records Jesus’ providential meeting with a Samaritan woman at the ancient well that Jacob had dug.  This story is in line with the common theme of the entire New Testament in which there is, at that time, an active transfer of covenant relationship between God and the Jews to God and all redeemed people.  But to set the stage for this encounter, we need to know something about Samaria.

The land of Samaria was previously a part of Israel and more precisely where the half tribe of Manasseh was located.  Israel’s autonomy was quite short-lived because of their constant disobedience to YHWH.  The nation of Israel was split in two by the time their second king had taken his throne.  Like I mentioned in a previous article,  their evil kings outnumbered their good kings by, at least, a factor of 3 to 1.    The two nations, Judah and Israel, even fought wars against each other.  Their evil was so bad that God began allowing other pagan rulers to conquer their land.  The first major occupation was by the Assyrians.  Once conquered, the new rulers began displacing the influential citizens into other countries and replaced them with foreigners that have been captured in other conquests.  Most of those replaced were in the land of Samaria.  Thus, the Samaritans became a mixed breed of people and a mixed bag of religions.  This is why, at the time of Jesus, the “pure” Jews hated the Samaritans.  They viewed them as a contaminated people and would have nothing to do with them.  That is why the Jews who hated Jesus slandered Jesus by calling him a Samaritan.

John 8:48  Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?”

So, back to the well!

So Jesus is now travelling from Jerusalem into the land of Galilee and he stops at Jacobs well outside a city of Samaria called Sychar.   While his disciples entered the city to purchase food, a Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well.  When Jesus asks her for some water she replied;

“How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Again we see the mistrust between the Jews and the Samaritans.  Well, we all know the story of how Jesus brought out her shaky past and then presented himself to her as the long awaited messiah.  She then expressed the common confusion of that day and in that place; “where are we supposed to worship anyhow”.  She, being a Samaritan, was used to their form of worship but she knew that the Jews only allowed worship in the temple which was in Jerusalem.  Then Jesus responds with an unexpected answer behind door 3, you will no longer worship in either of those places exclusively in the future.  

4:21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”   

Jesus explains to her that there is suddenly a new order of things.  Physical Jerusalem will no longer be the center of worship.  Jesus was, at that very time, becoming the fulfilment of all scripture and the physical nation of Jerusalem was entering their final judgement.  They were previously overrun by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks and now the Romans.  A New Spiritual Jerusalem would rise out of the ashes, no longer to ever return to the physical.  This is the ubiquitous message that all Zionist churches just can’t seem to understand.  When the Jewish leadership put Jesus before Pilate they made a prophetic statement that condemned them forever;

Matthew 27:25 And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”

Unfortunately for them, his blood became a judgment on the physical nation of Israel and they were crushed to powder.  The redemption of true worshipers began and will last for ever and ever.  There is no returning to that fully corrupt system.  The Law brought condemnation but Grace brought life.  All people from all nations now have access to God through the blood of Jesus Christ.  Let us now worship the Lord in Spirit and in Truth. 

They Found the Book

 They Found the Book

By Richard P. Joseph

4/24/2025

In America we just witnessed a change in governmental leadership.  This change was so dramatic that it is difficult to believe that the two parties of power are so fundamentally different but this isn’t new.  Anyone who has read the bible, and especially the Old Testament, can hardly believe that in one country people can be so different.  Out of all of the kings of Israel and Judah, only ⅓ were considered good which means ⅔ of the kings of the chosen people were completely evil.  Like Solomon might say “There is nothing new under the sun”.  

You would think that a nation that was founded by God Himself and that was given a beneficial law to live by would produce faithful followers but that simply isn’t the case.  The human being, according to scripture, is only evil continually.  If you wanted to find the true God during the times of ancient Israel and Judah you would have no better chance by visiting that area than if you visited China.  It got so bad that they didn’t even know where the scriptures were!

For example, King Manasseh of Judah was so wicked that we read in 2 Kings 21:9 

 But they paid no attention, and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.

The pagan worship, bloodshed and debauchery was second to none.  They even had abortion clinics where they passed their children through the fire of pagan gods.  It looked a lot like San Francisco!  They were worse than the Canaanites that Joshua fought so hard to expel.  God ordained this takeover because those nations were so insidious.  And just like we are experiencing today, there was a change in leadership.  

In America, if we don’t like our officials we simply vote them out, that is as long as we can prevent cheating.  In the ancient world you don’t vote them out, you kill them.  Manasseh died naturally and his evil son Amon became king but only made it two years before being executed.  Then the people rose up and executed them and made his son, Josiah, king.  Josiah was only 8 years old when he became king.  

Josiah must have had great handlers because he completely rejected what his father and grandfather had done.  After Josiah had been in office for 18 years he noticed how the temple was in great need of repair so he sent one of his scribes to the temple with instructions to use the donations for necessary repairs.  When Shaphan the scribe arrived he was informed by the priest that he had “found the book of the law”.  In other words, the “chosen people” were living for many years without even knowing where the writings of Moses were.  Someone probably hid them from the many evil kings that preceded Josiah.  

When Josiah heard the words of the scriptures read before him, he tore his clothes.  This indicates to me that he had never read or heard the scriptures that their nation was built upon.  Israel had truly become more evil than the very nations that they had expelled for being evil.  Josiah then called the people to the temple and read to them the words of the law and then stood by a pillar of the temple and made a covenant with God to keep his commands.  He then ordered all of the pagan statues that were currently in the temple to be taken out and burned.  He then cleansed the whole land of idols, sexual perversion and child sacrifice throughout the land.  It takes nearly the entire chapter of 2 Kings 23 to describe this campaign of purifying the land.  He then ordered for the Passover celebration to be reinstituted.   In order to understand the complete drift from God's law that  had occurred we go to 2 Kings 23:22

Such a Passover surely had never been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.

In other words, the word of God in Israel was harder to find than in Joe Biden’s rainbow clad White House.  Perhaps that is the real reason Jesus had to come, to fulfill the prophecy of Jeremiah chapter 31.

31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, [h]though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their [i]hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin 

I will remember no more.”

This is the New Covenant that Jesus forged with his people.  We are the New Jerusalem.  We are the people led by the Holy Spirit.  We are the new priests.  We are the new Holy Nation called out of darkness.  We are those that will never lose the book again.