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. 

The Elect

 The Elect

By Richard P. Joseph

3/16/2025

In my discussions with various people and my observation of current world events, the question of “who are the chosen people” keeps coming up.  As always, my short articles are not comprehensive works on all of these subjects but are only ways for me to help direct people's attention to a proper interpretation of scripture.  It is up to you to do a more exhaustive study to see if these things are in fact true.  This is something that you should be doing in your churches also.  I have spoken about this subject in various other articles but as I was going through the book of Colossians, Paul, once again locked on to this subject.  The subject of the transfer of the title of the chosen people is perhaps the main topic of the entire new testament starting from John the Baptist all the way through Revelation.  Colossians is just part of the flow.  I encourage you to re-read Colossians after you read this article.  

Colossians 1:18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

I recently wrote an article about the meaning of “dead”.   In that article I defended the position that in many cases the writer is referring to actual dead people.  In the verse above, however, it may mean something else.  While Jesus surely rose physically from the dead, and I believe our soul will also, the verse above might mean both.  In this case Jesus is the first born of the spiritually dead; (meaning those that were still caught up in Judaism and attempting to follow the law).  Paul goes on to explain the “hidden mystery” of God and that is that the gentiles are now reconciled to God.  The Jews, in their arrogance, thought that God was only a Jewish thing.  They seemed to forget that YHVH was the creator of the heavens and the earth and all the people on the earth.  God had separated the Jewish nation from all other nations on the earth in order to establish a lineage of his chosen people to receive the oracles of God and to bring forth the messiah in due time.  It wasn’t a pagan religion of the Jews, it was the real God of all people.  So when the messiah had finally come and reconciled the world unto himself, this made the unfaithful Jews angry.  They no longer had a corner on the market.  

In chapter 2, Paul told them to beware of the philosophy of men and of circumcision and of religious regulations and the vain use of religion and traditions.  In other words, the days of the law are gone.  In chapter 3 he explains how there is no longer Jew or Greek.  Then he slams them with the idea that we, the Christians, are the “Elect” or in other words, the chosen people.  While those under the law were people of judgment, those under grace are to put on love.  In order to drive this point home, Paul, in chapter 4, now explains how masters and slaves are on the same spiritual level.  This is his way of saying that Jew and Gentiles are now on the same level; we both need to come to Jesus by faith, not by law or by genealogy or by ethnicity.  This new dynamic was difficult for most to comprehend in Paul’s day and, I hate to say it, is still difficult for most modern Christians to comprehend.  They just simply will not let go of the fact that the Jews are no longer the chosen people.  This philosophy plagued the early church and, unfortunately, still plagues us today.  

I encourage all to read the entire New Testament over and over and keep these things in mind.  From beginning to end you will find a common theme,  That the Kingdom of God is at hand, that the kingdom will be taken away from those who were then occupying it and handed over to someone else, and that the law was becoming obsolete. 

What does “dead” mean?

 What does “dead” mean?

By Richard P. Joseph

2/28/2025

I once asked Ed Stevens a question about debates and he said there is an old adage that goes something like this;  “ He who defines the terms, wins the debate”.    In the religious world, and especially in the preterist world, there are debates.  Debates are good in that a person's perspective is challenged and if they fail to defend their position then that gives them an opportunity to reconsider their position or to bolster their position with more evidence.  I heard another preacher say that what he believes today (as far as doctrinal issues are concerned), he may not believe tomorrow.  In other words, he is willing to reconsider his views in light of new biblical evidence that he previously had missed.  Dogma is usually so entrenched in religious circles that when a different view is presented, people go apoplectic.  The only thing that is absolutely true is scripture itself but depending on one's knowledge of proper hermeneutics, scripture can easily be misconstrued.  While scripture is solid and unmovable, our knowledge and perspective is fluid until it can be cemented with certainty.  Therefore, I really don’t have all of the answers.  The challenge is in the pursuit. 

One challenge that I will attempt to shed light on is the word dead in the bible.  It sounds simple, if something is dead, it stops living, right.  Well, that is usually correct but in some cases the word dead could also mean spiritually dead.  Or it could also mean, philosophically dead. 

 

John 12:24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much [a]grain.

In this parable Jesus is asking us to die of what we are in order to become something greater.  Or he could also be referring to Judaism dying in order to become something greater but either way, the seed doesn’t actually physically die, it just dies to what it was.  However, the most contentious argument comes when the resurrection of the dead is brought up.  

One argument says that the physically dead are resurrected (or at least their soul is) and enters the heavenly realm.  The other view is that the spiritually dead are resurrected out of their condemned position and brought into the light of Christ.  Another position similar to the second one is that Israel will be resurrected into a new elevated position.  I am tempted to say that perhaps all of those views have some truth to them but I will also attempt to show you that the first view of our souls, once given a new heavenly body, will enter into heaven with God forever.  

In Acts 23 we find Paul being arrested and set before the Sanhedrin facing the death penalty.  Thinking quickly, he used this very doctrine of the resurrection to divide the counsel.  

Acts 23       6 But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee; concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judged!”

7 And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; and the assembly was divided. 8 For Sadducees say that there is no resurrection—and no angel or spirit; but the Pharisees confess both. 9 Then there arose a loud outcry. And the scribes of the Pharisees’ party arose and protested, saying, “We find no evil in this man; [a]but if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against God.”

As is explained here, and also in the writings of the historian Josephus, the Pharisees believe in a resurrection of souls while the Sadducees do not.  In other words, if Paul and the Pharisees believed that the resurrection was some sort of rising from sin to a better life, or Israel being reborn into a better or elevated state of being then there would have been no argument at all.  In fact, there wouldn’t even be two sects.

To drive this point home, let’s take a look at Acts 24:15

15 I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection [e]of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. 

In the above verse, Paul says that he has a hope in the resurrection of the dead.  He then describes the dead as being made up of the just and the unjust.  So, if the resurrection is about someone entering a more elevated spiritual position then why do the just have to do that?  They are already there.  This is just one of the many verses that point to a resurrection of the physically dead people being raised from the dead into God’s eternal glory.  We could go on and on but it is up to you to read and study the bible in context and pray for wisdom.  Never simply take someone’s word for it, do your own research.  Read your bible every day.  Become familiar with it.  Look for things.  Look for patterns.  Look to glorify Jesus Christ.  

So in the end, dead, means several different things but it certainly also includes the physically dead.

A Royal Priesthood

 A Royal Priesthood

By Richard P. Joseph

2/3/2025

In Exodus chapter 20 we find the newly formed nation of Israel moving through the wilderness.  They had recently been liberated from slavery by God through the hand of Moses.  Moses is now beginning to receive the law from God and the Ten Commandments are presented to the people.  It firmly establishes YHVH as the only eternal God and the second commandment was to never create any image that could be used to represent a deity or would be worshiped.  This was not ambiguous, it was very plain and understandable.  

Well, maybe not!  Flip a few chapters later and you have Aaron, the brother of Moses, fashioning a golden calf to worship to.  The human condition is hopeless, weakness is the norm and evil is the goal.  Exodus 32 brings this to light.  While Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving instructions on how to build a tabernacle to YHVH, the congregation decided that Moses must have died and therefore they would create a pagan god from gold just like the Egyptians had.  They could not understand that a human cannot create a real god.  Moses did not go to God, God came to Moses.  God created man, man did not create God.  This was a very new concept back then.  So God sent Moses down the mountain to confront the Israelite nation and it wasn’t pretty. 

 Exodus 32:7-8 7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a [b]stiff-necked people!

God would have destroyed them had Moses not prayed and intervened.  Moses, however, cleaned the camp by putting to death 3,000 of those that would not follow the true and only God. 

Moses then formed a priesthood that was to serve the Eternal God and Him alone.  The Priesthood was to be formed from the tribe of Levi which Moses and Aaron were part of.  The main job of a high priest was to offer atonement for the people through the sacrificial system laid out in the books of the law.  There was, however, a different kind of priesthood that was not of human origin.

While Moses was the person responsible for the formation of the nation of Israel and the priesthood, it was Abraham who had previously become the father of the nation.  After Abraham had success in defending several of the cities, including Sodom and Gomorrah where Lot lived, he ran into a strange priest named Melchizedek, the priest of Salem.  Not much is mentioned about this obscure character in the scriptures but apparently the Jews knew more about him than what was written about him.  When David was prophesying about the future messiah in Psalm 110 he spoke about Jesus as being a priest after the order of, not Levi, but Melchizedek.  The book of Hebrews informs us that Melchizedek is one who has no beginning and no end and no traceable genealogy.  He is called a priest forever.  That is why the author of Hebrews associates Melchizedek with Jesus as one and the same.  

So now we have talked about two distinct priesthoods, but there is a third.  Revelation 1:6 reads like this:

  … and has made us [c]kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 

And 1 Peter 2:9 says this:

 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Jesus, who is a priest forever, will never change.  He is the High Priest of all time.  However, as humans, things change.  The Levites were called to be priests during the old covenant but once that covenant ran its course, Jesus established a new covenant with his blood.  Peter then informed us that we, the Christian men, are the new priests.  After AD 70, the Levitical priesthood ended.  Each Christian man is now the priest of his family and with this a tremendous amount of responsibility is placed on each man to lead his family into righteousness.  With this priesthood comes also a new nation.  Judaism has become obsolete and the church has become the new nation, a holy nation.   Marriage is the building blocks of society and the father and mother are responsible for bringing up holy offspring unto the Lord.  The institution of marriage is the most important union on earth.  As the marriage goes, the earth goes.  Each husband is the priest of his family and each Christian family joined spiritually together forms a holy nation.  This is what holds the world together.  It is sad to see people still associating the priesthood to religious organizations when in reality the real priests are the fathers and husbands of each family.  It is our responsibility to strengthen our families and our communities.  People who wait and rely on a religious organization to teach their families the gospel are out of touch with scripture.  While it is a great thing for people to learn from their pastors, it is imperative that the real teaching and lessons are learned at home.  This is something that should not be taken lightly.  Like Michael Jackson said in his song “We are the World”, “We are the Church”.  Let us be bold and lead the world by leading our own families.