January 11, 2009, 10:18 am by dc-agape.

Genesis 41:41-57

Here is the story of how Joseph single-handedly saved the world, Egypt and the surrounding countries from the famine that YHWH created.  The Pharaoh of Egypt made Joseph, a slave and a convict, his second-in-command.  What did Joseph do that was so spectacular…he predicted a famine seven years in the future!  Can you imagine a ruler today even taking a person like this serious?  Can you imagine a ruler today waiting seven years to see if this person was right?  But the Pharaoh had faith in Joseph.

The Pharaoh had so much faith in Joseph that not only did he make him his second-in-command; he gave Joseph the power to do anything at all.  This gave Joseph complete control over every single person in Egypt.  Joseph carries out the orders to store 20% of the grain crops each year.  Which will have rotted by the second year, but who’s counting, Joseph certainly was not.

The Pharaoh also gives Joseph a new and improved name: Zaphenath Paneah.  One of the benefits that Joseph received was a wife.  Yes, an idol worshipping wife from Egypt.  And not any idol worshipper, her father was a priest of On (possibly a priest in the city of Heliopolis).  By the way, there was never a god of Egypt named On!  For some reason the Word of God gets the priest’s patron god’s name wrong and cannot keep the meaning of Joseph’s Egyptian name.  Infallible, my foot!

From his marriage to the idolater, Joseph does get two sons: Manasseh and Ephraim.  I wonder what Abraham and Isaac would say about this, can an Egyptian idolater be better than a Canaanite idolater.  The names of the sons tells a lot about Joseph.  Manasseh means “to have forgotten his troubles and his family”; Ephraim means “that YHWH has made me fruitful”.  Funny how the first one is named after forgetting his family!  It is the second one that he remembers YHWH.  So for Joseph forgetting his father’s family is more important than honoring YHWH!

The famine arrives, and only Egypt is ready for it.  The entire world feels the effect and people from every country come to by grain from Joseph.  Now, if we attempt to interpret this literally, this has got to be the second biggest “Tall Tale” of the Word of God, the “Arc of the Flood” being the biggest.  I say that it is a very big tall tale because grain cannot be stored for seven years, and enough grain for the entire world and all the livestock, as well…impossible!  Also, can you imagine the mass die off of wild animals?  A famine does not affect only humans; one that lasts seven years would be just as deadly as the Flood.  All the livestock would be dead; all the seeds for planting new crops would be dead.  Humanity would have nothing to start anew with.  So surviving the 7 years of world-wide famine would really not accomplish much.  The earth’s ecosystem would have collapsed.  This story could not have happened as written in the Word of God.

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January 11, 2009, 9:23 am by dc-agape.

I am overwhelmed!  The response (in number of hits) to the first part of this Biblical topic was significant.  I have obviously found a topic special to someone!  I had planned to stop this series with this post: the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth that Jesus describes.  But there are three other topics that belong in the series on hell: the lake of fire, the second death, and Hades.  I was hoping not to delve into Revelations quite so soon, but the masses have spoken.  Since the topic of hell is of great interest to some people out in the neither realms of the web, I can manage to sink into the Book of Revelations.  I will make it a quick skim of the book, but will cover the topics of interest in full.

Right now, though, I want to cover what Jesus describes as the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Because you see, Jesus never spoke of the “lake of fire” or the “second death”.  He does speak about Hades, once!  All three of these terms were used by only one writer of the NT, the author of Revelations, either John of Patmos or the Apostle John.  Revelations was most definitely written very close to 95AD, sixty some odd years after the death of Jesus.

Jesus describes a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth a number of times in the Book of Matthew and once in the Book of Luke.  I will break Jesus’ use of the place down into three categories.  The first category will be a place for the wicked.  The second will be a place for those who have pretended to follow his teachings.  The third will reveal that this is a place where Jesus chooses who will be sent there.  This last category is another nail in the coffin of the concept of freewill.

Twice Jesus describes the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth as a place where the wicked will be tossed:

Matt 13:49-50 This is how it will be at the end of the age.  The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and through them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

There will be the fiery furnace, but we know that our bodies and soul will be destroyed in that furnace.  But not just the wicked, the causes of sin will also be thrown out to the place of gnashing teeth:

Matt 13:41-42 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.  They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Not only will the wicked be thrown into this fiery furnace but so will anything that causes sin!  Now you might think that is Satan, and from the Book of Revelations you would be right.  But it also includes many “christians”.

Jesus describes what type of “christian” will be thrown into the place of gnashing teeth on 3 distinct occasions.  The first description of which “christians” will be thrown out is here:

Matt 24:49-51 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, “My master is staying away a long time”, and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.  The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of.  He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Does the servant that beats his fellow servant remind you of anyone?  Does the servant that drinks with drunkards remind you of anyone?  Here Jesus says that the hypocritical “servants” will be thrown in the place of gnashing teeth.  But Jesus does not end there.  He also includes the servants who do not work hard enough:

^{Matt 25:30} And throw the worthless servant outside, in the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Notice that this place of gnashing of teeth is darkness.  How can a fiery furnace be a place of darkness?  Are there two places of gnashing teeth?  Does a fiery furnace burn darkly?  Maybe only the servants of Jesus that do no amount of work are thrown into the darkness!  They are not the hypocrites, but they are the ones that believe that faith alone will save them.

In the Book of Luke, Jesus takes another stab at those who claim to be TrueChristianTM.  This is the story of the Narrow Door.  People will claim to have eaten, drank, and taught with and for Jesus.  But Jesus will not know them, he will call them evildoers.  And he will put them in a place where they can watch, but not partake, of the kingdom of God.  This one has no fiery furnace, no place of darkness, but it is still a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.  I do believe we have a fourth hell!  Can there be four different places that Jesus will send people?  Remember the angels get sent to a gloomy dungeon.

At the beginning of this post I alluded to the nail that will close the coffin of freewill.  I am sure that this is not my last attempt to describe freewill from the Christian point of view in the Word of God.  But this verse is certainly a lulu:

Matt 22:13-14 Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’  “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

This is the Parable of the Wedding Banquet.  One of the invited guests did not meet the standards that the king had chosen.  Unfortunately, this guest was never told about those standards, but he had been invited.  It is clear that the king is the one who chooses who will be accepted.  It is also clear that those requirements are not specified to the “guests”.  It is like an invisible boundary, you can’t see it, but you can’t step over the line. 

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