Someone emailed and asked
Can you explain this important passage. Thanks -----------------------
Christ declared in Matthew 8—
"11And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of Heaven."
Most all commentators don't have a clue what this means... they claim it refer to pagans. They are doctrinally lobotomized.
The New Testament is not a stand-alone book. It cannot be understood without the Old. They are like 2 halves of a treasure map, and the OT half contains the Legend and Key. The Primary Law of Bible Hermeneutics is that God is IMMUTABLE: He does not change, make a mistake, overlook anything, have a better idea, improve, change His Mind, fail, lie, contradict Himself, violate His Own Word (which is an extension of His Mind which is Perfect, Holy, Just, True). Therefore, His Word does not change and what He declares first sets the unchanging Standard by which subsequent Scripture is to be interpreted.
Many shall come from the east and west.
WHO...?
God promised to regather whom He scattered.
They shall sit down [that is, recline on pillows as at an eastern feast] at the Kingdom of Heaven...?
WHO...?
THOSE FOR WHOM THE KINGDOM WAS PREPARED!
They shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob...?
Who?
The literal (not "spiritual") descendants and heirs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God had promised and covenanted repeatedly.
God always commanded alien blood to be sent away; alien wives divorced, and they and all mixed children by them sent away forever. God will not have His people replaced / supplanted by ANY alien people or hybrids, which God declared to be an abomination because it is a corruption of His Creation, and regards Adamkind, it is a destruction of His Image.
God is not double minded. Morality and Holiness do not change. God is Immutable. God does not lie. God said that He will do nothing concerning His people except He first reveal it to His servants the prophets. God commanded come out and be separate and join not the unclean people and ye shall indeed be My sons and daughters.
So many theologians remind me of an old episode of the t.v. sitcom "I Love Lucy". Lucy, dingbatted redhead* that she portrayed was one day in the kitchen making a cake or something from scratch (as most everything was made in those days). She had a cookbook open and was working on both the island counter in the kitchen as well as the counter by the sink. She would read one line of the instructions, "sift 1 lb. of flour" [or whatever it said] and she'd turn her back and follow the directions on the counter by the sink. It was hot so she turned on the fan. As she would turn her back to perform each instruction, the fan would blow a few pages. She then turned around and read the next step: 2., 3., 4., etc. (but on randomly different pages, without her realizing it). After turning the fan on, each time that she turned back around the instructions said something that struck her as odd, such as, "Now whisk in 4 T. of Worcestershire sauce" or "now mix in half a cup of ketchup" [or whatever the instructions said]. Each time she would make an odd face of confusion, but then acquiesce since obviously the instructions had to be correct, it was Betty Crocker [or whomever].
[* —her Cuban-Hispanic knight in shining armor was so much more intelligent than she—that is how Hollywood twists reality and brainwashes the unsuspecting populace; and that series itself was desensitization of interracial marriage; they always use humor to grease society into accepting what is revolting and abominable and which God forbade.]
Regardless, THAT is how too many theologians assemble their "theology". They are dingbats and don't have a clue what they are doing and they slap together mindlessly—abominably—things that don't belong and have no relation to each other in complete violation of the perfect, unchanging, harmonious MIND OF GOD. That is what God's Word is. It is His Mind. It is not His FULL mind, mind you, but it is all His Mind that He wants us to know at this juncture.
Genesis 24:18—
"14And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed."
Note: In Hebrew and Greek "all" does NOT mean every last individual in the universe. It refers to the specific, limited "all" that is clearly understood in the mind of the listener when it was said. If I said, to a group of friends, "I am inviting everyone over for a pool part on Fourth of July"... clearly I don't mean every last person in the world, but only that circle of friends with whom I normally associate and invite to such functions.
Scripture is written to the elect of God's people. Everyone elses eyes, ears, hearts, minds are closed (as we shall soon see) and even as Christ spoke in parables because the truth was only intended for the elect of His people, the written Word of God is no different. Context is to be assumed to refer to God's people unless blatantly expressed otherwise.
A similar blunder is made with "whosoever will". Like a surgeon amputates a limb or removes an organ, so "theologians" or laypeople amputate a singular verse or phrase from context and then twist it to refer to something other than to what it actually refers. This could be called, "Cut and Paste Ransom-note Theology".
They take Acts 2—
"21And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved."
—and twist it to refer to the entire world.
BUT WHAT does the VERY NEXT verse say...?
"22Ye men of Israel, hear these words..."
To whom does the "whosoever will" then refer?
The myriad of preachers and theologians and Bible experts who declare otherwise incur the Curse of God who commanded call not evil good or good evil; and upon those who say, "Thus saith the Lord" When He has NOT said... when they declare the very opposite of what He said; violating Christ's commands, "Give not that which is holy to the dogs and cast not pearls before swine... it is not meet to take the children's Bread [Christ] and give it to the dogs"; and they are guilty of scattering the true flock, instead of gathering it; and instead they gather the dogs, pigs, wolves, serpents, and fowl of the air. All these things pollute the bride of Christ and help exterminate God's children. Those who preach such shall indeed be "rewarded" by God, but not as they imagine.
Furthermore, earlier in the very same chapter of Acts 2—
"14But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: 15For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. 16But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; 17And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18And on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy [preach, testify]..."
Furthermore, Christ declared of God's people,
Matthew 13:15—
"For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them."
This makes it sound as if they people shut their own eyes, whereas, the passage that Christ quoted clearly indicates that God closed their eyes, and therefore, the means by which He did it involved having them turn from the truth unto blindness, obstinacy, hard-heartedness, stiff-neckedness, bitterness, etc. Christ loosely quoted—
Isaiah 6:10—
"Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed."
Isaiah was not a magician, therefore, this is God declaring what He would do, even as He declared, "Let there be light..."
Christ later declared, Luke 4:18—
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind..."
Again, this does not refer to every last person on earth, but only the elect of God's people whom God in Christ determined before the foundation of the world to be called out of darkness into His Marvellous Light.
God declared that there is none of His people that doeth good, there is none righteous, all have gone astray, none even seek God. Therefore, any who do seek Him can only do because God draws them, opens their hearts, ears, etc. and Christ continually said, "He who has ears to hear let him hear..." Christ said no man cometh unto the Father but by Me and no man cometh unto Me except the Father by His Spirit draweth him. Scripture says that we are dead in our trespasses and sins, and the Holy Spirit quickens the elect unto life whereby they believe, repent, and confess Christ unto Salvation. Even as Lazarus did not raise himself from the dead, nor ask to be resurrected, so also God calls forth all of His sons.
—any "gospel" nature or orientation other than God being in complete control, God having the pre-eminence, and God perfectly fulfilling His Promises, Covenants, and Prophecies is humanism—and is accursed (under Divine Judgment).
He who would be friend of the world is the enemy of God. There is no middle ground. God is your Lord and Master and you fear no other, or God is not your Lord and Master (despite the fond, self-flattering delusions that you entertain to make your guilty conscience feel better) and you don't understand the very nature or meaning of Lord / Master. No man can serve two masters. A person can only be in complete submission to one master. Only one can be supreme. Only one can be served with no divided loyalties.
Isaiah 43—
"3For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. 4Since thou wast precious in My Sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. 5Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; 6I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring My sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth; 7Even every one that is called by My Name: for I have created him for My glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him. 8Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears. 9Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and show us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth. 10Ye are My witnesses, saith the LORD, and My servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He: before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me."
God said that He would regather whom He scattered. "Gentile" is a miscarriage of translation, a transliteration from the Latin gentilis. The Greek is ethnos / ethney and Hebrew goy / goyim which are collective generic nouns and merely mean "people / nation" and precise meaning must be determined by immediate and overall Scriptural context because God is true to His Word and cannot lie, fail, or change His Mind.
Amos 9:9—
"For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the House of Israel among all nations, like as corn [grain] is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth."
When you scatter / sow wheat you wait a season and then harvest it. When you harvest / sift it, you discard everything that is not wheat (including the chaff, once it is beaten off). You do not gather tares, thistles, briars, stubble, rocks, dirt, debris, insects, vermin, etc.
Jeremiah 23:3—
"And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds"
Jeremiah 30:11—
"For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished."
Jeremiah 31—
"Hear the Word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a Shepherd doth His flock. 11For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he."
Jeremiah 33—
"24Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, He hath even cast them off? thus they have despised My people, that they should be no more a nation before them. 25Thus saith the LORD; If My Covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; 26Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them."
II King 13:23—
"And the LORD was gracious unto them, and had compassion on them, and had respect unto them, because of His Covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast He them from His Presence as yet [even unto this time]."
Isaiah 11:12—
"And He shall set up an ensign for the nations [of Israel], and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."
Zechariah 10—
"8I will hiss [whistle] for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased. 9And I will sow them among the people [nations]: and they shall remember Me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and turn again. 10I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them. 11And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away. 12And I will strengthen them in the LORD; and they shall walk up and down in His Name, saith the LORD."
Ezekiel 5—
"10...and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds. 11Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD; Surely, because thou hast defiled My Sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall Mine Eye spare, neither will I have any pity. 12A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds..."
Deuteronomy 30—
"1And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee, 2And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey His Voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; 3That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. 4If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will He fetch thee..."
Anyone who attempts to interpret the New Testament without the Old is like a blind man trying to explain the artistic details of a painting that he has never seen (and knowing nothing about art)... truly it is the blind leading the blind. This explains most "Bible experts" and "government experts".
Matthew 8 continues—
"12But the children [sons] of the Kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
This Greek word translated children is not teknon, but huios, and therefore, should be rendered "sons".
At first blush I would be inclined to believe that these "sons" do not refer to the rightful heirs, but the illegitimate usurpers which have a prominent place in numerous of Christ's parables and other passages of Scripture (e.g. the sons of Belial of II Samuel 23:6,7; the tares sown in among the wheat that are often indistinguishable from the wheat itself and will be culled out by the angels on the Day of Judgment; those who say they are true Judah and God's chosen whom He loves, but do lie and are of the Synagogue of Satan, Rev. 2:9; 3:9).
Outer darkness is a synonym for Hell that Matthew alone uses 3 times in regard to discourses that Christ gave.
God is not irrational or double minded. He does not love whom He hates and does not hate whom He loves; He does not damn whom He loves.
This immediately put me in mind concerning another passage, which is likewise poorly understood, in which Christ referred to gathering the people of Jerusalem as a hen does her chicks; and it is in the parallel passage of the very same passage that we are discussing.
THE KEY, is to be found in this greater parallel passage of Luke 13—
"23Then said one unto Him, Lord, are there few that [shall] be saved? And He said unto them, 24Strive to enter in at the strait [narrow, constricted] gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 25When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the Door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: 26Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy Presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets. 27But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity [unrighteousness]. 28There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. 29And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God. 30And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last. 31The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto Him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee. 32And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that [she-]fox,* Behold, I cast out devils [demons], and I do [perform] cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. 33Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. 34O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! 35Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord."
[* referring to Herod Antipas' wife Herodias [who had been wife of Herod Philip I., who was still alive**], who controlled him; she it was who tricked Herod through his daughter, into executing John the Baptist.
** The Herods were Edomites, not Israelites, and so the law of what is called "Levirate Marriage" or Kinsman Redeemer" did NOT apply to them. Furthermore, taking ones brother's wife is a SIN IF HE IS STILL ALIVE; the Levirate Marriage was if the kinsman had died and left no male heir, then the nearest of kin was to take his wife and raise up seed in the name of the deceased kinsman.]
Christ had exposed the majority of the Edomite Pharisees as being of their father the Devil and said that their race was guilty of all the righteous blood ever shed upon the earth, from the current prophets all the way back to Abel.
[See my, What Was the Mark that God Placed on Cain...? and Who Was the Serpent in the Garden...? for greater detail on this.]
When Christ refers to the Edomite chief priests, Sanhedrin, elders, who were the ones who spearheaded the death of the prophets (as they would Christ's death also), when He refers to "thy children" (whom He would have gathered as a hen does its chicks, but they would not allow it), Christ is not referring to their literal children. They were the elders, leaders of the city (legitimate Israelites or not, they were thought to be), and the elders of a city have since time immemorial been known as "fathers" and those in their care, as their children or sons.
However, Christ also exposed these Edomite Pharisees:
"13But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. .... 33Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of Hell? [—a rhetorical question meaning, "ye cannot"; elsewhere, Christ would egg them on to "fill ye up the full measure of God's Wrath".] 34Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 35That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 36Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation [race]." (Matthew 23)
In the same chapter of Luke 13 Christ also earlier declared,
"18Then said He, Unto what is the Kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? 19It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it."
"Kingdom of Heaven" and "Kingdom of God" are synonymous terms and refer not to Heaven, but the Colony of Heaven on earth: the Millennial Kingdom; the Kingdom of Rest and Peace.
Most every time that the word "fowl(s)" is used in the NT, it is used in a pejorative context. It most often refers to unclean birds, which often represent alien peoples, as in Matthew 13:4; Luke 12:24 Acts 10:12; 11:6; Revelation 19:17-21 as well as the blatant,
"2...Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils [demons], and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.* 3For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication** with her" (Revelation 18).
[* This is the Kingdom of Heaven reduced to Babylon ("confusion by mixing") in conjunction with "the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force" (Matthew 11:12) and "He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief [klep-teyss: filcher, shoplifter, cat burglar] and a robber [leyss-teyss: brigand, plunderer, bandito]." (John 10:1).
This word translated "bird" (orneon) in Revelation 18:2 is not the same as the word translated as fowl (peteinon) in the rest of the New Testament passages that I list. Orneon appears to be a diminutive that would more precisely be "birdling" rather than bird; even as in Mark 7:27 the word translated "dog" should be "puppy" since it is kunarion (which referred to this Greek woman living in Syrophenicia's mixed daughter), not ku-on (long o) "dog".
If this be the case and bird should be birdling, it gives greater understanding of one segment of the invasion by the Third World using their young as shields in the first wave of the invading force, banking on the simple minds and tender emotions of the peoples of Christendom who pervertedly think that all infants and children are "cute" and deserve protecting—though that is not what God declares. Baby rattlesnakes will only grow up into rattlesnakes. According to God's Command His people obeyed, "And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain" (Deuteronomy 2:34) God commanded, "And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them" (Deuteronomy 7:16). "utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling" (I Samuel 15:3) To violate what God commanded incurs the Judgment which He promised.
Could this invasion of unclean and hateful youth and the illegal practice of anchor babies be what Scripture refers to? "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them." (Isaiah 3:12) Are these women those in positions of government which God forbids, who then have perverted Judgment because of misplaced (or vile) emotions?
** This word fornication refers to whoredom and specifically race-mixing. God rebuked and judged his people for committing whoredom with the alien peoples around them. Prostitutes and those who frequent them are those who are first to cross the racial rubicon, as well as the gender boundary (and every other boundary) that God established. Esau in the Book of Hebrews is called a fornicator and a profane person. His sin was marrying 2 alien women—2 Canaanite women; God having cursed all Canaanites forever and forbade such unions. The Greek word translated "profane person" means, "one who crosses a threshold". Esau crossed out of God's Family by marriage into the family of the people of God's Curse—and sired those who would be true Israel's mortal enemies, the enemies of Christendom to this very day, the Edomites [Jews / Israelis] responsible for turning Christendom into Babylon by the importation of the Third World en masse.]
Matthew 13:38—
"The field is the world; the good seed are the children [sons] of the Kingdom; but the tares are the children [sons] of the wicked one"
Note clearly: the tares are sown in among the sons of the Kingdom. Therefore, it is not the legitimate sons of the Kingdom that are thrust out, but the imposters masquerading as the sons of the Kingdom, who are illegitimate and don't belong, who shall be thrust out.
Christ spoke in parables because the truth was only meant for His people. Often Christ spoke thinly veiled so that the wicked Edomite pharisees knew that He was speaking of them, even if the greater mass of the population did not understand, it cut to their heart and they hated Him for it.
[While the general populace may be ignorant of some matters, those persons who are guilty of various evils are more sensitive to their crimes being exposed and thus they are more astute when someone begins publicly connecting the dots that only the keenly observant or those with "insider information" realize.]
Ezekiel 22:15 also refers to the dross (which parallels the tares sown in among the wheat, also represented by dogs and swine and wolves; as well as possibly the chaff of the wheat also represented by the goats—rebellious, lawless sheep not ordained unto life).
This impurity of dross are the alien [mixed multitude, mingled] peoples whom God cursed and from whom God commanded His people to be utterly separate—come out and be separate that ye share not in her plagues. If you are mingled with the enemy you will suffer the Divine Judgment of the enemy because God commanded His people to come out, be separate, and be holy unto Him.
If a person does not understand race and God's RIGHT do determine to do what HE wants with HIS creation completely unfettered by any irrational humanistic notions of what the "ants in the ant farm" think is "fair" for the Master of the universe to do with HIS ants... there is NO way that he can understand the Bible.
God commands us to put a difference / draw a distinction because He does! He is not whimsical or fickle.
God did not first create man (sinful and fallen or otherwise—or a billion men) and then ask man's counsel and persmission concerning how to create and order and run life on planet earth. God does things after the Counsel of His Own Will and for His Own Good Pleasure—and He is RIGHT and HOLY and JUST and GOOD in whatever He does. He is not Right or Holy or Just or Good because He does things that sinful, fallen, finite, damaged humans think are "right" or "holy" or "just" or "good". Whatever He does is perfectly consonant with His Nature.
The people of His Perpetual Curse will not one day be His children. He created the vessels of wrath for destruction, not to become part of the family. Judas and Esau and Satan will not be reconciled and restored to a place of honor. Satan once had a place of honor; Esau once had a place of honor—but according to God's own declarations, those who [were predestined to] defect to the enemy are not to be restored. Judas cannot be restored to a place he never had; he was a vessel of wrath from the beginning, a "disposable" disciple ordained unto destruction. Christ said to His disciples,
"Have I not chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil?" (John 6:70)
"Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" (Matthew 18:7)
How could a person understand a story line, especially a complicated one like the 5-volume musketeer series*1 (of five million words*2) by Alexandre Dumas, if he thinks that all the characters involved are the same people?
[*1 All are superb. However, Dumas did not actually write the entire novels (nor the others, such as The Count of Monte Cristo, Son of Monte Cristo, Countess of Monte Cristo, The Last Cavalier, etc. (inquire).
- Louise de La Valliere (#3) (Oxford) 768pp.,pb. 16.00 + P&H.
- The Man in the Iron Mask (#5) (Oxford) 656pp., pb. 16.00 + P&H.
- The Three Musketeers (#1) (Oxford) 704pp., pb. 16.00 + P&H.
- Twenty Years After (#2) (Oxford) 880pp., pb. 16.00 + P&H.
- The Vicomte de Bragelonne (#4) (Oxford) 768pp., 16.00 + P&H. (Inquire for Hb.)It should be noted that Dumas did not create the entire concept of the novels that bear his name; he had a team of writers and he took their work (without giving them credit; and even plagiarized earlier works) and then he edited and wove together and refined it all.
*2 The entire Old and New Testaments combined are comprised of only 788,280 words.]