Scatterers and Gatherers
by William Finck
October 30, 2016
Scripture Reading: Matthew 12:30-33
This visit to the Fellowship of God's Covenant People was decided on relatively short notice, and when I considered what I should present, I thought to speak on this subject of scattering and gathering upon being informed of certain events which took place recently here in this congregation. When I discussed my planned talk with Pastor Downey, he informed me that he himself had already said some of the same things which you may hear from me today. Mark even quoted from an essay on this topic which I had written a few years ago, and which I will incorporate into this discussion.
So when Mark asked me if I wanted to read what he had written, I politely declined, explaining that if I said the same things independently, that would better serve as a second witness to what he has already said here over the past few weeks. In my opinion, if we really do seek to please Christ and edify the body of Christ, we cannot entertain those who despise our core message. We cannot entertain those who in any way work contrary to our core message. None of the things which I say here today are for your admonishment. Rather, I would commend you for supporting Pastor Downey in his decision. Therefore I hope to say these things for your edification, that you have another assurance, knowing that you have made a necessary decision. I pray you continue to make such decisions in the future, because we should always expect that our faith may be tried in the fire.
Now, Mark and I, and Don also, all have our differences, and frequently we have different perceptions of certain subjects related to Scripture or to history. But we all agree on the important points of our faith, and we all desire to love Yahweh our God and His law, and that is what matters. It is on that basis that we can work together in spite of our other differences.
I decided a long time ago, that since not everyone has walked my walk, studying the things which I have studied, and since I in turn do not have the perspective that others may have on certain topics, that there are just a few important things which are required as a basis for fellowship, and once we can fellowship, we can learn from one another. Those things are three: 1) That Jesus, or Yahshua Christ, is God incarnate, and He alone is our King and Savior, 2) that the children of Israel among our White race are the exclusive recipients to His covenants, 3) and that the Jews and all non-Whites are permanently excluded from His covenants, we are commanded to be separate from them, and they must therefore be excluded from our communion.
If we have common agreement on those three points, then we can have fellowship, and we can work together towards the edification of the Body of Christ. With this understanding, all other issues are peripheral: we should never let them drive a wedge between us. Of course there are other things which these three points imply, since loving Christ we must also love His law and keep His commandments. So in that manner, these three points have been my basis for fellowship ever since, and if any other disagreement arises, we should be able to discuss it and still love one another, even if we ultimately cannot agree on any other particular topic.
If all men strive to agree with Christ, if all men agree with the Gospel of Christ and the laws of Yahweh our God, then we do not have to always agree with one another. As the apostle John defined love, love is keeping the commandments of God. We can all get along naturally, so long as we strive to agree with God. Striving to agree with God, we accept the correction of the Scriptures, and whatever we may not like about one another is marginalized and can be set aside for the greater good. The egos of men, burdens as Paul had called them in Galatians, can cause divisions. But true humility is a willingness to love one another and submit to the laws of God.
However in the organization of a congregation of the people of Christ, we have offices which the apostles themselves had recognized as being necessary to the function of a community of Christians. Among these are found pastors. Personally, I do not use the title, because I prefer that the substance of my words be considered without any pretense of authority. I do not despise those who do use the title simply for using it, but we should examine the words of all men in light of the Scriptures regardless of titles. However the function is another matter. Pastor is not merely a title, but a function.
Pastors are shepherds, which is the original Latin meaning of the word, and one of the primary functions of shepherds is to keep the wolves away from the sheep. If our desire is to follow Christ, then we do not want to give acceptance to the hirelings. The gate is straight, and those who would sneak in by a different way are wolves. So a pastor must be able to identify the wolves, and be prepared to confront them. Driving the wolves away, only then may the sheep be fed in peace.
When I was in prison, I spent 12 years studying Scripture and the various subjects related to Christian Identity, and some of my papers were already being published by Clifton Emahiser and posted on the internet. Then later on, coming out of prison, I was besieged by many supposed Identity Christians who use the term pastor as a title, all of whom had agendas that I found to be contrary to Scripture. I was flabbergasted, that many Identity Christians were so quick to compromise on the most important issue in the Bible, the issue of kind after kind: the race issue.
These are the trials and pitfalls of the internet, a place even more dangerous than a public assembly, because everyone and anyone can pretend to be anything. But I cannot simply abandon the potential of the internet for that reason. Through our internet presence at Christogenea we reach over 30,000 people each month, and perhaps ten or twelve thousand of them come back each month. So the internet is a two-edged sword, and it took awhile to sort out the characters who had set themselves up as internet pastors. They are not all good. Just like in every other era of history and in every other possible venue, the enemies of Christ have also infiltrated the assemblies of God on the internet.
These individuals have their own circle of approval which provides them with a pretense of legitimacy. They sought to influence me, even making themselves into sycophants in the hope that I would accept their heresies. For this reason the Scriptures warn us about flatterers, that the flatterer only seeks to corrupt a man. When I did not accept their agendas, they immediately began attacking me. I had also found that many of those people were already attacking Mark and others for years. They do this to steer people away from us, to soil our message with their contentions and their slanders, and ultimately to prevent people outside of Identity circles from finding the truth of our Identity in Christ. However most of these people rarely, even never, produce academic work of their own. Rather, they spend their time making subjective claims and ad hominem attacks on our persons. There are few exceptions among them.
Real Christians may have to defend themselves against the wolves, but they do not attack other Christians. If you dislike me or disagree with something I have said, fine, go off and do your own work. You should not be concerned with me. After the disagreement that they had over Mark's commitment to the Gospel, Paul of Tarsus did not spend 17 years attacking Barnabas. Rather, disagreeing with Barnabas he went his own way and sought to edify the body of Christ through teaching the Gospel and Laws of God. But Barnabas was not a scatterer, and their disagreement was over a peripheral issue, and not over a core issue. Later on, Paul even spoke well of Barnabas when he wrote his epistle to the Corinthians.
Several weeks ago, there was a man here who had been in attendance in the past, but his visit this time was different. He was promptly informed by pastor Downey that he was unwelcome, and asked to leave. The sheep don't always know why the shepherd functions as he does, or even that they are in danger from the ever-circling wolves. Last year, this individual had spent some time in the Christogenea forum trying to convince us of the legitimacy of certain wolves, and when he was rejected he left us and he joined himself to the circle of our enemies on the internet, speaking badly of us. He does not care about the Fellowship of God's Covenant People. He only cares about his own pride. He neglected to discuss the issues with us, and resorted to personal attacks. Then when he was ejected from that forum, he joined with those who had already spent considerable time attacking us. Where must we draw the line? If we strive to be good shepherds, we must draw the line as Christ did, between scatterers and gatherers, and the scatterers must be rejected.
Basically, in relation to the Gospel of Christ, there are two kinds of people: scatterers and gatherers. We do not want to be scatterers, and yet we must realize that not everyone will find agreement with every little thing that we believe. So we must decide whether or not a fellow Christian is worthy of our fellowship by first determining whether or not they agree and walk in line with the primary fundamentals of the Gospel of Christ. Here, in relation to these scatterers and gatherers, we shall endeavor to explain those fundamentals as Christ Himself had explained them.
As Pastor Elmore had presented the Scripture reading for today, Yahshua Christ had said in Matthew chapter 12 that “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” This statement has two dimensions. Firstly, if we attempt to gather something which Christ is not gathering, then we are actually scattering, and not gathering at all. So men should not attempt to gather figs from thorns or grapes from thistles.
Secondly, the statement “he that gathereth not with me” also implies that if one is inactive, one must be in the category of scatterer rather than gatherer, since even in one's inactivity, one is not gathering with Christ. For that reason also, Christ said in the Revelation that He would spew the lukewarm out of His mouth. However for our purposes here today, we will set aside this aspect and discuss those who gather thorns and thistles, rather than grapes and figs.
Before we address the implications of scattering and gathering, we will say a few things about the teachings of Christ. When Yahshua spoke, he did not flippantly change the topic from one subject to another randomly. What is the weather like today? Did you see that movie last night? What team is making it to the super bowl? How about that Nascar race? This is not the way He spoke.
Rather, when Yahshua spoke, each of the accounts and parables which He provided represent concepts which are connected to one another and weave themselves into a consistent matrix of inter-related thoughts forming a Worldview which is in harmony with the Creator and His law. So it is that very often we cannot take a single parable out of its provided context and imagine that we may interpret it independently of everything else which Christ had spoken. Rather, we must interpret it in a manner which is consistent with His other teachings. In that manner, concepts which He linked together should remain linked in our minds, and that is the basis for our understanding of scatterers and gatherers.
Scatterers and Gatherers
Yahshua Christ links three concepts in Matthew chapter 12, which are scattering and gathering, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, and good and bad trees. There should be no doubt that He is linking these concepts, as the language fully demonstrates. Here we shall read from the King James Version: “30 He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. 31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. 32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. 33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.”
The language is important. Many readers attempt to extricate verses 31 and 32 from their context, and define blasphemy of the Holy Spirit for themselves. But here Christ says “he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad”, and then He says “wherefore”, from the phrase διὰ τοῦτο, which means on which account or for which reason. Saying “wherefore” He warns against blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, and therefore blasphemy of the Holy Spirit must be something which is committed by those who scatter, in opposition to Christ who has come to gather.
In another place Yahshua Christ again mentions the act of gathering along with good and corrupt trees, where He links these concepts with two other concepts, which are the strait gate and the false prophets who are not truly sheep but who are really wolves. From Matthew 7: “13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. 15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”
Because Christ Himself has linked these things together for us, it is not improper for us to list and evaluate all of these basic concepts in order to determine just what these allegories which He uses represent. First we shall list the concepts once more, but all together this time: 1) scattering and gathering; 2) blasphemy of the Holy Spirit; 3) the strait gate; 4) false prophets; and 5) good and corrupt trees. While many men have attempted to understand each of these things by themselves, they can truly only be understood in relation to one another, because Yahshua Christ related these things to one another. So here we shall discuss these concepts, one at a time:
The first concept: Scattering and gathering.
Yahshua Christ is recorded as having said in John chapter 10 “7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.... 9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture”. The same Yahshua Christ also said, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 15, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And the same Yahshua Christ who said in John chapter 10 “14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine” is that God Incarnate who said to the children of Israel in Amos 3:2: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
The children of Israel were punished in the destruction of their ancient kingdom, being cast out from the sight of Yahweh their God and taken into captivity by the Assyrians and Babylonians. Yet Israel, the children of Israel, the seed of Israel, are promised a later regathering and a return to Yahweh their God in Christ. All of the promises of this later gathering of Israel are exclusive to Israel. For that reason the apostle Paul later writes in Romans chapter 8: “29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” For this same reason Paul is recorded as having said in Acts chapter 26 that “I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: 7 Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake ... I am accused of the Jews.” These people of the twelve tribes, called, predestined and justified, can only be those same people of Amos 3:2, which Paul's epistles demonstrate in many other places.
So wherever there are prophecies of gathering in the Old Testament, we see that the gathering includes only those same twelve tribes. There are no prophecies of gathering for anybody else, and Christ came “but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel”. Here are a few examples of such promises:
Psalm 106: “47 Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen [or nations], to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise. 48 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the LORD.”
Psalm 107: “1 O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. 2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; 3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.”
Isaiah 11: “12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”
Isaiah 43: “5 Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west.”
Jeremiah 29: “14 And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.”
Jeremiah 31: “10 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.”
Jeremiah 32: “37 Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely.”
Ezekiel 20: “34 And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.”
Luke 13: “27 But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. 28 There 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. 29 And 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.”
Yahweh is “... GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel ...” and there are no promises to gather anyone but Israel to the end-of-days gathering of Israel. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Of course they do not. Therefore since all of the promises of His regathering are exclusive to the children of Israel, it is only those same children of Israel whom the presumed gatherers are obliged to seek out. Attempting to gather anything but sheep to the sheepfold, one is not gathering with Christ, and one makes himself a scatterer rather than a gatherer. By attempting to add wolves, swine or dogs to the sheepfold, one surely causes the sheep to scatter!
Today's universalist denominational churches are no better than the ancient sinners of the leaders of Israel. So we read in Jeremiah chapter 23:
“1 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. 2 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD. 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; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4 And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD. 5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. 6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
The second concept: Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is one facet, one expression or manifestation, of the being which is Yahweh our God, who demands of the children of Israel in Leviticus chapter 19 to be holy as He also is: “1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.” The Hebrew word for holy, which is qadosh (Strong's Hebrew # 6918), means sacred, set apart. It's Greek equivalent is hagios, which more fully means set apart for the purposes of a god (Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon, Strong's Greek # 40) or devoted to a god (Liddell & Scott). The only people in all of history who were dedicated to the purposes of Yahweh at His command were those people in the loins of Isaac, and in that is the promise to Abraham, that “in Isaac shall thy seed be called” (Genesis 21:12). Of these were the children of Jacob to whom the promises fell, the “vessels of mercy” of Romans chapter 9, and the children of Esau, the “vessels of destruction” of Paul's analogy which is found in that chapter. That Esau forfeited his birthright because he was a race-mixer and took wives of the daughters of Canaan is evident in the opening verses of Genesis chapter 27 (see also Hebrews 12:16), where Jacob is told that if he took a wife from the women of his own kinfolk that the promises to Abraham would fall upon him, and so he did.
For the children of Israel, this holiness which they obtained through Isaac is reinforced in Exodus chapter 19, where it is a part of the terms of the Old Covenant: “5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.”
A holy nation in Biblical terms is a nation set apart for the purposes of Yahweh God, separated from all other nations. Therefore Peter, knowing that his intended audience was the children of those same Israelites dispersed in antiquity, and knowing that this plan of God's for the children of Israel had not changed with the New Covenant (i.e. Jeremiah 31:31-37, Matthew 15:24), makes a direct appeal to the words of God at both Exodus 19:5-6 and Hosea 1:10, a prophecy which also concerns the children of Israel exclusively. This is found in his first epistle, in 1 Peter chapter 2: “9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: 10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”
Therefore blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which in Matthew chapter 12 Yahshua Christ connects to both scattering and gathering and the making of a tree good or corrupt, must refer to speaking against the command that Israel be a holy and separate people.
The third concept: The strait gate.
Yahshua Christ is the door of the sheep. He only came for the sheep. No one gets to the Father except through Him. So only the sheep, only the children of Israel, have access to God. Of course, Christ was not speaking to anyone but Israel when He spoke these parables, so no one else was ever a candidate: for Israel alone has the promises of redemption and salvation mentioned throughout the Bible. The City of God described in the Revelation has on its gates the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. The gate is strait indeed.
The fourth concept: False prophets.
There are two different types of false prophets described by Paul: wolves among the sheep seeking to devour the flock, and sheep seeking to make their own way. This is found in Acts chapter 20, where Luke recorded Paul's warning to the leaders of the assemblies gathered at Miletus: “28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. 29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” Here we have seen that Christ warned about wolves in sheep's clothing, seeking to devour the sheep. It is the averred purpose of Yahshua Christ to gather Israel. Wolves seek to enter the sheepfold in order to rob the sheep.
Yahshua Christ linked the false prophets who are inwardly ravening wolves to those who would gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles, in Matthew chapter 7. Let's read it once again: “13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow isthe way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. 15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”
Therefore the false prophets would be those universalists who would insist upon gathering something other than sheep to the sheepfold. These are those who would cause the scattering and destruction of the sheep. Christ never told His followers to feed anything but sheep. They are not wolves, dogs, goats, pigs or swine who are fed and then somehow become sheep. That concept is found nowhere in Scripture! Rather, they must be sheep in the first place, and then they may be fed.
Following His resurrection, Yahshua told Peter three times that if he loved Him, he must feed His sheep, as it is recorded in John 21:15, 16 and 17. The story of the Israelites as the sheep of Yahweh God goes back into the Old Testament, and therefore no one else but the children of Israel could be His sheep. These references are found in the very same writings which also spoke of the gathering of Israel. Here are a few examples:
Psalm 74: “1 O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? 2 Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt. 3 Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. 4 Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs.”
Jeremiah 50: “17 Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones. 18 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria. 19 And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and Gilead.”
Ezekiel 34: “1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? 3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. 4 The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. 5 And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. 6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.”
In many other passages in both the Psalms and the prophets, the children of Israel are identified as the sheep, the lost sheep, the scattered sheep, the flock of Yahweh. Thus they are in the New Testament also, for Yahshua Christ identified them in that very manner.
Psalm 80 was written by Asaph, who was a prophet of the Babylonian captivity. It is a prayer which makes an appeal to Yahweh God, the true shepherd of Israel, to gather His sheep from their captivity. Here it is, from the King James Version: 1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. 2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save us. 3 Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. 4 O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? 5 Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure. 6 Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies laugh among themselves. 7 Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. 8 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. 9 Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. 10 The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. 11 She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. 12 Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? 13 The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. [If sheep is an allegory for people, then the boar and the wild beast are allegories for people.] 14 Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; 15 And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself. 16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. 17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. 18 So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. 19 Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
This is the challenge we face from many of those Christian Identity pretenders which we mentioned earlier. They despise us, because they insist that the boars and the wild beasts are people, even men, that can enter the Kingdom of Heaven along with the sheep. They desire to create a third category of hominids which the Scripture does not define. In Scripture, there are sheep and goats, wheat and tares, good fish and bad fish. Out of all the fish in the net, the sheep-fish go into the Kingdom of Heaven, and all of the others are goat-fish destined for the Lake of Fire. There is no third, neutral category of fish. We cannot make excuses for those who are not sheep. This is why there are pretenders in Christian Identity who hate us: they have agendas and hate us for holding the line on who is to be gathered into the Kingdom. We must continue to refuse them: we must not have communion with scatterers.
Finally, the fifth concept: Good and corrupt trees.
Psalm 80, another Psalm written by Asaph in the captivity, tells us that Israel is a vine planted by Yahweh. It links the sheep of Yahweh's pasture with the branches of the vine, which reinforces the fact that this last item in our list truly represents a concept related to sheep, as opposed to goats, or grapes and figs as opposed to thorns and thistles. As the Psalm tells us, the vine is the race of people that Yahweh brought out of Egypt. Christ later said to His apostles in John chapter 15: “5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” The Adamic race is nothing without their God, and without keeping His commandments. And the words of Christ in that passage of John 15 are very much like that first promise of salvation to the Adamic race which is found in Genesis chapter 3: “22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.”
In the Garden of Eden there were two trees, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The first tree is the tree planted by Yahweh, represented by the wheat of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, where the second tree is represented by the tares who were sown by the devil. It is not a light thing, that it is the non-Adamic races who are described as a flood from the mouth of the serpent in Revelation chapter 12. Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden for their sinful interaction with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil represented by the serpent, which Revelation chapter 12 connects to the devil and the fallen angels. The man, collectively, would be saved by grasping onto his own race, the Tree of Life, which has God as its Originator, as Adam was the son of God (Luke 3:38). Therefore Paul had asserted in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”
When the children of Israel were found mingling with the Canaanite races and adopting their idolatrous practices, Yahweh exclaimed in Isaiah chapter 17: “10 Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips:” Likewise in Jeremiah chapter 2 He spoke of their race-mixing adultery and said: “21 Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?” Israel taken into captivity is portrayed as a ruined vine, and also as a ruined fig tree, in several places in Ezekiel, in Joel and in Nahum. There is a promise of cleansing in their captivity, where the Word of God says in Amos chapter 9: “For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.”
In Matthew chapter 12, immediately after explaining that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit would not be forgiven, Yahshua Christ said “33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.” Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is speaking against Yahweh's command of separation for the children of Israel. Yahshua related that to the making of the tree either good or corrupt. The only way that man can make the tree, the vine of Israel, anything is to breed and multiply, whereby he may sprout up as a noble vine, or a strange slip. Therefore when the ancient Israelites engaged in idolatry they began race-mixing, and they set Yahweh's vine with “strange slips”, or turned it into the “degenerate plant of a strange vine”. So it says of the sins of Israel, in Hosea chapter 5, that: “They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children”.
These “strange slips” and the leaves of this “degenerate plant of a strange vine” are bastards. Yahweh pronounces in the Scripture at Deuteronomy chapter 23 that “2 A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD.” The phrase “tenth generation” is an allegory which means forever, since after nine generations a bastard is still a bastard, for there is no correcting such hybridization. Paul speaks of the chastisement of the children of Israel in Hebrews chapter 12, and he says “But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” Salvation is destined for sons, and not for bastards, as Paul had explained in chapter 2 of that same epistle, “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”. A bastard is not “of one”, or one would not be a bastard. Bastards, by definition of the word, can only be of two or more. Therefore Yahshua Christ said in Matthew chapter 15, “Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” Every bastard is a race of a different kind, something which Yahweh God did not create.
In the end, there is only one tree in the Garden of God, and its twelve fruits represent the twelve tribes of Israel. From Revelation chapter 22: “1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: 4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. 5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.”
Therefore, those who are truly gatherers are gathering with Christ, and they are gathering sheep. They are gathering only the sheep, the same children of Israel, and would not dare make excuses for goats, wolves, boars or wild beasts. Those who do not gather with Christ are scatterers, because they attempt to gather into the sheepfold something other than sheep. A scatterer is, in essence, a blasphemer of the Holy Spirit, a man attempting to gather grapes from thorns, being on the wide path to destruction by bringing wolves in among the sheep which results in the making of corrupt trees, and setting the Garden of God with strange slips.
Evil communications corrupt good manners. Gatherers must not keep company with scatterers. You cannot gather the scatterers without being an accomplice to their scattering, and those people must be kept out of the assembly.
