Jehovah planted a vineyard on a fruitful hill, and fenced it, gathered out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vines. He edified a tower in it and also built a winepress. He looked for it to yield good grapes, but it yielded wild grapes (Is. 5:1-3). Did Jehovah look for it to yield good grapes and it yielded wild grapes? Jehovah does not know the future. And Jehovah declares by the mouth of Jeremiah: “Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?” (Jer. 2:21). Jehovah went in confusion here, for he declares that the vine was excellent, a wholly right seed. Then he exclaims, confused: “How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?” Jehovah is surprised, dumbfounded, confused. He did not understand how a change so great had happened. Was it an excellent vine and became degenerate and strange? Did it happen against the will of Jehovah?

It is written that Jehovah changed the heart of the Egyptians that they might hate his people Israel. The goal of Jehovah was to perform fabulous prodigies to deliver his people by the hand of Moses. As the two peoples were friends, through the actions of Joseph as governor, it was necessary to change the heart of the Egyptians (Ps. 105:23-27). Did he have enough power to change the heart of the Egyptians and did not have power to preserve his children from corruption? He had power to harden the heart of Pharaoh to not believe in the signs, and he did not have power to soften the heart of his people to believe? Jehovah said to Moses: “When you go back into Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go” (Ex. 4:21). The clear impression we have is that Jehovah has all the power to do evil, but he does not have all the power to do good. This is confusing. Jehovah hoped that his vine produced good grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. Jehovah declares firmly: “Now that I, even I, am he, There is no god with me. I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand” (Deut. 32:39). But his beloved vine escaped, and he declares himself: “Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall of it, and it will be trampled down. I will lay it a wasteland. It won’t be pruned nor hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it. For the vineyard of Jehovah of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress” (Is. 5:5-7). It is very clear. Jehovah did not have power to make his people practice justice and judgment, but he had power to destroy them. As to the Egyptians, they loved Israel, and were good to them, but Jehovah had power to make them hate and enslave his people. CONFUSION! The worse thing is that the same Isaiah speaks from Jehovah saying that there will be deliverance for Israel: “In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: ‘We have a strong city. God appoints salvation for walls and bulwarks’” (Is. 26:1). “In that day, Jehovah with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea. In that day, sing to her, ‘A pleasant vineyard! I, Jehovah, am its keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will keep it night and day’” (Is. 27:1-3). Does Jehovah promise to keep the vine of that day? If he did not keep the first one, who is going to believe that he will keep the second one? If Jehovah does not change, as he himself affirms in Mal. 3:6, he should say: I hope that this second vine yields good grapes. If the first one was faithful, it should be guarded. “Confusion”! On the other hand, the vine of Jehovah is the kingdom of Israel. And the kingdom of Israel, in the year 720 before Christ, was taken captive to Assyria, and disappeared there. The text says: “Jehovah rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight. For he tore Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat […]” (2 Kings 17:20-23). One hundred and thirty years later Jehovah drove the kingdom of Judah to Babylon, saying: “Jehovah said, ‘I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, “My name shall be there.”’” (2 Kings 23:27). In the 24^th chapter we read: “In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him. Jehovah sent against him bands of the Chaldeans, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Jehovah, which he spoke by his servants the prophets. Surely at the commandment of Jehovah came this on Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did” (2 Kings 24:1-3).

Jehovah put an end to both kingdoms. The do not exist anymore. The Romans destroyed the line of David, which Jehovah promised that it would continue forever, when Titus destroyed Jerusalem. And what about the vine? What vine! Twenty-six hundred years have passed, and Israel is not a kingdom in our days any longer. All the history of the kings of Israel until Jesus Christ has taken 1,600 years. And it has been 2,600 years since the kingdom of Judah has ended. Matthew the evangelist says: “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John” (Matt. 11:13). And Luke says: “The law and the prophets were until John. From that time the Good News of the Kingdom of God is preached” (Luke 16:16). The project of Jehovah ended in Jesus. WHAT CONFUSION!

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

We saw in the first study that men united with the purpose of getting to heaven. Jehovah declared that when men get together with one purpose there is no restriction to what they decide to do. And Jehovah confounded them and scattered them over the face of the earth, so that they might not carry out their project (Gen. 11:1-5). Could this be the only time that Jehovah confounded men? Concerning his people Israel, his firstborn son (Ex. 4:22), in the case of disobedience to the commandments, Jehovah says: “Jehovah will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me” (Deut. 28:20). And Jehovah says more: “Jehovah will strike you with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart” (Deut. 28:28). Astonishment is shock, faintness for terror. The fright and the confusion is so great, that the people lose control and find themselves lost. The text says: “And you shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways: and you shall be only oppressed and robbed always, and there shall be none to save you” (Deut. 28:29). What confusion this is, for a chosen and beloved son (Hos. 11:1)! The confusion of Israel began on mount Sinai when they made the golden calf (Ex. 32:1-6). Stephen, the first martyr, reveals that god abandoned Israel so that they served the armies of heaven. And during the 40 years of wandering they served these idols (Acts 7:41-43). The scribe Ezra, around the year 457 B.C., 1,000 years later, in full Diaspora, said: “Since the days of our fathers we have been exceeding guilty to this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests, have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to confusion of face, as it is this day” (Ezra 9:7). Amos the prophet also declares that Jehovah spread confusion among his people, saying: “The best of them is like a brier. The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, even your visitation, has come; now is the time of their confusion” (Micah 7:4). Micah lived from year 790 to year 750 before Christ.

Job, the sincere and upright, fearing god and who avoided evil, according to the words of the very Jehovah, became confused (Job 1:6-8), believing in the Scriptures where it says that Jehovah keeps the souls of his saints (Ps. 97:10). “For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly pestilence” (Ps. 91:3). “No evil shall happen to you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling” (Ps. 91:10). Job had ten sons and was very rich in cattle and sheep. And Job, faithful to Jehovah, sanctified his children. He rose up at dawn and offered sacrifices according to the number of them all, for he would say: “It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts”. So Job continually did (Job 1:5).

What did Job reap for such a good sowing? Jehovah delivered him in the hands of Satan, saying: “Jehovah said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only on himself don’t put forth your hand.’ So Satan went forth from the presence of Jehovah” (Job 1:12). Satan killed Job’s ten sons, destroyed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yokes of oxen, and 500 donkeys, besides many servants (Job 1:3,15-19). What was Job’s reaction? He said: “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. Yahweh gave, and JEHOVAH has taken away. Blessed be the name of JEHOVAH” (Job 1:21).

Satan, foaming with hatred with Job’s faithfulness, returns to Jehovah to try again to make Job blaspheme. Jehovah delivers Job again in the hand of Satan, who wounds him with malignant sores from the sole of his feet to the top of his head, this time (Job 2:7). For the second time Job did not sin with his lips (Job 2:10). But he plunged into confusion: Does not Jehovah, then, keep the house of his saints as it is written in the Scriptures (Ps. 128)?

Job, confused, declares: “When I looked for good, then evil came; When I waited for light, there came darkness. My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on me” (Job 30:26-27). And the confused Job continues to speak, saying: “My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me. Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?” (Job 10:1-3). Job, confused, questioned Jehovah: Why is this terrible evil happening to me? What about your promises? “If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?” (Job 7:20). Job keeps on asking Jehovah, saying: “Withdraw your hand far from me; and don’t let your terror make me afraid. Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you answer me. How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my disobedience and my sin. Why hide you your face, and hold me for your enemy? (Job 13:21-24).

Job was so confused and distraught, that he said to his friend Bildad, who was accusing him: “Know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net. Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice. He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths. He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope he has plucked up like a tree” (Job 19:6-10).

Jehovah declares that a curse without cause will not come (Prov. 26:2). And Job says: “For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause” (Job 9:17). “God delivers me to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked” (Job16:11). “For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me” (Job23:16). “For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me” (Job 6:4).

Whoever reads the Old Testament is terrified by the barbarous acts of Jehovah and his cruelty against all. Nobody escaped, and for this reason Paul declares that the Old Testament is the ministry of death and condemnation (2 Cor. 3:6-9).

Jehovah is the god of confusion! And if he does what he did with the righteous Job, what would he do with the unrighteous and the sinner?

We declare that we believe in the Holy Scriptures from cover to cover. They are the Word of God. We do not believe in Jehovah, the god of wrath, of the plagues, of pestilences, of curses, of death, of vengeances. We believe, instead, in Jesus Christ, who dove deeply in this abyss made by Jehovah to snatch us out of his hands.

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

The Holy Scriptures says that after the flood the whole earth used the same language and the same words. And they left the Orient and found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they lived there. And they said to one another: “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. And they said, ‘Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth” (Gen. 11:1-4).

“Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built” (Gen. 11:5). TO SEE? Did Jehovah become shortsighted? Did he develop astigmatism? He said by the mouth of Jeremiah: “Am I a God at hand, says Jehovah, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? says Jehovah. Don’t I fill heaven and earth? says Jehovah” (Jer. 23:23-24). And the Scriptures say more: “Jehovah looked down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any who did understand, who did seek after God. They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is none who does good, no, not one” (Ps. 14:2-3). The truth is that, this time, Jehovah had to come down to see it closely. And what did he see? “Jehovah said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do’” (Gen. 11:6).

“Come, let’s go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So Jehovah scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the earth. They stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there Jehovah confused the language of all the earth. From there, Jehovah scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth” (Gen. 11:7-9). Jehovah is the god of confusion for the following reasons:

1.  It is not of Jehovah’s interest that men understand each other. He wants them ones against the others. For this reason Jeremiah says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm” (Jer. 17:5). In the New Testament, though, John preached fellowship, in other words, that two opponents should love each other and have peace: “He who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no occasion for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:10-11). In the times of Jehovah Esau and Jacob were enemies from the womb of their mother (Gen. 25:22-23). In the times of Jesus it has to be different, for he said: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust’” (Matt. 5:43-45).

2.  It is not interesting to Jehovah that men are one, that is to say, that men have the same purpose, for when men are united, their strength multiplies, for union makes strength, according to the popular wisdom. Men got together with the purpose of reaching the sky (Gen. 11:4). Jehovah did not allow this purpose to become strong. The weapon used was confusion, for this is the meaning of the word BABEL, the name of the tower they were edifying. Babel became a synonym of mess, pandemonium, and total confusion. In the place were Babel was, in the land of Shinar, there rose the city of Babylon of the Chaldeans, enemies of the people of Israel.

We read in the book of Job that Jehovah was not pleased with Job being a righteous man, and did not have any profit in the perfection of his ways (Job 22:3). If Jehovah had any pleasure in the perfection of his people’s ways, he would not deliver them to the desires of their hearts (Ps. 81:11-12). He would not sell his people, increasing his wealth with their price, that is to say, the people was sold into captivity, and there they became worse than they were, for he added to his own wickedness the wickedness of the people he enslaved. If Jehovah had pleasure in that his people were righteous, he would not pollute them himself, in their gifts (Ezek. 20:26). If Jehovah had pleasure in that his people were righteous, he would not have given them statutes that were not good, judgments by which they would not live (Ezek. 20:25). If Jehovah took pleasure in the righteousness he would not himself lead them astray, and harden their hearts that they might not fear him (Is. 63:17). If Jehovah took pleasure in the holiness and righteousness of his people, he would not set his holy spirit as an enemy, fighting against Israel. The text says: “But they rebelled, and grieved his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, [and] himself fought against them” (Is. 63:10).

Now, every man is a sinner and destitute of the glory of god (Rom. 3:23). Therefore, man is more animal in nature than he is spiritual and, therefore, weak and without resources to resist evil. The very Paul testifies to this in Rom. 7:18-24.

Jesus, in his death, brought another Holy Spirit from heaven, that is to say, not the spirit that fights against the weak, as the one of Jehovah, but the Spirit that is the Paraclete (Greek word, not translated, which means INTERCESSOR, COUNSELOR, ADVOCATE). Because the Father has pleasure in that we become holy and righteous, he sent his Son Jesus in order to create in us a new being. Paul says: “That you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man, that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit; and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth” (Eph. 4:22-24).

In the Old Testament, Jehovah promoted confusion.

We believe in the Bible as the word of God. We believe in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. We believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. But we do not believe in Jehovah, the usurper, as God the Father.

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

The prophet Jeremiah heard a complaint, that is to say, a remark in secret about him, which caused him to be terrified. There were false accusations against him for prophesying evil (Jer. 21:8-10). Those who were not open enemies hoped that Jeremiah made a mistake so they could attack him (Jer. 20:10). But Jeremiah did not falter, to the end. In the last study we told the story of Gideon, the hero of the Old Testament who gave great victories to Israel, and was the judge for 40 years (Judges 8:28). He committed a sin and Jehovah destroyed his house, killing 79 children, without taking into account his services (Judges 8:27). It is the very Jehovah who declares that any evil that may happen to a city, comes from him (Amos 3:6). In this study we will speak of Jephthah.

Who was Jephthah? He was a valiant man, despite being the son of a prostitute. The father of Jephthah was Gilead, who had many children of his legitimate wife. When his sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out, saying: You will not have inheritance in the house of our father, for you are the son of another woman. Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. And some worthless men gathered about Jephthah and went out with him (Judges 11:1-3).

After some time, it happened that the sons of Ammon fought against Israel. Then the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. The brothers of Jephthah, who had presumptuously driven him out from their father’s house, were worthless men. The only man of valor was Jephthah, who had been rejected for being born of a prostitute. This proves that prostitution was a normal practice in Israel in those days, since, about 300 years later, in the times of Eli, the high priest, great numbers of women would play the harlot at the door of the tent of the congregation with the two children of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas (1 Sam. 2:22-25,34).

The men of Gilead spoke to Jephthah, saying: “‘Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.’ Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, ‘Didn’t you hate me, and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?’ The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, ‘Therefore we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon; and you shall be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.’ Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, ‘If you bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and Yahweh deliver them before me, shall I be your head?’ The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, ‘Yahweh shall be witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do’” (Judges 11:4-10). And Jephthah went with them. The paths of this life were incredible! Jephthah’s bothers rejected him for being the son of a prostitute, but did not reject their father, who being corrupt irresponsibly begot a son from a prostitute. Now, the whims of destiny rose Jephthah to be head over his brothers, and over all who lived in Gilead.

Jephthah, then, sent messengers to the children of Ammon to be informed of the reasons for that war. When he found that the allegation of the sons of Ammon was unjust, he prepared for war. The Spirit of Jehovah came on Jephthah so that he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, to Mizpah of Gilead (Judges 11:29).

And Jephthah made a vow to Jehovah, saying: “If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, then it shall be, that whatever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be Jehovah’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering” (Judges 11:30-31). In this manner Jephthah fought the sons of Ammon, and Jehovah gave them in his hands and hurt them with a great slaughter. Twenty cities were plundered (Judges 11:32-33).

“Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances: and she was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. It happened, when he saw her, that he tore his clothes, and said, ‘Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are one of those who trouble me; for I have opened my mouth to Jehovah, and I can’t go back’” (Judges 11:34-35). Poor Jephthah! He vowed, sure that his pet dog would come running to him as it usually did, but there came his only daughter. He loved her so much. He would give his own life for her! But he had opened his mouth in a vow, and as he was a valiant man, he would not turn back on his word. For Abraham, Jehovah-jireh provided a way out, but Abraham had not vowed, and the vow is an oral contract with God. The Scriptures say: “When you vow a vow to God, don’t defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you vow. It is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay” (Eccl. 5:4-5). The problems of the sons of Ammon were not Jephthah’s problems, but of the people of Gilead. They were the ones who should make vows. Jehovah accepted the pledge, and collected a high price. Jehovah does not collect little from the ones who owe to him, and asked what was most dear to Jephthah: his precious and beloved daughter. Jehovah gave the victory to Jephthah: the problem of the men of Gilead was solved. They all went away to celebrate, dance, and enjoy life, but Jephthah went away to bitterly cry the death of his daughter, to the day of his own death. His daughter was so faithful to Jehovah, so submissive to her father, that, to protect her father, said: “My father, you have opened your mouth to Jehovah; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth, because Jehovah has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, even on the children of Ammon” (Judges 11:36).

All that Jehovah does, he does not do it in love; for he charges a high price for everything he does. When David sinned, Jehovah said to him: “I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things. Why have you despised the word of Jehovah […]” (2 Sam. 12:7-12). The one who asserts what he has done in the past is, by it, collecting the pay for what he has done. Business. Except that Jehovah gives one, and collects four. As with everything he does, Jehovah does it with the purpose of charging for it in the future. When Jephthah vowed a vow, he became a debtor, and paid what he could not stand to pay. Whoever does not take into consideration another person’s suffering does not have love. Jephthah vowed with a need in view, for the Ephraimites refused to help him, and he found himself in a tight fix (Judges 12:1-3).

The charity of God, who is love, demands that he finds a way for Jephthah to keep his daughter. Did not Jehovah make a way out for Abraham? Jephthah was righteous and faithful. He delivered the people of Gilead. He took upon himself the responsibility to save the people. Why was not Jehovah Jehovah-jireh (Jehovah will provide) to Jephthah? The reason for that was that he wanted to intimidate the people. And the fear of Jehovah is greater than the love that he has for his servants. When Jephthah made the vow, he did not know that he had been caught in the trap of Jehovah. He halted. Poor Jephthah.

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

What is halting? It is the one who limps, the lame. The halting is the limping. To limp is to halt, a person who cannot walk straight, for he has a deficiency in one of his feet. Jeremiah, the prophet, said these words when he suffered under the hands of Pashhur, who was the president of the priests, in the temple of Jehovah: “For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Perhaps he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him” Webster’s Bible (Jer. 20:10).

The pressure on Jeremiah was very strong. Hurt by the cruel Pashhur and put in the stocks, being in a spiritual crisis concerning Jehovah (Jer. 20:7-9), hunted by the false prophets, he spoke these words: “All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Perhaps he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him” Webster’s Bible (Jer. 20:10). All the righteous, faithful and persevering men are watched by those who pretend to be their friends, hoping that they will halt, in other words, make a mistake; then they fall upon him and take vengeance, stealing their honor and good name.

The teacher of this tactic was the very Jehovah, who presents himself, saying: “But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of his righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered: in his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them shall he die” (Ezek. 18:24).

Let us talk about Gideon. The children of Israel did what was evil in the eyes of Jehovah, and Jehovah delivered them into the hands of the Midianites for seven years. The Midianites and the Amalekites destroyed their crops, stole their sheep, oxen, and donkeys. They came as grasshoppers, in great number, destroying everything. Israel became poor and called to Jehovah in anguish.

The angel of Jehovah appeared to Gideon, son of Joash, who was beating out wheat in the wine press, and said to Gideon: “Jehovah is with you, O valiant warrior” (Judges 6:12). Jehovah told him: “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian” (Judges 6:16). Gideon offered a gift to Jehovah. The angel waited, and Gideon brought a kid and unleavened bread, and the angel said to him: “‘Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.’ He did so. Then the angel of Jehovah stretched out the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire went up out of the rock, and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of Jehovah departed out of his sight” (Judges 6:18-21). With this test he got to know Gideon, who was in the service of Jehovah to deliver Israel (Judges 6:22). Jehovah asks for an altar with sacrifices and holocausts (Judges 6:25-26). The spirit of Jehovah came on Gideon (Judges 6:34). The people, seeing this, entered into an alliance with Gideon. They were 22,000 (Judges 7:3). By the order of Jehovah Gideon selected 300 men (Judges 7:4-6). With these men Gideon overcame Zebah and Zalmunna with his 15,000 men (Judges 8:10-12). The people of Israel, delighted with Gideon, said to him: “Rule over us, both you and your son” (Judges 8:22).

Gideon very nicely refused the position, but he asked for a gift, saying: “‘I would make a request of you, that you would give me every man the earrings of his spoil.’ (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) […] The weight of the golden earrings that he requested was one thousand and seven hundred [shekels] of gold, besides the crescents, and the pendants, and the purple clothing that was on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were about their camels’ necks. Gideon made an ephod of it, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel played the prostitute after it there; and it became a snare to Gideon, and to his house” (Judges 8:22-27). Gideon had 70 children because he had many women (Judges 8:30). And one of his concubines gave him a son by the name of Abimelech. This Abimelech, eager to conquer Israel, killed 70 children of Gideon, minus one who escaped, named Jotham. The loss of a good son is such an unbearable pain, let alone the loss of 69. Poor Gideon. He served Jehovah for 40 years (Judges 8:28). And the pay he received from Jehovah for halting was his house destroyed by Jehovah, the keeper of men (Job 7:20). The word of the prophet Ezekiel was fulfilled: “But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of his righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered: in his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them shall he die” (Ezek. 18:24).

The problem that puts in the balance the cruel and ungrateful behavior of Jehovah is that we read in the New Testament: “For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labor of love which you showed toward his name, in that you served the saints, and still do serve them” (Heb. 6:10). And Jesus declared: “Whoever gives one of these little ones just a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, most certainly I tell you he will in no way lose his reward” (Matt. 10:42).

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

Jehovah had a dream: to create a kingdom of god here on earth. It is true that all humanity is submerged in a regimen of corruption after the fall of Adam and Eve. Paul, the apostle, summarizes the condition of this world in one verse: “For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). But Jehovah thought: “I am God Almighty” (Gen. 17:1). “Besides me there is no God” (Is. 44:6). “Whatever Jehovah pleased, that he has done, in heaven and in earth” (Ps. 135:6). “I will work, and who can hinder it?” (Is. 43:13). Jehovah thought, pondered, and proceeded to the execution.

Through Joseph, he brought the offspring of Jacob to Egypt, to the most developed nation of those times, and there, for 200 years, he multiplied his people and formed them. Moses, the man chosen to deliver the people, was instructed in all the science of the Egyptians (Acts 7:22). Around the time of the deliverance of the people of Israel, there were about 2 million under terrible slavery. In order to display his power, Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh and stroke Egypt with the plagues for ten times. In the last one, the death of the firstborn, Pharaoh’s heart softened, since all Egypt was weeping. The people left, jubilant, with songs of victory and their bags filled with gold (Ex. 12:33-36).

The sea opens up by a prodigious miracle, and the people of Israel go through on dry foot. The armies of Pharaoh came after them to avenge the death of the firstborn. Jehovah came into battle, causing the wheels of the chariots of the Egyptians to swerve; after that the furious sea closed in on them and destroyed the army of the enemy (Ex. 19:18). Jehovah commanded the law, the Ten Commandments, from the middle of darkness (Deut. 4:11-13; 5:23). The covenant of the law was made in the darkness.

In this way the kingdom of Jehovah was meticulously formed for the time span of 400 years. The kingdom was a priestly kingdom: “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests” (Ex. 19:6). Then Jehovah elected the tribe of Levi to minister over the people. The Levites were the mediators to offer sacrifices and holocausts. This was the theocratic government.

The people, formed by the idolatry during 200 years, and morally corrupted by its practices, seeing that Moses was delaying on the Mount, forced Aaron to build them a calf of gold, because the Apis bull was for the Egyptians the supreme expression of the deity. They offered a worship service to the calf (Ex. 32:4-6). The people undressed and gave start to a bacchanal. Jehovah told Moses to go down the mountain. When he approached the people, seeing that carnal and satanic sight, he cast the two tables from his hands and broke them. There the covenant of the law was destroyed before it began. JEHOVAH, IN TERRIBLE FURY, WANTS TO DESTROY THE PEOPLE. (Ex. 32:10). Moses, the Mediator, intercedes, and Jehovah repents (Ex. 32:11-14).

Jehovah declares to Moses that he had not gone up with the people, lest he would destroy them on the way (Ex. 33:3). He then sends an angel in his place (Ex. 33:2). The separation of Jehovah and Israel was fulfilled. Jehovah has two kinds of angels: the bad ones and the good ones. The bad one is the destroyer that killed 70,000 Hebrews (1 Chr. 21:14-15). The one who follows Israel in the desert was not good, for Jehovah declared: “Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice. Don’t provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him” (Ex. 23:20-21). An unforgiving angel is a bad angel, for Jesus said: “But if you don’t forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:15). If God rejects a man when he does not forgive, imagine when an angel that was sent to help does not forgive (Ps. 34:7).

There is another greater reason that proves that the angel was wicked. Jehovah said to Moses: “I will send an angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite” (Ex. 33:2). And he said more: “Observe that which I command you this day. Behold, I drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite” (Ex. 34:11,24; Deut. 7:1).

After Joshua brought the people of Israel into the Promised Land, after 40 years of peregrination had passed, and after all kinds of privation in the hands of the angel, for Jehovah departed from Israel. Jehovah had said: “After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, you will bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you will know my alienation” (Num. 14:34).

The people were under the orders of the angel. The text says: “The angel of Jehovah came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, ‘I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to your fathers;’ and I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you” (Gen. 17:7).  “‘And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not listened to my voice: why have you done this? Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be [as thorns] in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you’” (Judges 2:1-3).

The angel changed the promise of Jehovah made with an oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jehovah swore, and the angel broke the oath; therefore he is evil and perverse. Let us look at what happened, for Jehovah agreed with the angel: “The children of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods. The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and forgot Jehovah their God, and served the Baals and the Asheroth” (Judges 3:5-7).

Anarchy was established. It is obvious that it was a plan set up against the people of God, that is to say, Israel, with the purpose of destroying it under the covering of punishment. Jehovah should punish the angel, and not the people of Israel. If the angel had fulfilled the promise of Jehovah and cast away the perverted people of the earth, the people of god would not have been corrupted.

On the other hand, the kingdom of god that had been so expected and so meticulously engendered fell to the ground. And Jehovah thought: My project has been ruined.

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

Jacob arrived to Egypt when he was 130 years old and had 66 children (Gen. 47:9; 46:26). The offspring of Jacob multiplied in Egypt in total freedom for 70 years, until the death of Joseph. When Joseph arrived he was 39 years old, for he came to Pharaoh when he was 30, and seven years of abundance and two years of famine had passed when he sent for his father Jacob (Gen. 41:46; 45:6-9). Now Joseph died when he reached 110 years of age (Gen. 50:22). Subtracting 39, his age when his father arrived, from 110, we have 71 years, in which the people multiplied in complete freedom. After the death of Joseph there rose another Pharaoh who did not know Joseph, who began to oppress the people of Israel (Ex. 1:8-11). How long did this last? Levi, Joseph’s youngest brother, begot Kohath (Ex. 6:16). Kohath begot Amram (Ex. 6:18). And Amram begot Moses. The children of Jacob were all married when they got to Egypt, and Jacob had already 53 grandchildren (Gen. 46:26). So, Kohath begot Amram in Egypt, and Amram begot Moses in Egypt. I believe that these two generations came into being in 50 years, which put together with the 80 years of Moses’ age when he was called, ads up 130 years (Acts 7:23,29,30). They were 200 years of life in Egypt, learning to worship the thirteen gods of Egypt, and getting corrupted in Egypt.

It is obvious that the people of Israel, after 200 years of corruption, were not going to become holy just by hearing Jehovah proclaim the law on Mount Sinai, in the middle of the sound of trumpets, lightening and thunder (Heb. 12:18-21). No one upon hearing five sentences is able to repeat them by heart, let alone ten sentences, which was the number of the commandments.

Jehovah delivered the people by the hand of Moses through the operation of ten plagues before the eyes of the Egyptians. Leaving Egypt they crossed the Red Sea on dry feet, and saw the armies of Pharaoh destroyed by the fury of the sea. They were taken to the Mount Sinai where Jehovah verbally proclaimed the Ten Commandments with the voice of many waters. The sight was so terrifying, that Moses himself trembled and feared (Heb. 12:21). After this Moses came up the mountain and stayed there for 40 days. The people, thinking that Moses had abandoned them, demanded that Aaron made for them a golden calf, with the rings and bracelets of gold that were brought from the plunder of Egypt (Ex. 12:35-36). The calf was like the Apis bull, the highest expression of deity, and much worshipped in Egypt, which had not less than thirteen deities. Then the people, in the following day, offered sacrifices to the Apis bull. And the people sat down to eat and drink, and afterwards they rose up to play (Ex. 32:6).

Moses came down from the mountain, and seeing all that babel, for the people were naked (Ex. 32:25), he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them; then he burnt the calf with fire and ground it to powder (Ex. 32:19-20). HE WAS BRAKING THE COVENANT OF THE LAW WHICH JEHOVAH HAD PLANNED TO DO WITH HIS PEOPLE ISRAEL, HIS FIRSTBORN SON (Ex. 4:22). The punishment of the rebellion was the death of 3,000 men by the sword of the children of Levi, in order that the blessing of Jehovah would come again (Ex. 32:25-29).

Stephen, the first martyr of Christianity, describes the apostolic vision of this entire episode: “This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me.’ This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living oracles to give to us, to whom our fathers wouldn’t be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’ They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands. But God turned, and gave them up to serve the army of the sky, as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You took up the tabernacle of Moloch, the star of your god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship. I will carry you away beyond Babylon’” (Acts 7:37-43).

Let us look closely at it: Jehovah considered the sin of Israel unforgivable. So he abandoned them and delivered them to serve the armies of Heaven. What is the “armies of heaven”? Jehovah forbid the people to worship idols saying: “And lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Jehovah your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky” (Deut. 4:19). Jehovah delivered Israel to worship the army of heaven before delivering them from the idols of Egypt. He also abandoned them for 40 years in the desert. The star of the god Rephan is Saturn, the planet that looks like a star to us.

Jehovah not only abandoned the people, spiritually, but also left them. He said to Moses, after the episode of the calf: “I will send an angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: to a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you in the way” (Ex. 33:2-3). The angel of Jehovah was evil and left the Canaanites in the land (Judges 2:1-3). And the angel said that he would leave the Canaanites there so that their gods would be traps for Israel. The believers do not know that the angel was evil because they cannot read Hebrew and the theologians do not instruct them. Num. 22:22 says that the angel of Jehovah is Satan, but the Bible translations render it, “adversary,” and repeat it in Num. 22:32.

The truth is that after 40 years Jehovah did not return to Israel. About the times of the judges, which lasted about 400 years, it is written: “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6).

ANARCHY was established!

Ezra, the scribe, in the year 457 before Jesus Christ, said to us: “Since the days of our fathers we have been exceeding guilty to this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests, have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to confusion of face, as it is this day” (Ezra 9:7).

Finally, Jehovah declares: “After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, you will bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you will know my alienation” (Num. 14:34). Jehovah delivered them from Egypt with the promise that he would take them to a paradisiacal land, but abandoned them in the desert in the hands of an evil angel.

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

What does ANARCHISM means? It means without a leader, without government, body without a head. “Anarchism is the absence of legal authority. Wherever there is anarchy the law of the stronger reigns. From anarchy comes tyranny and oppression” (Dictionary of Philosophy of José Ferrater Mora).

“ANARCHISM is the doctrine according to which the individual is the sole reality, and therefore has to be absolutely free; every coercion on him is illegitimate, from where derives the illegitimacy of the state. Righteousness cannot be imposed on the individual, for it is the faculty of the individual being, who, without coming outside his interior self, feels the dignity of his fellow men as his own, and therefore adjusts himself to the collective reality” (Dictionary of Philosophy of Nicola Abbagnano).

Man is a social being that needs to be guided. Man cannot guide himself, for his animal nature inclines to degeneration. The Bible, which is the word of God, says: “For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). And it is also written: “There is no one righteous; no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). And Solomon declares: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Eccl. 8:11).

Jehovah Elohim planted a garden in the Eden, on the Orient, and placed the man he had formed there (Gen. 2:8). And he placed him there to till and keep it (Gen. 2:15). The Garden belonged to Jehovah Elohim and had boundaries (Gen. 1:10-14). And Jehovah Elohim planted two more trees, besides all kinds of trees: the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in the middle of the Garden (Gen. 2:9). And he gave a command to Adam, saying: “Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die’” (Gen. 2:16-17).

Adam and Eve were completely innocent, like children, for they did not know either good or evil. Despite this, Jehovah Elohim placed the serpent (which is also Satan) inside the Garden (Gen. 3:1). Astutely, Satan seduced Eve, who being deceived took from the fruit and ate, and also gave it to her husband, and he also ate. Then their eyes were opened (Gen. 3:6-7). The punishment for the disobedience was the banishment from the Garden of Jehovah Elohim; and obviously, they were also cast away from the presence of Jehovah god: “It happened, when men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them, that God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives of all that they chose” (Gen. 6:1-2). With the door to the tree of life shut, and the absence of god to guide them, the offspring of Adam and Eve mingled with the other peoples outside the Garden, and the anarchism was established. This anarchism, without moral and ethical principles, generated a corrupted and perverse generation. In that time the angels used to communicate directly with men: “The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters. They bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:4-5). The word giants of verse 4 is NEPHILIM, in Hebrew, which translates, REBELS, GIANTS, ANGELS, WHICH LEFT THE WORLD WHERE THEY LIVED AND CAME TO THE EARTH, whose drawings still exist in Africa, in the cave of the giants (Gen. 6:4). We read in the epistle of Jude: “Angels who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6). The singular form of nephilim is NEFEL, and means, MISCARRIAGE, EPILECTIC, BELLICOSE, PERSON WHO LEAVES HIS PLACE AND GOES TO ANOTHER, FUGITIVE. Another variant is NAFAL, and means, TO FALL, TO FAIL. And yet another means, DEMON, A KIND OF LIZARD.

In Gen 6:4 there were three races buried in corruption and immorality: The fallen angels (Nephilim), the sons of god, and the daughters of men. That was the dark anarchism, of the lowest expression. There was no alternative to Jehovah except the destruction of those who had become inferior to the beasts (Gen. 6:7) (the meaning of the Hebrew words was taken from the dictionary of Sábado Dinotos).

The problems surrounding the tragic event that happened to all humanity 6,000 years ago were the following:

Jehovah is the keeper of men. Job calls out, saying: “If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself? Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity?” (Job 7:19-21). We read in the Psalms: “Jehovah is your keeper. Jehovah is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. Jehovah will keep you from all evil. He will keep your soul” (Ps. 121:5-7). Jehovah did not keep Adam and Eve, as innocent as children as they were, not know good and evil. Jehovah did not keep Abel, the righteous (1 John 3:12). Why did Jehovah bring Satan to the Garden? Why did Jehovah cast away Adam and Eve from the Garden, condemning all humanity with them? Adam and Eve needed help, not condemnation. And why did Jehovah allow that anarchism and corruption to prevail for 1650 years, to announce afterwards that he was going to destroy everything in the flood?

Jehovah is El Shaddai, the almighty. The psalmist declares: “Whatever Jehovah pleased, that he has done, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps” (Ps. 135:6). Various interpreters affirm, based in Ezek. 28:13-14, that the serpent was placed in the Garden to protect it and it corrupted Eve; but this interpretation is false, for it is written that Jehovah is the keeper of men, as we have seen above. Satan has been wicked from the beginning (1 John 3:8; John 8:44). The cherub that fell down was covered with the precious stones that also covered the high priest of Jehovah (Ezek. 28:13; Ex. 28:17-21).

Jehovah declares that all and every evil that may happen comes from him, so it does not come from Satan (Amos 3:6; Lam. 3:37). Therefore, Jehovah put the serpent inside the Garden because he wanted to cause Adam’s fall. Jehovah did not keep Adam because he did not want to. Jehovah cast Adam out of the Garden and left the perverse anarchism to proliferate because he wanted to destroy humanity: EVERYTHING WAS TRUMPED UP.

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

1.  OPPRESSION: According to the New Testament Satan (or the devil) is the one who oppresses. The apostle Paul said: “How God anointed him [Jesus of Nazareth] with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (Acts 10:38). However Moses says: “Jehovah will strike you with the boil of Egypt, and with the tumors, and with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can not be healed. Jehovah will strike you with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart; and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways: and you shall be only oppressed and robbed always, and there shall be none to save you” (Deut. 28:27-29).  All my life I believed that Satan was the oppressor of men, but Moses reveals that the God Jehovah oppresses, too. The prophet Amos declares on the part of Jehovah: “‘For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, house of Israel,’ says Yahweh, the God of Armies; ‘and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah’” (Amos 6:14). Job prays to Jehovah, saying: “I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me. Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?’” (Job 10:2-3). When it is the devil (or the demon) that oppresses, whom the oppressed will call for help? What a relief that Jehovah is not Jesus, nor the Father.

2.  DARKNESS: I always thought that darkness was associated with the demons and with Satan, for Paul says: “Giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love” (Col. 1:12-13). And Paul tells us that Jesus delivered his people and sent them to preach the gospel to the gentiles, saying: “To open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:18). However, reading the Old Testament, I was horrified. Jehovah gave the law from the middle of the darkness (Deut. 4:11-12). And Moses repeats these words: “These words Jehovah spoke to all your assembly on the mountain out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. He wrote them on two tables of stone, and gave them to me. It happened, when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness”… (Deut. 5:22-23). And when Jehovah had finished to deliver the law Moses approached the darkness where Jehovah was (Ex. 20:21). The poor Job calls out in anguish, saying: “Know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net. Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice. He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths” (Job 19:6-8). Jehovah does evil and afterwards hides in the darkness (Ps. 18:11). The people of Israel, a people that Jehovah chose for his glory (Is. 43:7), dwelt in darkness (Is. 59:9-10). Satan is only an administrator of the darkness of Jehovah.

3.  Paul says: “Neither let us test the Lord, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents. Neither grumble, as some of them also grumbled, and perished by the destroyer” (1 Cor. 10:9-10). Those who tried perished by the serpents, and those who grumbled perished by the destroyer. We are then compelled to understand that the destroyer is the devil, for Jesus says: “The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly” (John 10:10). What a surprise to read in the Old Testament of the curses of Jehovah (Deut. 28:15), where it says: “Jehovah will strike you with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with fiery heat, and with the sword, and with blight, and with mildew” (Deut. 28:22). “Therefore you shall serve your enemies whom Jehovah shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron on your neck, until he has destroyed you” (Deut. 28:48). “He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they shall cling to you. Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, Jehovah will bring them on you, until you are destroyed” (Deut. 28:60-61). “It shall happen that as Jehovah rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so Jehovah will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you; and you shall be plucked from off the land where you go in to possess it” (Deut. 28:63).

And I thought that the destroyer was the devil. Jehovah was the one who destroyed the entire humanity in the flood (Gen. 6:7). Jehovah was the one who hardened Pharaoh so that he did not change his mind concerning the ten plagues (Ex. 4:20-21; 7:3; 10:1, 20,27; 11:10; 14,4,8,17). Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh so many times, to kill the firstborn in the end, that it seemed as if Pharaoh were guilty. That was the theatrical performance of the criminal hatred. Jehovah set the stage for the destruction of the firstborn of Egypt (Ex. 12:23). 

We have an amazing situation in the Scriptures. Ahaziah, son of Ahab, began to rule in Israel and fell through the lattice of his upper room. He immediately sent messengers to ask of Baal Zebub, god of Ekron, whether he would be healed. Jehovah was offended by it and sent the prophet Elijah to say to him that he would not get healed, but he was surely going to die for having inquired of another god. Ahaziah sent a captain of fifty soldiers to bring the prophet, saying: Man of God, the king says to you: Come down. And Elijah answered, “‘If I am a man of God, let fire come down from the sky, and consume you and your fifty!’ Fire came down from the sky, and consumed him and his fifty”. The king sent another company and another captain who said as the first one had said. Elijah reacted in the exact same way. Then fire came down from heaven and consumed the captain and his fifty men (2 Kings 1:1-12). Nine hundred years later Jesus was going up to Jerusalem and sent his disciples to a village of Samaritans in order to prepare a place for him to rest. However, the Samaritans did not receive him for his poor and insignificant appearance. Offended, James and John said: “‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky, and destroy them, just as Elijah did? But he turned and rebuked them, ‘You don’t know of what kind of spirit you are. For the Son of Man didn’t come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them’” (Luke 9:51-56). 

This text proves that the spirit of Jehovah is not the spirit of Christ, and proves also that Jehovah is the destroyer of the souls of men. And it was Jesus who declared this truth.

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, truly was a Christian full of the Holy Ghost, for he was the man who revealed the greatest mysteries of the gospel (Eph. 6:19). How can this be? Gospel means GOOD NEWS, and are these wrapped in mystery? For example, Jesus spoke in parables about the mysteries of the kingdom of God: “The disciples came, and said to him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’ He answered them, ‘To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them’” (Matt. 13:10-11). The good news of the kingdom of God is hidden in mysteries to all the peoples, including to the Jews. Mark, the evangelist, declared that Jesus spoke only in parables, but revealed their spiritual meaning to the disciples, who were also blind (Mark 4:33-34). When Jesus told the parable of the tares and the wheat, the apostles asked him (Matt. 13:36): “Explain to us the parable of the darnel weeds of the field”. This proves that they were as blind as the scribes and the Pharisees, and also the priests. How did they become blind, and so blind as to crucify the Messiah? The Old Testament made them blind. The apostle Paul was the one to reveal this mystery. He said: “But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:7-8). Let us analyze this text:

The wisdom of God is hidden in mystery; therefore, the natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God because it seems foolishness to them (1 Cor. 2:14).

The wisdom of God was ordained by him before the centuries; therefore it was not known in the Old Testament, that is to say, in the times of the law and the prophets. We gather that the wisdom that Jehovah gave to Solomon was not the wisdom of God, for, if it were of God, Solomon would have revealed the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but he did not. The book of Proverbs speaks of man and his behavior. The book of Ecclesiastes talks about the foolishness and ravings of man. The book of Songs of Solomon speaks of the carnal love and sensuality. The wisdom of Solomon comes from the past centuries, which ended in Christ, and the wisdom of God was ordained before the times of the centuries (Rom. 10:25; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2).

The mystery of the incarnation of the Word was not manifested in other centuries to the sons of men, according to the word of Paul to the Ephesians: “if it is so that you have heard of the administration of that grace of God which was given me toward you; how that by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before in few words, by which, when you read, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ; which in other generations was not made known to the children of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit” (Eph. 3:2-5). And Paul repeats it in verse nine, saying: “And to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3:10). In the epistle to the Colossians, the great apostle goes after it again, saying: “THE MYSTERY WHICH HAS BEEN HIDDEN FOR AGES AND GENERATIONS. BUT NOW IT HAS BEEN REVEALED TO HIS SAINTS, TO WHOM GOD WAS PLEASED TO MAKE KNOWN WHAT ARE THE RICHES OF THE GLORY OF THIS MYSTERY AMONG THE GENTILES, WHICH IS CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY” (Col. 1:26-27).

THE GREAT MISTERY IS THAT JEHOVAH WAS NOT THE GOD OF THE GENTILES. Who are the gentiles? This is the name by which all the nations were called, with the exception of the Jewish nation. Gentiles are all the nations whose religion is not monotheistic, but polytheistic; that is to say, who worship various gods. As the Jews served and worshipped one only God, the Gentiles were idolaters and, therefore, an abomination in the Jews’ eyes. The word Gentile comes from the Hebrew word EREB, which means: A MIXTURE OF PEOPLE, for Israel did not mingle with other peoples. Jehovah commanded the slaughter of all the peoples of Canaan (Josh. 11:19-20). But they did not destroy the peoples as Jehovah had commanded. On the contrary, they mingled with the nations, and they learned their works, and served their idols, which came to be a snare to them (Ps. 106:34-36). Jehovah hated the gentiles, and so they said: “Jehovah is King forever and ever! The nations will perish out of his land” (Ps. 10:16; 2 Kings 16:3; 21:2).

The wisdom of God, which prior to Christ had never been manifested to the children of men, considered the Gentiles as being co-heirs and belonging to the same body, as we read in Eph. 3:4-6. However, the wisdom of Jehovah excluded the Gentiles, that is to say, excluded the other peoples from the body of the people of Israel, so much so as the destiny of the other peoples was to be slaves of Israel. The psalmist declared prophetically: “For Jehovah Most High is awesome. He is a great King over all the earth. He subdues nations under us, and peoples under our feet” (Ps. 47:2-3).

The New Testament, where the wisdom of the true God was manifested, says: “Or is God the God of Jews only? Isn’t he the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also” (Rom. 3:29). Peter said in an argument in which the Jewish Christians wished to force the gentiles to be circumcised and keep the law of Jehovah: “Brothers, you know that a good while ago God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the nations should hear the word of the Good News, and believe. God, who knows the heart, testified about them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just like he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith” (Acts 15: 7-9).

The wisdoms are, therefore, two: The wisdom of Jehovah, manifested to Israel in the centuries that have passed, and the wisdom of God the Father, which has never been manifested to the children of men in any of the past centuries (1 Cor. 2:7).

In the wisdom of Jehovah there was salvation for Israel only, and in the wisdom of the Father, revealed by Paul, God wants all men to be saved (1 Tim. 2:3-4). This is the wisdom of love. Glory be to God!

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira