John by Water

An aging vessel of wine that's traveled through the waters and into the wilderness outside the camp

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@verum_astra @EndWokeness Yes! The teachers in the video were bemoaning the lack of 3 R competency (reading, (w)riting, (a)rithmetic). It's a much deeper problem than "wokeness". It's a weird hybrid of neglect and enablement - adults' guilty response to neglect.

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

The "He" in Hosea 8:1 is Egypt who betrayed Israel (see Hos 7:11) to Assyria (modern-day Egypt,Syria,Iraq & parts of Iran) the dominant force ~ 700 BC.

History echoes into the present. The ascendant BRICs countries (including Egypt next year) include the neo-Assyrian empire.

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@Dan_Taylor11 @jmscwms Arabia is not beyond (east of) the Euphrates rather to the southwest of the Euphrates.

The Holy Spirit prevented Paul from preaching the word in "Asia" which is the Asian province of the Roman Empire which is west of the Euphrates in the 1st century.

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@jmscwms @Dan_Taylor11 Yes, but Dan lives in the world where gentiles = Israelites and Paul cannot make a distinction unlike Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.

According to IO, words mean their antonyms.

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@jmscwms @Dan_Taylor11 ^THIS.

The sad answer, Jim, is that according to IO nothing matters now because it's all over. But for some reason, they just can't let it go. I wonder who/what is empowering them to move people away from the hope of the gospel (Col 1:21-23)?

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@Dan_Taylor11 @jmscwms You are ignoring the elephant in the room now. Hordes of the 10 tribes which you say would be Paul's audience exist in modern day Iraq/Syria/Eastern Turkey. Why doesn't he send letters or travel there??

Saying "maybe he did" or "you can't prove he didn't" isn't going to work.

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@Dan_Taylor11 @jmscwms If their prime audience lied beyond the Euphrates, why wouldn't they address epistles there?? And why does Paul talk often about journeying west to Spain and Rome and not east to the 10 tribes?

Paul is THE apostle with the ministry to the Gentiles. We know of no other.

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@Dan_Taylor11 @jmscwms Nice try.

To repeat: IO's entire thesis is that the gospel is for the 10 tribes that Josephus said was beyond the Euphrates. Funny how Paul or Peter didn't send letters there!

Whatever happened to Ephraim is NOT the issue now.

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@Dan_Taylor11 @jmscwms "Are you really saying that was the only place they were living since captivity" - Dan

No, you quoted Josephus saying that "there are BUT TWO TRIBES in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans".

Those are the two areas Paul concentrated on and he addressed gentiles, not tribes.

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@Dan_Taylor11 @jmscwms You just checkmated yourself, Dan, by quoting a 1st century Jewish historian.

No epistle in the New Testament addresses those beyond (east of) the Euphrates River.

Paul addressed gentiles in Asia minor & Europe.

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@Dan_Taylor11 @jmscwms Wait, wait, wait. So does Paul address his epistles to the tribes beyond the Euphrates (in Assyria)? Or to Asia minor and Europe?

Josephus says here that only 2 tribes remain in Asia/Europe.

Your argument that the 10 tribes = the nations addressed by Paul just COLLAPSED!

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@Dan_Taylor11 @jmscwms See what you're trying to do is to make Ephraim = nations. The problem is, that's not how scripture addresses them. God calls them by name.

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@Dan_Taylor11 @jmscwms Why am I talking about blessings?!? You quoted Jacob in Gen 48:19 BLESSING Ephraim to become the "fullness of goyim".

I'm saying whatever that means, it does NOT mean being cursed by God or becoming the unholy nations.

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@Dan_Taylor11 @jmscwms Look again Hos 9:16-17. They did not become a fullness of anything. They were reduced in number (per God's promise in Deut 28:62). And they did not BECOME the goyim, they became wanderers AMONG them. Ephraim is still a separate entity that can be addressed by God in Hosea 14:8.

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@Cal25812522

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@Dan_Taylor11 @jmscwms 3/

A repentant REMNANT will return to him (see Hos 14). But they are NOT the nations. God calls them by name as Israel/Ephraim.

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@Dan_Taylor11 @jmscwms 2/

God confirmed his judgment against them in Hosea 9:16-17 (attached).

[John by Water @wideopenvista]

@Dan_Taylor11 @jmscwms Are you now arguing that Jacob blessed Ephraim so he could be destroyed by God for infidelity & bred into obscurity among the nations? Is that a blessing? No, it's among the curses God described in Deut 28 for not keeping the covenant.