Unequal Yokes and Bidding Godspeed

In light of the recent condemnation of the dialogue between James White and Yasir Qahdi, it will be pertinent to take this opportunity to talk about certain biblical texts that are used not only regarding this whole issue and what they mean. The issue of White and Qahdi's dialogue will not be addressed in this paper however but maybe addressed if the Lord Wills.

Don't be unequally yoked
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 explains the following:
"14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial[b]? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will live with them
    and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.”[c]

17 Therefore,

“Come out from them
    and be separate,
says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
    and I will receive you.”[d]

18 And,

“I will be a Father to you,
    and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”"

The common understanding and it is the main one, is condemning the idea of Christians marrying unbelievers and there are copius number of times in the Old Testament demonstrating the consequences of the Israelites marrying pagan women, be it Solomon's Wives (1 Kings 11:1-8), Ahab's marriage to Jezebel and his listening to her (1 Kings 21). There was even mass divorce in Israel in the days of Ezra because of the Israelite men taking many pagan women to be theirs (Ezra chapters 10) even though that was one of the sins that brought disaster upon them to begin with and of course Malachi also mentions how the Israelites offerings were detestable because of marrying foreigners:

"Malachi 2:10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11 Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant[e] of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts!

13 And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 14 But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union?[f] And what was the one God[g] seeking?[h] Godly offspring. So guard yourselves[i] in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. 16 “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her,[j] says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers[k] his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”".

The offering is not just rejected, but God even threatens an Israelite with death if he presents an offering while he has knowingly married a pagan.

To be very clear on a certain point, Paul is not talking about an unbeliever you married before your conversion (When both spouses were pagans), Paul does have regulations laid out for Christians who are married to someone who hasn't been converted, again both married before one of the spouses comes to Christ, See 1 Corinthians 7:12-16:

"12 To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13 And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

15 But if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so. The brother or the sister is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. 16 How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?"

While remaining married to the unbeliever after conversion can make you a godly influence on their life, sometimes, there may not be a change of heart from the believer and it may be best to let them quietly leave. What Paul is however against is a Christian marrying an unbeliever and commiting themselves to that unbeliever, which is not on even in the New Testament.

Others have applied 2 Corinthians 6:14 to businesses, namely workplaces, but does it apply to those situations, yes and no.

Let's begin with no first and foremost, Because believe it or not, your co workers are going to be unbelievers who do not share your convictions. You are in the world, but not of the world. When you purchase a book, or movie or video game, you are purchasing from an unbeliever and more often than not if you sell these things, you are selling to unbelievers.

You are to be a witness to those people. If they don't convert, don't worry, just carry on working alongside them in the workplace, provided the task in question is morally right in God's sight and is within the confines of the law of the land (Which we'll get to soon).

Work in such a way that they see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven, but even if they do not give him such glory, they may see you as a valuable asset to the team. You cannot escape from unbelievers, if you cannot work alongside one in the workplace, you are going to have a difficult time earning some money or living at peace with unbelievers, not in the sense of Christian fellowship, but in the sense of treating people with the respect they deserve, perhaps even being a friend to them.

Now having said this, we get to the yes application.

As said before, the work you engage in is to be moral (doing right in God's sight) and legal (doing right in the sight of the government), Sex trades, Drug trades, prostitution, sales of paganism and witchcraft and other practices of the like are out of the question. The entertainment industry is at a grey area but caution should be excercised, especially with the glorification of wickedness being celebrated.

A business deal sometimes if you run a business deal may not be the best course of action especially if said business deal goes against your conscience or the scriptures, but a business deal that is good and right can be considered.

With work and business, it depends what the goal is and whether the goal is just, not to mention it is impossible to remove yourself from the presence of unbelievers completely. As for marriage to an unbeliever, this is out of the question if you were not married when you came to Christ.

It depends on context. One the one hand you have the alliance of Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah, but on the other hand you have Solomon asking the King of Tyre, Hiram, a Phoenecian, for cedar and trading no less. Why was God condemning Jehoshaphat, yet had no problem with Solomon getting cedars from Lebanon? Context is key. Solomon wasn't alling himself with Hiram in terms of kinship yet this is what Jehoshaphat did and he lost the trade boats because of it. Hiram was a pagan but Ahaziah was an Israelite, so the principle regarding false teachers could be retroactively applied to in the case of Ahaziah.*

In fairness however, Hiram's history with Ancient Israel goes back to when David reigned, namely the building of his palace (See 2 Samuel 5:11).

Let's take a look at two passages:
"2 Chronicles 20:35 After this Jehoshaphat king of Judah joined with Ahaziah king of Israel, who acted wickedly. 36 He joined him in building ships to go to Tarshish, and they built the ships in Ezion-geber. 37 Then Eliezer the son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, “Because you have joined with Ahaziah, the Lord will destroy what you have made.” And the ships were wrecked and were not able to go to Tarshish."

"1 Kings 22:47 There was no king in Edom; a deputy was king. 48 Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they did not go, for the ships were wrecked at Ezion-geber. 49 Then Ahaziah the son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my servants go with your servants in the ships,” but Jehoshaphat was not willing. 50 And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father, and Jehoram his son reigned in his place."

Jehoshaphat paid dearly for his alliance with Ahaziah, which resulted in the destruction of his ships and he refrained from teaming up with the king of Israel again. Of course this wasn't his first alliance, as he and Ahab worked together in the past, See 1 Kings 22: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Kings+22&version=ESV

As for Solomon, see 1 Kings 5: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Kings+5

Bidding God Speed
This is a text which was abused and mishandled not only in the recent James White Hunt but has been used in the past, namely, bidding God Speed to an individual. Let us look at 2 John:

"7 I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what we[a] have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work."

The context is not referring to unbelievers. It doesn't make that much sense to say it is. It's an obvious given unbelievers deny Jesus, so why would John need to make an emphasis as to who such a person is. Easy, he is referring to false teachers who claim the name of Christ, but their theology is not in line with the teaching of Christ or his apostles. Unbelievers do not run ahead and do not continue in the teaching of Jesus, because they don't believe in Jesus to begin with, whereas someone who claims the name of Christ go further than they should and fall into damnable error. Inviting an unbeliever around your house or being invited to his house is one thing, actually inviting a heretic to your house is another.

One interesting explaination comes from that of John Brown of Haddington:
"If therefore any preacher appears among you who does not declare and inculcate these very doctrines concerning Jesus Christ, and the redemption of sinners through his blood, according to the riches of God's grace, which we delivered unto you, see that ye give him not the smallest encouragement, by entertaining him in your houses, or wishing him any success in his ministrations; for whoever wishes him success, or familiarly converses with him, is accounted by God as a criminal encourager and assistant of him in spreading his errors, to the dishonour of Christ and the eternal ruining of men."

As for whether God loves the sinner and hates the sin, If the Lord Wills, I may address that.

Answering Judaism.

*25th of July 2017. This point is a stretch about retroactively applying the false teachers context to Ahaziah. There maybe another explanation. It needs thinking about and I want to ensure no deception on my part.

3 random points to address

I wanted to look at some points made on Paltalk roughly a half hour before this article was written. proorizo_1 (Point 1 and 3), WhatDoMuslimsKnow (Point 2). I confess I need to hear more of what proorizo said (Working on your comic doesn't help listening to a point on Paltalk, there is a time and a place for working on a comic but I have to be sensible when and having Paltalk open to hear someone's point while working on the comic is counter productive.)

Do Christians deny obedience?
Short answer biblically speaking is no. If one is truly in Christ, he will be obedient. Putting aside the debate of OSAS or Once Saved Always Saved, repentance and obedience are part and parcel of the Christian gospel and message. Jesus said "If you love me, you'll keep my commandments" (John 14:15).

Hebrews are not Israelites and are two different tribes
There was an odd point about Israelites and Hebrews not being the same. There is no basis for this. The word Hebrew refers to either the language or a person, namely a person who identifies as an Israelite. They are not a referrence to two different tribes. Also, The term Jew refers to the tribe of Judah and yes, you have later down the line a Galilee, Samaria and Judea, but that doesn't change an Israelite being a Hebrew in the Old Testament.

Was the word Christian changed over time
Was the name changed to merely professing belief in Jesus rather than obedience? Not really. The word Christian has never changed, it means follower of Christ. Someone who claims to be a follower of Jesus and lives contrary to his instructions deliberately, then he is not a Christian.

Answering Judaism

P.S. Anything I have said that's incorrect regarding the representation of your points, feel free to let me know.