Hello, this is Pastor Steven Anderson from Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona.
Today I want to talk about 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 4 where the Bible reads,
Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies,
which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith.
So do.
And I want to talk about that phrase, endless genealogies.
Why did God use the word endless to describe genealogies?
Well I traced my genealogy about six years ago
and I understood pretty quickly why the word endless is used.
Let me just explain to you mathematically why it is impossible
for you to figure out your complete family tree.
It just wouldn't be humanly possible for any person to accomplish that in any amount of
time.
Let me just explain it to you as simply as I can.
If you know something about exponents, this will be easier for you to understand.
But let me just start out by saying that we all have two parents.
But we have four grandparents and eight great-grandparents.
So every time we go up one generation on our family tree,
we double the number of ancestors that we have in that generation.
Another way of expressing that would be to use exponents of the number two.
In the first generation with our parents, we have two to the first power.
In the second generation, it would be two squared.
Third generation, two cubed.
Two to the fourth power.
Two to the fifth power.
Two to the sixth power.
You could type those into a calculator to get the numbers that you're looking for.
But it keeps doubling.
So if I were to draw a family tree on a piece of paper,
I would need a pretty large piece of paper to go back four generations.
Because in that fourth generation, I would have to have room for sixteen names lined
up across the top there.
If I wanted to go back five generations, I would need a piece of paper that was twice
as big because I would need thirty-two names in that generation in order to have all of
my ancestors.
You'll hear people talk about tracing their genealogy back several hundred years.
A lot of times that's just on one branch though.
In order to trace all branches, you would have to have a wide enough piece of paper
to put all of those names in each generation.
So if we were to go back ten generations, we would have a thousand and twenty-four names
in that generation because it would be two to the tenth power.
Now how long is a generation?
Let's use the number thirty years.
Most people will agree that a generation is about twenty-five to thirty years.
I know that my mother was thirty years old when she had me.
Her mom was about thirty when she had her.
So thirty years is roughly a generation.
So if we went back three hundred years, therefore we'd be around the year seventeen hundred,
then we're looking at ten generations or we would have a thousand and twenty-four ancestors
living at that time.
Well if we were to go back another three hundred years to around the year fourteen hundred,
now we've gone back twenty generations and believe it or not, we would have over a million
ancestors in that level.
Just do the math.
Keep doubling it.
And if you go back twenty generations, about six hundred years, then you would have over
one million ancestors in that generation living then.
If you were to go back thirty generations or nine hundred years, this would put you
around A.D. eleven hundred, then you would have over a billion slots to fill.
You'd need a really big piece of paper to draw that family tree because you'd have over
a billion places to put a name.
Now obviously there were not even a billion people living in the world in A.D. eleven
hundred.
What would that be then, Pastor Anderson?
Because there's going to be repetition of names.
Because as I trace my genealogy, for example, once I got back to around eight, nine, ten
generations back, I noticed the same names starting to come up over and over again.
For example, there was one lady that was actually my tenth great grandmother, meaning ten generations
back for three different reasons.
Because her name was repeated at three different points in the family tree.
Why?
Because of the fact that people marry their relatives.
And I'm not saying they're marrying a close relative like a sister or a cousin or a second
cousin or even a third cousin.
But people marry their sixth cousin, seventh cousin, eighth cousin because those are such
distant relations they have no way of even knowing that they're related to that person.
So as you go back, there is a lot of repetition, of course.
But still, if you were to fill out a complete family tree, that's how many names would be
at that level.
I didn't realize this until I started making a family tree.
But let's say we wanted to go back all the way to the time of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If we were to go back to the first century A.D., let's say we wanted to go back to when
the temple was destroyed.
Because when the temple was destroyed in A.D. seventy, that's when the Jews were scattered
into all nations.
If we wanted to go back that far, we're looking at approximately sixty-four generations.
And if we were to do the math of how many names there would be on our family tree at
that level, sixty-four generations back, how many ancestors we would have in that generation,
the number would be eighteen point four four quintillion.
Eighteen point four four quintillion.
Now of course there were only two hundred million people living in the world at that
time.
There's a lot of repetition by the time you get back to that level, of course.
But nevertheless, if I were filling out a family tree all the way back to the time of
the destruction of the temple, I would have to fill in eighteen point four four quintillion
slots.
And obviously there would be a lot of repetition of names.
Now let's think about this.
At the time that the temple was destroyed, there were two hundred million people approximately
living in the world.
Now let's just say that seven million of those people were Jewish.
And you know, you could dispute that number, you could say it was less than that, more
than that, but honestly that number's not going to be very important in a moment.
But let's just say that you have seven eight million people that are of Jewish descent
out of two hundred million people living in the world at that time.
Well think about this, and that means you've got about a one in twenty-seven chance that
a person living in eighty seventy is of Jewish descent.
One in twenty-seven chance.
So let's say you were to play a lottery where you have a one in twenty-seven chance of winning.
You buy a ticket and there's a one in twenty-seven chance that it comes up Jewish, okay?
And the other twenty-six chances are a loser.
You say well those aren't very good odds, Pastor Anderson, because you've got twenty-six
chances to lose and only one chance to win.
Right, but let's say you're buying eighteen point four four quintillion lottery tickets.
Let's say you buy eighteen point four four quintillion lottery tickets in a lottery where
you have a one in twenty-seven chance of winning.
Do you think you're going to win?
Obviously it would be ridiculous to say that you're not going to win.
So anyone who traces their genealogy back that far and fills in those eighteen point
four four quintillion slots, which would obviously be impossible, but every slot they have a
one in twenty-seven chance that they're going to put the name of a Jewish person.
Now you say well wait a minute, Pastor Anderson, someone who's living really far away from
Palestine their odds are going to be much lower than someone who's living near Palestine.
Okay granted, we say an average of one in twenty-seven, but let's say if you're living
really far away you have a one in ten thousand chance, a one in twenty thousand chance.
It doesn't matter what the chances are because when you're buying eighteen point four four
quintillion tickets you are going to win on one of them.
And you might say well, but you might live in an area where there is no Jewish blood.
But wait a minute, the Bible said that the Jews were scattered into all nations.
So if the Jews are scattered into all nations then that would mean that their blood, their
DNA has made it into all nationalities and that if any human being living in two thousand
fourteen were to theoretically be able to trace back their genealogy on all branches
we would all have a Jewish ancestor, all of us.
We would all be descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Now some people more so than others because if you think about it if you have a Jewish
ancestor twenty generations back that makes you one millionth Jewish.
If you have a Jewish ancestor ten generations back, which you know by the way when I did
my family tree I found a person with a Jewish name, I don't know if they were really Jewish
or not, but I found a person with a Jewish name ten generations back.
So that makes me one thousandth Jewish.
So every single person today descends from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to some degree because
of the fact that the Jews have been scattered into all nations and have intermingled with
all people.
And the reason that that's significant is that people today think that the so-called
Jews or the people living in the nation of Israel today are God's chosen people because
of their descent from Abraham or because of their descent from Isaac and Jacob.
But I have just mathematically demonstrated to you that every single person on this planet
is descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
So if that is what made you God's chosen people then every person on the planet would
be God's chosen people.
The Palestinians today who people say hey that's not their land you know they're not
of the chosen people they're not of Jacob.
I guarantee you that every single Palestinian is descended from Jacob.
Now the only people that will argue with the math that I've just presented and the evidence
that I've just presented are just people who don't understand math and don't understand
science because what I've explained to you is a fact.
That's the way numbers work.
That's the way exponents work and you can feel free to check up on my math and you'll
see that what I'm saying is the truth.
Now I don't think that it matters whether or not we are descended from Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob because the Bible is really clear that what makes us God's chosen people is
the fact that we're in Christ.
The Bible says if you be Christ's then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to
the promises.
According to what I believe descending from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is meaningless.
What really matters is whether or not you're in Jesus Christ.
But people will try to say oh but God has a plan for the physical nation of Israel and
you know for the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
He has all these promises that he has to keep to them.
No the Bible says in Galatians 3 unto Abraham and to his seed were the promises made.
He saith not seeds as of many but to thy seed singular which is Christ.
And the Bible says if you're in Christ you're Abraham's seed.
You are heirs according to the promise.
So we as Christians in the New Testament we inherit the promises of Abraham.
We have replaced the physical nation of Israel.
That is why God has allowed the physical nation of Israel to be scattered into all nations
for almost 2,000 years and to mingle and mix with the heathen to where they've completely
lost their identity of what tribe they are.
None of them can tell you what tribe they are except the ones who claim to be of Levi.
But the other 11 tribes no one can tell you what tribe they are.
And even the ones who claim to be of Levi they have no genealogy to back that up.
It's just tradition that well my parents told me I'm of Levi.
But no one can tell you I'm of Reuben, I'm of Gad, I'm of Isaacar, I'm of Zebulun.
They've been mingled into all nations.
They've mixed with the Gentiles.
They no longer have any kind of a distinct distinction as a nation.
The only thing that brings them together and unites them as a people is their false religion.
Their religion where they worship a false goddess called Shekinah.
Or where they worship the serpent and Leviathan.
Not worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Bible says that if you don't have the son you don't have the father.
So the only thing that makes them Jewish today is their religion.
And it's a false religion.
It's a Jesus Christ rejecting religion.
So why would being a member of a false Jesus Christ rejecting religion make you God's chosen
people?
Or why would being a descendant of people who followed a Christ rejecting religion make
you one of God's chosen people?
It just doesn't make any sense.
The people living over in Israel today don't descend from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob anymore
than the rest of us.
We all do to some extent.
But the people living in Israel today are of a mixed stock of European descent, Middle
Eastern descent.
And you know what?
Why don't we just get back to what the New Testament taught?
Which is that we should just avoid genealogies because it doesn't really matter whether we're
Jewish or Gentile.
We're all one in Christ Jesus.
If we believe in Jesus Christ we're the elect.
We're the chosen people.
If we reject the Lord Jesus Christ we're not his people.
So it's bizarre to claim that the people over in the Middle East today who reject Jesus
and call themselves Jews, it's bizarre to say that they're God's chosen people just
because they descend from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because guess what?
We all do as I just proved mathematically.
And you say, well, but they descend from him more.
But they're not purely of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
They're mixed just like I'm mixed just like you're mixed.
I went to a laboratory and got my DNA tested.
My parents got their DNA tested.
And I'm part black, part Asian, part Indian, Hispanic, white.
We're all mixed.
This idea of pure races and separate nationalities, in the day that we live in 2014 it's become
so mixed over all the centuries and generations that it truly is meaningless.
I'm an American.
That's really the only nationality that I have.
I was born in America.
I'm an American.
But that doesn't make me God's chosen people.
It's my faith in Jesus that makes me one of God's chosen people.
And being born over in a country called Israel doesn't make you one of God's chosen people
either.
Just because you're one of the Polish people that moved there in 1947, 48 who's probably
no more Jewish than I am or than any other white person or black person or whoever in
the world.
That doesn't make you God's chosen people.
You got to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be one of God's chosen people.