Hope of Israel Ministries (Ecclesia of YEHOVAH):

by HOIM Staff

A number of people have been reading a book written by Fred Coulter -- a book he calls The Christian Passover, although in truth there is nothing "Christian" about it. The title itself is a sad and tragic deception and falsehood!

Yet my challenging the book, in this article, will not make the slightest difference in the minds of those who seek to use Coulter's book for their own nefarious and underhanded purposes, to attempt to deceive the very elect of YEHOVAH God! Whether or not people fall for the deception may itself prove whether or not they are really the elect, after all!

Could you be deceived?

In his epic, impressive-looking book The Christian Passover, Coulter makes several claims which we ought to investigate -- and not do like most people, and just "assume" he is telling the truth! For example, Coulter writes:

"The inspired record in Exodus 12 makes it clear that the children of Israel were not dwelling in tents at Rameses when they kept the Passover. The Hebrew word translated 'house' or 'houses' in Exodus 12 is bayith, which means '. . . a dwelling, an abode, a house.' Bayith, which is used a total of 16 times in Exodus 12, never refers to a tent or a temporary dwelling" (The Christian Passover, p. 55).

Notice his last words again: "Bayith . . . NEVER REFERS TO A TENT OR A TEMPORARY DWELLING." Now, that statement, taken at face value, is very unequivocal and dogmatic. But is it true? Does Coulter know what he is talking about? Should we "trust" him?

The authoritative Gesenius Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon of the Old Testament gives us the meaning and usage of this word in the Scriptures:

"(1) A moveable house, a tent . . . Gen.27:15; 33:17; used of tents consecrated [to idols], II Kings 23:7 . . . used of the tabernacle of the covenant, Exo.23:19; Josh.6:24; Jud.18:31; I Sam.1:7, 24; 3:15; II Sam.12:20; Ps.5:8 . . .

"(2) A royal house, a palace, fortress . . .

"(3) the house of God, i.e., temple; used of the temple of idols, Isa.37:38; 44:13; I Sam.5:2,5; and of the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem, I Kings 6:5,37; 7:12; Isa.66:1, and very frequently . . .

"(4) a sepulchre, especially one much adorned, Isa.14:18; compare Isa.22:16 . . .

"(5) dwelling, abode, habitation, place of any kind . . ."

Clearly, the Hebrew word bayit does not just mean "house," referring only to a permanent dwelling or building, at all. Such a limitation placed on the word's actual meaning is a diabolical attempt to deceive and to delude people by subtlety of reasoning. It is clever. But it is patently false.

The reason Moses used the word bayit in Exodus 12 -- which is a general word, and means "dwelling, abode, place, habitation, tent," etc. -- is because this word best describes the dwellings the Israelites were living in at the time. Some were probably in regular houses, but most of them were most likely in tents already, since they had been told and knew that they would be leaving Egypt very soon. For Coulter to state that bayit "NEVER refers to a tent or a temporary dwelling" is sheer deception and falsehood! Yet he makes a major point of this contention!

Coulter claims, after discussing this word,

"But we find only the Hebrew word bayith used in Exodus 12, leaving no doubt whatsoever that the children of Israel kept the Passover in their own houses" (ibid.).

Since the Hebrew word bayit does not mean what Coulter says it does, but by definition includes all kinds of dwellings, including tents, Coulter's conclusion is spurious and erroneous, and his whole argument is nothing more than puffed up leaven!

However, to show you another example of Coulter's specious reasoning and how he subtlely leads people astray in their reasoning, notice another quotation from his book The Christian Passover:

"Next, God told them when to kill the Passover lambs. Notice carefully what God commanded. 'And you shall keep it [the lamb] unto [until] the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation SHALL KILL IT AT DUSK' (verse 6, JPSA).

"They were to keep the lambs unto, or until as in the KJV, the fourteenth day of the first month. The Hebrew word translated unto, or until, is ad, which limits the time to a specific point, not through and beyond that point. Ad means '. . . the limit of time itself' (Gesenius Hebrew Chaldee Lexicon of the Old Testament). God made it clear that the lambs were to be kept only to the point in time that began the fourteenth, not beyond that point" (p. 49).

Again, Coulter makes a big issue of the tiny word "ad." He dogmatically asserts that this word proves that the Passover had to be killed at the beginning of the 14th of Nisan -- the lambs were only to be kept "until" (ad) the 14th, which Coulter reasons means the very beginning of the day -- not up until some later point during the day.

Proof? He provides none. However, if what he says is true, then he truly has put himself into a box. For this same word is used in Exodus 12:18 -- "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, UNTIL the one and twentieth day of the month at even." If as Coulter claims this word "until" (ad in Hebrew) means to the point of the beginning of the day, then the Feast of Unleavened Bread was to be observed "seven days" FROM THE BEGINNING OF NISAN 14 UNTIL THE BEGINNING OF NISAN 21, and the two holy days of the Feast would have to be Nisan 14 and Nisan 20!!!

Notice! If "until" means till the "beginning" of the day, as Coulter so strongly argues, then the Feast of Unleavened Bread is only to be observed "until" the beginning of Nisan 21 -- therefore, the last day of the Feast would be Nisan 20! Nisan 20, then, would be a holy day, and seven days before that day -- the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread -- would be pushed back to Nisan 14 itself! The Feast would be Nisan 14 through 20! This is plainly erroneous. For we read in Leviticus 23, "In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD's passover. And on the FIFTEENTH DAY of the same month is the FEAST of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread" (Lev. 23:5-6).

Yet Coulter argues, "the lambs were to be kept only to the point in time that began the fourteenth, not beyond that point." Whom are we to believe? If the lambs were to be kept "until" the beginning of the 14th, based on the Hebrew word ad, then the Feast of Unleavened Bread would have to be observed UNTIL the beginning of Nisan 21 -- or only through the end of Nisan 20! What confusion! What enormous nonsense!

But now let's notice another peculiar statement Coulter makes in his lengthy, challenging, argumentative book. Coulter asserts:

"The Scriptural account does not show the children of Israel leaving their houses prior to the Passover. Such a movement would, in fact, have begun the Exodus. But according to Scripture, the Exodus began after the Passover" (p. 54).

But notice what he writes somewhere else in his book:

"The Scriptures plainly show that the Exodus began FROM RAMESES, not from their houses. Leaving their houses to gather in their marching order at Rameses did not constitute the beginning of the Exodus. Nowhere do the Scriptures relate that the Exodus began from their houses. All the Scriptural accounts show the Exodus itself beginning from Rameses, as an organized movement. It is a twisting of the Scriptural account to state that the Exodus began at the instant they left their houses, long before they arrived at Rameses" (p. 80).

On page 54 Coulter says that the Israelites did not leave their houses until after the Passover and that such a movement would have begun the Exodus. Yet on page 80 he contradicts himself and says the Exodus began with the Israelites leaving from Rameses, not from their own houses! In one place Coulter says, "leaving their houses . . . would, in fact, have begun the Exodus." But in another place he disagrees with himself, and states, "Leaving their houses . . . did not constitute the beginning of the Exodus"!!!

Isn't it time we become suspicious of a book in which the author plainly contradicts himself? -- where he argues about the meanings of simple words, and causes violence to the Scriptures as a result? -- where he claims to be a "scholar," but misleads his readers as to the real meanings of simple Hebrew words such as bayit , and ad? Let's be careful lest we fall under the "spell" of bewitching, authoritative-sounding, self-professed ministers and their delusions!

Hope of Israel Ministries -- Preparing the Way for the Return of YEHOVAH God and His Messiah!

Hope of Israel Ministries P.O. Box 853 Azusa, CA 91702, U.S.A. www.hope-of-israel.org

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