Now the crumb pickers are coming to do their work. In a variation of the proverb, the following is now to be done: The good into the jar, the bad into the pot. The good into food, the bad very quietly ...  

As a theologian, Dr. Roger Liebi took on most of the interpretation of the Second Letter of Peter. However, one should not expect any profound interpretations. However, he rightly points out that we are only living in the end times today and not 2000 years ago and provides the relevant scriptures, such as 2 Timothy 3:1: "But know this, that in the last days there will be times of trouble." Or 1 Peter 1:5: "... who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last days."  

Regarding the recipients of the letter, Mr. Liebi assumes that it is addressed to Jews. His reasoning: The Greek word diaspora, which is translated as dispersion, is a technical term for the dispersion of the Jews. Experts may well regard the word diaspora as a technical term, but is it also what the Holy Spirit wants to tell us?

Today we will pick out the term diaspora and use it as an example to show how studying the Bible can lead to really deep insights. To begin with, we will look for the term diaspora in the New Testament and see that the word dispersion is used three times in the NT. (Note the number 3). It is, as experts say, a tris legomenon, a word that only occurs three times in the Bible and refers to the end times. The first time we find it is in John 7:35, then in James 1:1 and the third time in the first letter of Peter, chapter 1, verse 1.  

In John 7:35-36, the Jews murmur at Jesus because of the Pharisees and scribes, for they openly and loudly opposed Jesus. And what were the people murmuring to one another? Let us prick up our ears: "Where is this man going that we should not find him? Will he go into the dispersion of the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What kind of word is this that he spoke? You will seek me and not find me, and: Where I am, you cannot come."

The people's questions remain unanswered. Because they were not allowed to be asked in public, ... ? One thing is clear, the healthy swarm intelligence cannot be silenced by so-called "expertise". (In this matter, we, the authors, come to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit heard the murmurings and had them recorded for posterity so that they could be addressed again in due course, which is why John should record them in writing. God is always concerned with putting the truth in the spotlight at the right time.  

Well, the term dispersion, Greek diaspora, is used here for the Greeks and the fact that Greeks are actually meant is emphasized by the postscript "and teach the Greeks". The Greeks seem to have been dispersed, but not only them.  

When the word diaspora is used a second time, in James 1:1, it is the Jews or, more precisely, the 12 tribes of Israel. James, the Lord's eldest half-brother, begins his letter with the words: "James, servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, greets the twelve tribes that are scattered abroad." Now we ask ourselves, who are the twelve tribes to whom James is writing, because if we have counted correctly, there were 14, weren't there? We recount Genesis 35:

We have counted correctly, Jacob has 14 sons.

Our question as to who the 12 tribes are is therefore justified, and because the apostle Paul also only mentions 12 tribes in his defense speech before King Agrippa, we are looking for a solution. And lo and behold, the solution can be found in the letter of James, in the very first verse. By mentioning only 12 tribes, James provides us with an important prophetic date, not an exact date, but an approximate date to which the letter can be interpreted prophetically. James, as well as Paul, obviously exclude two tribes, as we will see later, and these are the tribe of Manasseh and the tribe of Ephraim. Because Manasseh has an inheritance both east of the Jordan and west of it, we have to split Manasseh into two tribes, Manasseh West and Manasseh East.  

So when James writes to the twelve tribes, he also writes to Manasseh East, but not to Manasseh West or to Ephraim, and why? Because the letter would be returned as undeliverable. They have moved, or to put it another way: Ephraim and Manasseh-West have been taken away from the earth by the Lord and taken to a safe place. Can we speak of the Rapture in both cases? If so, will they be raptured at the same time or at different times? The riddle is told to us in the Book of Esther in an almost fairytale-like way. Twice virgins are sought and then taken to Castle Susan. The first collection also includes the virgin who will one day become the king's bride and was later recorded in the history books as Queen Esther.   

As we have already explained in various other scripts, the letter to the Hebrews also hints at the Rapture, for example in chapter 12:22-23. Paul writes: "... you (the Hebrews) have come  

When we invite someone, we do not go to them, as a rule, but the invited person comes to us. If we apply this everyday concept to the letter to the Hebrews, we can say that the letter to them is an invitation to all those who believe in the God of the Bible but do not yet have a personal and living relationship with Jesus. In terms of salvation history, the author is addressing people who believe in God after the Rapture, who have not yet been born again, but God wants them to be given new and eternal life. James also hints at this in his letter when he advises the confused in the dispersion to ask the Lord for wisdom.  

Those who accept the invitation will ultimately enter the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, where God dwells and Jesus and the firstborn, where the angels are and all the spirits of the righteous made perfect.   

Ephraim is and will remain God's firstborn and Manasseh the secondborn; together they will live in the castle of God, in Shushan, the lily of God. Hosea says something very sweet about Ephraim: "He will blossom like the lily", i.e. he will be in a state of eternal spring.

The twelve tribes in the dispersion are the 12 physical sons of James, er, Jacob. An insider tip among friends: Compare the letter of James with Jacob's prophecy in Genesis 49. We lay a trail for this: James 1: Reuben; chapter 2: Simeon and Levi, and Judah; chapter 4: Zebulun, chapter 5 Joseph and Benjamin. At the end of Jacob's prophecy, verse 28 literally states, without any linguistic smoothing: "All these tribes of Israel: twelve. This confirms that the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim are not counted in James' letter and so, as always, the OT agrees with the NT.  

And now let's look at the verse in which the word dispersion is used for the third time and try to find out whether the addressees of the two letters of Peter are, as Dr. Liebi asserts, the 12 dispersed tribes of Israel or not. We also proceed systematically here.      

Peter writes the first letter to the scattered strangers living in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. In the second letter, in chapter 3:1, Peter reminds the recipients that this is already his second letter to them. We conclude from this that the recipients of the second letter are the same addressees as those of the first letter and, as already mentioned, these are the dispersed people in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, etc. So we know where the scattered people live, but who the strangers are is unknown to us, we don't know, not yet.  

We found the solution in 1 Peter 4, where the apostle writes: Let none of you - the recipients - suffer as murderers or thieves or evildoers, or as one who meddles with other people's affairs; but if as Christians, let him not be ashamed ... To whom is Peter writing? The reader can now easily give the answer himself, can't he? Peter wrote both letters to Christians. The verse again, this time in abbreviated form: Do not suffer as a thief or murderer, but if suffering is called for, then please suffer as a Christian. The scattered people in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia are Christians, and this is certain. Whether they are Christians from the Jews or from the Greeks or even from both, we still want to find out, but how? Again, we proceed methodically and apply the concept hidden in the Bible: Nomen est Omen.

For this reason, we will now translate the names of the provinces and interpret them:   

Pontus: the term means: sea; this refers to all nations, in contrast to the earth, which is used as a metaphor for Israel (this is how scholars interpret it); the sea primarily stands for the countries of Europe, but also for America, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

Galatia: the translation according to TheSword is: land of Gaul or Galli; the landscape is reminiscent of Paul's circular letter to the Galatians and, according to the structure we have discovered, we have assigned it to the church of Thyatira, so the landscape points to the Roman system, which "sits on many waters", i.e. on the Pontus (sea)?

Cappadocia means: province of good horses; the horses point, among other things, to the earth, to Israel, which is hinted at in the name Philip and further elaborated by James in figurative language in chapter 3:3. James writes the following to the 12 tribes: Behold, we put the bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us, and direct their whole bodies. (The ship mentioned in the following fourth verse also refers to Israel, the ship in the heart of the seas).

Asia means Orient and describes all the countries of the East (as seen from Israel);

Bithynia: it means a violent onslaught, a violent rush. Prophetically, the name refers to the storm mentioned in Acts 27, which in turn refers to the worldwide storm in the end times that threatens to turn Christians away from faith in Jesus by force. As an aid to the controlled floods from Syria and Africa that are rolling over Europe, they are promoting the destabilization of the continent and, in addition, the flood is importing anti-Christian religions and spreading their agenda and making it acceptable. They will increase the apostasy from the Christian faith and accelerate the straying from the truth.

The scattered people to whom Peter writes are therefore Christians who are scattered all over the world, be they Jews or Greeks; both are equally harassed, mistreated, hounded, persecuted and killed. The chronological sequence between the two groups can perhaps be deduced from Paul's letter to the Romans: the Jews first and (then) also the Greeks. This reminds us of the slogan of the Palestinian Hamas: After the Sabbath (massacre) comes the Sunday.   

Unfortunately, this time too, we find that Dr. Roger Liebi has still not taken the effort to study the texts thoroughly again before setting off on his lecture tours. Once again, he has fed the people of God with old fare from the canned Brethren doctrines and is thus contributing to further blindness. In Peter's letter, the term diaspora does not describe the dispersion of the Jews, but of the Christians, consisting of Jews and Greeks. However, this also shows that the unequal twins are reconciled and reunited in Philadelphia.  

One of the group of conservative evangelical experts wrote to us, not very politely: we are crumb pickers. Well then, today's miraculous crumb that we were allowed to pick up not only provides us with true light in an increasingly dark world, but also gives everyone orientation for the next steps. Dr. Liebi's interpretations, on the other hand, are short-winded and give all his subsequent explanations such a spin that, like a ball, they don't land in the goal, but in front of it or, that would be a horror, even out of bounds and not just the ball.    

Berlin, March 21, 2024

P.S.: God has put into the heart of every human being what is good, so the Jewish swarm intelligence realized that the good news would also reach the Greeks. This detail absolutely had to be recorded and that is why the Holy Spirit had John document the murmurings of the Jews for the Jews, so that Jews would learn about it today and not listen to supposed experts, but follow the call of Jesus to believe in their Messiah in order to be saved for eternity.  

Now we asked the readers to remember the number three. The number stands for our crumb today for the third round, which we have already referred to and illustrated graphically under "Structure of the Bible". see here.  

If we have chosen the subheadings "Dispersion the First", "... the Second" and "... the Third", it is because they are an allusion to the time of the exiles, both of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The third dispersion is special, as explained above.