What is Religion?

by Bertrand Comparet

Of the many voices competing for the nation’s attention, very few dare tell a really substantial part of the truth in the fields of politics or economics. Those few who do, are subjected to the most evil and vicious smear campaign imaginable. Even in the field of religion, very few dare tell all the truth and those few are called bigots. Not very many have the courage to face such a campaign of abuse, so many that know the truth are silent. Naturally nothing like this could escape the foreknowledge of Yahweh, it is one of the signs of the time of the end of this age. Yahweh prophesied in Amos 5:13, “... the prudent shall keep silence in that time: for it is an evil time.”

Therefore, only a small portion of the people have the opportunity to hear the full truth today, in any of these vitally important fields, which today are becoming literally matters of life or death. Instead, they hear the constant repetition of propaganda aimed to influence public action or inaction in a way to serve the interests of those who control the media of public information. Particularly unfortunate is the fact that most people do not get to hear the word of Yahweh on these matters, these matters which Yahweh considered important enough to give us specific warnings about. This was foretold by Yahweh, through Amos. Amos 8:11 tells us, “Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will send a famine in the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Yahweh.”

Since these are days of terrible and increasing danger, never were Yahweh’s words needed more than today. Many people wonder why Yahweh would permit any interference with the teaching of His word, why isn’t it made available to all? Why isn’t it blazoned into everyone’s ears the way communist propaganda is broadcast in Russia? It is because this condition is not the cause of our problem it is the result, we are reaping what we have sown. Time was when the full truth could be spoken or printed in this country. Some people would bitterly disagree with you of course, but they could never silence you. Then we allowed our enemies to teach us that to oppose them was controversial, that it was always vaguely bad, in some undefined way. By some unexplained magic, their opposition to you was not controversial, it was just a liberal recognition of other points of view, theirs only of course.

We have come to regard expressing the truth as bad taste, since the truth always offends those who are engaged in some evil activity. This is especially true of the word of Yahweh, which always offends all evil people. Therefore, we have allowed ourselves to be taught that the word of Yahweh must not be used. Even His name must not be mentioned in our schools or public institutions because it offends those who hate Him. This famine of hearing the word of Yahweh has come upon us, not as our misfortune, but because we have acquiesced in it. We have even supported the politicians who have pushed it the hardest, it is our sin. When we had the truth, we allowed it to be suppressed. The consequence is Yahweh’s judgment as He says in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” As a consequence, our forgotten children have died in the jungle swamps of the South Pacific, the freezing mud of Korea, in the scorching deserts of North Africa and the bomb shattered cities of Europe for what? To create the hell on earth which faces us today.

Perhaps a few people are disturbed because we dare mention what some would call political truths as well as religious, in these lessons. These people have been taught you should never mix the two. You see, there are some people who wouldn’t worship your God if they knew you weren’t a left wing, new deal democrat. There are others who wouldn’t listen to the truth on political matters if they knew you didn’t belong to their church. They think that Yahweh is a politician who must hide His principles in order to get more votes. Yahweh has never worried whether the majority would give Him more votes. Yahweh has never worried whether the majority would follow Him. If they would not, this was their own tragic loss, but the truth was never compromised.

In speaking to you on economic as well as religious matters, we are just following in the footsteps of the prophets. Yahweh spoke through them on all these matters. Economic principles determine whether we shall have prosperity or poverty. Political principles determine whether we shall have freedom or slavery. Therefore He has instructed us on these matters in the Bible. We must speak the word of Yahweh and if any are offended, we can’t help it, truth compromised would no longer be the truth.

I want to review in a general way, the subjects discussed in the Bible. Note into which class each falls, economic, political or religious, all in the same book. On the authority of this book the Bible, in these lessons we take this stand and we will not deviate therefrom. Now let’s see what authority we have for this broad coverage.

Let’s start with Moses. The Book of Genesis introduces us to our God, to that extent it is religious. It also contains Yahweh’s promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, ancestors of the Anglo-Saxon race. They were to be a blessing to all the earth, other nations shall bow down to us. We shall be blessed with all good things, in other words the "have" nations. These promises are economic and political. Exodus gives the religious ordinances of the Passover, the ark and the tabernacle, the priesthood and the sacrifices, the altar and the holy days. It also gives the ten commandments, of which only the first four are religious, the other six are social and political.

The next book Leviticus is partly religious, dealing with offerings, sacrifices, consecration of priests and the great feast and holy days. It also contains the agricultural laws, dietary laws, and rules for healing the sick. It also contains the great economic laws of the year of rest, release of debts every 7th year and the restoration to the poor of their lost homesteads every 50th year. These are definitely economic and political laws.

The Book of Numbers gives the laws of conscription, military training and war, which are certainly political as well as religious. Moses’ last book Deuteronomy, reviews the ten commandments and the holy days. It also gives the organization of the nation, the dietary and agricultural laws, economic laws, and the laws of warfare, which are certainly social and political. Moses wrote under the direct inspiration from Yahweh. He intermixed what some call religious, because it pertains to the forms and ceremonies with which we like to dress up our expression of our relation to our God, with the rules governing all the practical aspects of our civilization and all the rules governing man’s relation to his fellow man, both as an individual and as organized society. Remember Moses wrote this at the dictation of Yahweh. The economic and political rules are stated upon the same authority as, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”, or “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image”, the direct commandment of Yahweh.

The prophet Isaiah wrote some of the grandest religious statements and prophesies ever expressed by man. He also gave many political explanations and prophesies to the people, some of these applied to his own time. They had not kept the nation pure, they had allowed alien elements to rise to power in their capital city of Jerusalem. Isaiah 3:8-9 records, “For Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against Yahweh, to provoke the eyes of His glory. The show of their countenance doth witness against them: and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.” For this cause he warned them, Yahweh would judge them. Their enemies would invade and conquer the land, no alliance with other nations could save them. This warning of existing political evil in their government and its penalty of military invasion and defeat, surely deals with so called political subjects.

Don’t tell me we must separate politics, economics and religion!! Yahweh does not distinguish between them. He separates right and wrong, good and evil, what is right and good, in economics and politics He commands by His religion, as a part of it.

No prophet in the Bible wrote entirely for his own days, part of their message was a warning to us who live in the 20th century. As Paul reminds us in I Corinthians 10:11, “They are written for our admonition, upon whom the end of the age is come.” This is especially true of Isaiah. In Isaiah 8:9-14 Yahweh gives us the clearest warning against our wicked folly of joining the United Nations. Yahweh warned us in clear and strong language. “Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries, gird yourselves and ye shall be broken in pieces; Take counsel together and it shall come to naught: speak the word and it shall not stand. For Yahweh spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of the people saying, Say ye not a confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say a confederacy, neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify Yahweh Himself and let Him be your fear and Him be your dread. And He shall be for a sanctuary.”

We have been warned not to associate ourselves with these pagan, Christ hating nations. Those who do join this association shall be broken in pieces. Isn’t this a perfect picture of the utter futility of this pagan organization? “Take counsel together and it shall come to naught, speak the word and it shall not stand.” Just seventeen words perfectly sum up decades of effort to govern the earth by the power of Satan, in an organization where the name of Yahshua cannot be mentioned. How could we claim to be speaking the word of Yahweh, the true religion, if we failed to bring you this warning spoken by Yahweh to His prophet Isaiah. This is a warning essential to our very survival in the near future.

Isaiah gave many other warnings directly inspired by Yahweh, on matters which may be called political. Let us leave him for the present and go on to some of the other prophets, for a fair cross section of the Bible on this question. Let’s take Jeremiah next. Jeremiah opens with Yahweh’s denunciation of mongrelization, intermarriage with other races. Jeremiah 2:21 states, “Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a true seed: how then are thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me?” In this Jeremiah is reminding us of Yahweh’s stern warning against mixed marriages and integration. For example in Leviticus 20:24 Yahweh said, “I am your God, which has separated you from other people.”

Moses taught this to the people. Exodus 33:16 records, “So shall we be separated, I and all of Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.” In Deuteronomy 7:3, Yahweh again emphasized the point. “Neither shalt thou make marriages with them: Thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.” Joshua repeats this warning. “If ye do in any wise go back and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, know for a certainty, that they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off from this good land which Yahweh your God has given you.”

After this ample and repeated warning, Yahweh challenges us to answer Him. “Yet I planted thee a noble vine, wholly a true seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine?” Hosea 5:6-7 also reminds us, “They shall go with their flocks and their herds to seek Yahweh, but they shall not find Him: He hath withdrawn Himself from them. They have dealt treacherously against Yahweh: for they have begotten strange children.” The Hebrew word translated strange is zuwr, meaning of a different race. Therefore, when the prophets give Yahweh’s warning that integration and mongrelization are a terrible sin against Him, how can we be silent upon this? We can’t be silent if we propose to speak His word. Call it social or political if you will, but it is the direct commandment of Yahweh to us, therefore it is a part of our religion and must be preached as such.

Jeremiah knew this, in Jeremiah 6:10-11 he tell us, “But to whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? See! Their ears are sealed and they cannot give heed; the word of Yahweh has become to them scorn, they find no pleasure in it. Therefore I am full of the fury of Yahweh, I am weary of holding it in. Pour it out on the children in the street and on the gathering of young men also.”

We also see our duty in these lessons. The Bible is not just a message to the individual, telling us how to gain salvation, this is only a small part of it, over 5/6ths of the Bible is a message to the nation, telling us the laws of Yahweh by which the nation should be governed. It warns us of the terrible consequences of violation of these laws. No matter how good the individual is, if he allows his nation to become corrupt and evil, he must pay the penalty of living in corruption and evil. If he will not heed Yahweh’s warning that certain national sins bring war and invasion as their penalty, then he must send his sons to die upon the battlefield. He must endure the bitterness of conquest and slavery. Call this political if you will, but we find it in the Bible and what we find there is our religion.

Who should be most concerned with speaking the whole truth boldly, letting the chips fall where they may? Surely the men of God, the clergymen, should take this duty seriously. But no, most of them have been trained to avoid anything that is controversial. They stick to those things so carefully selected that Satan can find nothing to oppose in them. You see, this avoids controversy and hard feelings, and it never drives anyone away, it takes in everyone and makes for unity. Isn’t it wonderful, or is it? These clergymen prefer to forget the most controversial figure in all of history was Yahshua. He never compromised right or truth, never remained silent for fear of offending the wicked. It is our basic principle that Yahweh’s truth shall be spoken. If it offends those who hate our God and hate our nation, then they will be offended, for Yahweh’s truth must be spoken. If the forces of the anti-Christ choose to attack it and make it controversial, then it is their controversy, but Yahweh’s truth must be spoken anyway.

In Jeremiah chapter 8 Yahweh denounces those scrambled eggheads who pretend that we can have peace with those who hate Yahweh and our nation, men who pompously pretend to be intellectuals and wise. At verses 9-15 we read: “The wise men are ashamed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of Yahweh and what wisdom is in them? ... from the prophet even unto the priest, everyone dealeth falsely. For they have healed the hurt of my daughter but slightly, saying peace, peace when there is no peace! Were they ashamed when they had committed abominations? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, they knew not how to blush; therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith Yahweh ... Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there: for Yahweh hath put us to silence and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh. We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health and behold! trouble!” Those who have talked of peaceful coexistence with the very essence of evil have spoken the doctrines of Satan and by their misleading are propelling us to our destruction.

We are compelled to learn there is no peace, while evil is permitted to rule. We sinned against our God in ever making treaties of friendship with His enemies, we find the fruit of our own doing bitter as gall! It is some comfort to know Yahweh will punish those who have led us into this impasse but, where they have led, we have followed. So, we must still face the situation which is of our own making.

This is the actual fact today, this warning is no easy afterthought, in the light of hindsight. It was written in the year 600 B.C., about 2,560 years ago and it has been in the Bible ever since. It was just as plain and clear when Franklin D. Roosevelt gave life to the dying monster of communism in Russia because some of his best friends were communists, he did this revolting wickedness to gain their support. It was just as easy to see when we betrayed Chiang Kai-shek and all of free China and helped Mao Tse Tung turn friendly China into an enemy. It didn’t take the 7th son of the 7th son to understand this warning. Our own president sold out our brothers of white Christian Europe to Stalin, at the infamous conferences at Yalta and Potsdam, in return for the assistance of Stalin and Satan to accomplish what? What good had we any right to expect from such a source? Hadn’t all communist leaders such as Marx, Lenin and Stalin plainly and often stated that the only agreements they would ever make with us were those intended for our own destruction?

Can we be silent about such things? Yahweh’s warnings to us in His book the Bible, are surely as much a part of our religion as His warning not to steal. All churches and all men of Yahweh should be giving this, and the other divine warnings with all the force they have.

Ezekiel also gave this warning against the lying prophets of peace. Ezekiel 13:3-10 warns, “Woe to the foolish prophets who prophesy out of their own mind concerning things they never saw. O Israel, your prophets are like foxes among the ruins: they have not stood in the breaches, nor built a wall for the house of Israel that it might stand in battle in the day of Yahweh. Therefore thus saith Yahweh: because ye have spoken vanity and seen lies, therefore behold, I am against you saith Yahweh. And Mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of My people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel. Because, even because they have deceived My people saying peace, and there was no peace.”

We have the truth confirmed out of the mouth of two witnesses, Isaiah and Ezekiel, according to the Bible’s own law that there shall be two witnesses to prove a fact. If our churches are Christian and take their religion from the Bible, how can they fail to understand this? How many clergymen ever raised a voice in protest or warning, when false leaders started our nation down this path to destruction? This is what I have been saying, they accepted the devil’s doctrine that religion must be kept out of politics and politics must be kept out of religion.

The clergy have been taught to concern themselves only with what they call saving souls. How many souls do they think they are saving in Russia today, how many souls are they saving in the enslaved nations of eastern Europe? You never save a soul by helping Satan and his children to gain supreme power over a nation. No, you merely commit the ultimate wickedness of delivering the innocent into the hands for evil martyrdom and their innocent children to be raised under the doctrines of Satanism. No true religion can be silent about this, not when Yahweh has spoken so clearly about it in the Bible.

The Bible has warned us very plainly not to fall into that death trap the United Nations. Not only does the eighth chapter of Isaiah contain a clear warning, but there are others which are unmistakable in the light of present-day conditions. God prophesied that He will gather all nations together for simultaneous punishment in a great war, something which could not happen except through the United Nations.

Note these examples: Jeremiah 25:31-33 says, “A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth: for Yahweh hath a controversy with the nations. Thus saith Yahweh, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of Yahweh shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth.” Zephaniah 3:8 adds, “Therefore wait ye upon Me, saith Yahweh, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy.” How is this likely to be brought about? What will bring all nations, with their diverse and conflicting interests, together for this purpose?

Let’s go on to Zechariah 12:2-3 & 14:2-4. “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about. And in that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle.” Other scriptures tell us that this last event will close the final conflict of the day of Yahweh, the so called battle of Armageddon.

Now think it over. How could you get nations like Spain, Japan, Bulgaria, India, Burma and Peru, which have nothing in common with each other, and no interest of their own in Jerusalem to protect, how could you get these and all the other nations of the world gathered together to fight a great battle at Jerusalem? It couldn’t be done except through the machinery of the United Nations, whose actions represent them all.

What will be the occasion for this battle? As I have told you in detail in the lesson, “Russia in Bible Prophesy”, the Bible clearly shows that Russia will make a double attack some time in the near future. One will be directed at the United States, and will come against us out of the north from eastern Siberia over the North Pole. The other will come through Iran and Iraq, then westward across Jordan and Syria, into Palestine and Egypt to seize the Suez Canal and all of North Africa. Terrific fighting will occur in Palestine and Egypt at the same time.

Do you say, that’s fine, they are fighting against Russia, don’t be too sure. How many of them will be fighting with Russia, instead of against her? Remember, Yahweh expressly says that He is gathering all these nations together for judgment upon them. Do you expect India or any of the Asiatic nations to oppose Russia when it is making an attack upon the white Christian world and Russia invites them to join in the attack and share the spoils? Do you expect the pagan cannibals of black Africa to oppose Russia in any such attack against the white Christian nations? You can be absolutely sure that they will eagerly join in any such attack upon us, if it appears to have even a chance of success. The United Nations is not an organization of freedom loving people, these are in the small and hopeless minority. It has become just a council of our enemies, yet one in which we participate and agree to be bound by their vote. We know in advance this vote will only be a demonstration of their fundamental and undying hostility to us, our ideals and our God. How silly can we get?

Yahweh foresaw all this and warned us not to become entangled in that nest of spies and wickedness. In II Corinthians 6:14-18 we are commanded, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Yahshua with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith Yahweh, and touch not the unclean thing: and I will receive you and will be a father unto you and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith Yahweh the Almighty.”

Can you say this is political? It is the direct commandment of Yahweh, what could be more definitely religious than that? True, our senate ratified the United Nations treaty and our president defies the laws and commandments of Yahweh to work for its evil purposes. But can wickedness and defiance of Yahweh change Yahweh’s commandment so it is no longer a religious matter? Or can the fact that politicians have chosen to act for their own purpose in this matter, take it out of the Bible? We have man made statutes in our law books which forbid theft and murder under legal penalty. Does this deprive the churches of the right to teach the ten commandments because they also say, “Thou shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not murder?”

I started out asking the question, “What Is religion?” It must include not only all religious ceremonies and forms of worship, but also all that Yahweh has commanded man to do and all that He has warned man to avoid both individually and as a nation. Whatever is the word of Yahweh is part of our religion. If some of the wicked make money out of violating Yahweh’s laws, they say this is now an economic matter. Or they seek political power by pandering to the lowest instincts of the mob in violation of Yahweh’s commandments, so they say this makes it political. They cannot thus change Yahweh’s truth, it remains a matter of religion because Yahweh so commanded. All Yahweh has spoken is pure religion, and all churches should so teach it. We intend to teach the words of Yahweh on all subjects, He has commanded it!

Critical note by Clifton A. Emahiser: Speaking generally, this has been another great composition by Bertrand L. Comparet, though the use of the term “religion” in the title may be a bit ambiguous. There’s an old saying that we must take a Dutchman as he means rather than what he says, and all we Israelites (including Comparet) are next-of-kin to the Dutch.

To bring the subject of religion into perspective, I will repeat what I said in my Watchman’s Teaching Letter #60 where we focused on the 4th chapter of Daniel. I have commented on this chapter several times before, but there is need to examine it in greater depth. To put the Babylonian stump-system into perspective which was to last “seven times” or 2520 years, I have devised the following graph [not shown here] to show how it has developed during that time. The average person on the street hasn’t the slightest idea what it’s all about, thinking everything is normal, while it is far from that. And they get “mad” if informed otherwise.

Although we have many problems today, the four in the above diagram represent the greatest. In the very center bulls-eye is the issue of RACE. Then around the RACIAL issue revolve the MONETARY, the POLITICAL and the RELIGIOUS. Once we can identify these four divisions of our dilemma, we can begin to rectify the status of our position. The above diagram is very much oversimplified. It needs to be broken down into smaller segments as follows: (1) Racial-monetary, (2) Racial-political, (3) Racial-religious, (4) Monetary-political, (5) Monetary-religious, and (6) Political-Religious. Therefore, all four of the above divisions interact with each other. Should one try to combat any one of these six interacting divisions, one will find he must fight all six simultaneously. Not only that, but each of these six divisions have thousands of subdivisions like the tentacles of an octopus to entangle and destroy.

So Comparet was correct when he said: “Don’t tell me we must separate politics, economics and religion! Yahweh does not distinguish between them. He separates right and wrong, good and evil, what is right and good, in economics and politics He commands by His religion, as a part of it.” Had Comparet said, “He commands by His belief system, as a part of it”, it would have been a better than the term “religion.”

I do disagree with Comparet, though, where he said: “They [Israel] were to be a blessing to all the earth, other nations shall bow down to us. We shall be blessed with all good things, in other words the have nations.” In a similar remark Comparet said: “It was just as easy to see when we betrayed Chiang Kai-shek and all of free China and helped Mao Tse Tung turn friendly China into an enemy.” This goes contrary to Numbers 23:9 which says: “For from the top of the rocks I see him (Israel), and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.” What is there about the words “dwell alone” that we don’t understand? Therefore, we are not to commune in any way, shape or manner with the other nations!

I must also scrutinize Comparet where he said: “... the Bible clearly shows that Russia will make a double attack some time in the near future. One will be directed at the United States, and will come against us out of the north from eastern Siberia over the North Pole. The other will come through Iran and Iraq, then westward across Jordan and Syria, into Palestine and Egypt to seize the Suez Canal and all of North Africa.” While I agree that we will come under attack by Gog and Magog in the future, I don’t believe it will be “a double attack.” I wrote an article on this entitled The Problems With Ezekiel 38 & 39 where I addressed the matter in some detail.