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The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and commentary for this week are more in line with what has become usual; for the following will most likely be familiar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath’s selection is faith. Clickable hymns on this page require RealPlayer to be installed on your computer. The download is free. Possible songs include the following hymns: Weekly
For the Sabbath of January 12, 2008
The person conducting the Sabbath service should
open services with two or three hymns, or psalms, followed by an opening prayer
acknowledging that two or three (or more) are gathered together in Christ
Jesus’ name, and inviting the Lord to be with them. Not long ago, a response on the Ambassador Watch blog questioned whether
the Apostle Paul was of God, or whether he was a 1st-Century
individual like present endtime cult leaders and religious charlatans. The
evidence cited by the poster was that only Paul and Luke identify Paul as an
apostle; that Paul refers to himself, using first person pronouns, more times
than anyone else; that Paul brags of not taking instruction from other apostles
and leading men; that Paul belittles the ministries of those who seemed to be
leaders in The case against Paul being of
God is at least as strong as the case for any Protestant Reformer being of God.
And when trying to establish the validity of an argumentative claim, the claim
itself does not serve as evidence of its truth. Christianity ultimately is not
about evidence but about faith. Even human existence is a matter of faith: the
movie The Matrix raised the same
question that the German philosopher Kant raised. How does any person know that
which he or she experiences is not part of a dream? Dr Samuel Johnson, mid 18th-Century,
kicked a rock and hurt his foot and said that by kicking the rock he had
refuted Kant … no, he hadn’t. The discharge of pain sensors within
the mind no more proves human existence than does the recollection of a memory
falsely planted in the mind through suggestions made by another. Human existence, scientific
facts, everything a person believes that he or she knows—all is a matter
of faith, with this faith based upon evidence that comes from the additional
application of faith. The racial bigotry of generations came from faith.
Hitler’s hatred of Jews came from deep root faith. Those who venerate the
Virgin Mary do so from faith, while those who advocate for democratic ideals
and the equality of all humankind do so from faith. There is nothing a person
believes that does not come from faith, with the person only partially able to
perceive the quality of the faith establishing this thing or that thing. Yet, human beings function
every day without worrying about whether the food they eat is real or the
gasoline they buy exists or even about whether tomorrow will come. The
sensations of “living” serve as adequate proof of life as was the
case in the movie The Matrix. The
fundamentalist Christian believes that he or she has been born again because
the person seeks a personal relationship with Jesus. The evidence for the person
having been born again is not a changed outer nature of the person, but for the
Evangelical, in the changed inner nature, changed in manner similar to how a
literary character experiences an epiphany—and in a work of fiction, a
literary character’s nature is not changed by an epiphany, but rather,
the character discovers something about him or herself. If the
character’s nature truly changed, the story would not be believable. For
example, the change seen in Scrooge in
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol
comes from the not-believable intervention by the ghosts of Christmas past,
whereas the acceptable epiphany in James Joyce’s short story “Araby” comes from a boy’s journey from first
love to despair and disappointment, with the epiphany being the boy’s discovery
of the difference between real life and the imagined ideal. A
“born-again” fundamentalist has no concept of being born anew or
born from above as Jesus used the expressions /(,<<02± –<T2,<—is
born again (John 3:3)/ and /(,(,<<0:X<@< ¦6 J@Ø B<,b:"JH—having
been born of the Spirit (John 3:6)/; for Jesus referenced a second life
[i.e., receiving a second life], not a renewing of an existing life or a
regeneration of an immortal soul. For the self-proclaimed
“born-again” fundamentalist, the born-again experience is truly an epiphany-like experience that
causes the person to believe that he or she has obtained a personal
relationship with Jesus in the person’s discovery of the difference
between real life and an imagined ideal, with the person’s imagined ideal
being a relationship with God on terms and conditions set by the person. The
“born-again” fundamentalist looks upward toward his or her
idealized relationship with God whereas the Dubliners in Joyce’s
collection of short stories by the same name look downward at their real lives. Ultimately, a
person has to decide whether the person wants to believe that the received
Bible is the word of God or whether some other text such as the Qur’an is the revelation of God or
whether any God even exists. In this era, wanting to believe that the Bible is
the word of God does not directly translate into being born of Spirit—and
the internal claims of the New Testament are that unless born of Spirit, a
person cannot understand the figurative language of Scripture. Understanding
comes from being born of Spirit, and being born of Spirit comes from God
drawing a person from this world and giving the person a second life through
receipt of His divine Breath (as human life comes from physical breath, or the
oxidation of sugars at the cellular level, with the oxygen molecules necessary
for this process being delivered to the blood stream by the act of breathing).
So the internal claim of the New Testament is that a relationship with God is
more difficult and complex than taught by Evangelicals, but is simple in that
it begins by faith; by believing that the Bible is the word of God; by
believing that God means what He says through His prophets, the earlier and the
latter, with Moses being a prophet. Returning to the Ambassador Watch poster: the person who
does not believe that Paul was an apostle and specifically the apostle who laid
the foundation for the endtime house of God will lack spiritual understanding
and will be like the person (usually of high intelligence) who does not believe
that any God exists, that all such belief is carried-forward superstition from
an earlier era. No argument will convince the person that God exists. The base
for such a belief is not present in the person. Rather, the same amount of
faith (or perhaps much more) is employed in disbelief and denial. While it is
tempting to argue with the person who rejects God—to attempt to convince
the person of the error of his or her ways—the one who would argue wastes
his or her time and words. Is God trying to
save the world? Does God want a relationship with
everyone today? Does He have one with Muslims? If He does, what is the basis
for this relationship? The internal evidence of Scripture precludes any
relationship beyond what is recorded in Genesis 17:20,
and this relationship is with Ishmael, not Islam. If a Muslim today does not have
a personal relationship with God, why not? Is it because the Muslim refuses the
terms of the new covenant? For a Muslim cannot be a Muslim and still believe
that Jesus is the only way to salvation. Believing that salvation is
possible and that Jesus is the only way to salvation forms the ideological core
of Christianity. This belief comes by faith. It can come no other way. All
alleged proofs of Jesus’ divinity are accepted or rejected by faith. And
Herman Melville spent decades questioning whether a book can be believed, any
book, including the Bible. In Pierre,
or The Ambiguities, Melville explores how good can turn into evil as the novel’s
protagonist, Pierre Glendinning, questions whether Christianity sets a high
enough standard of conduct … Melville shows that what a book gives it can
also take away. What the Bible seems to give it also takes away: Jesus said,
“‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have
not come to bring peace, but a sword’” (Matt 10:34). Yet,
Christendom teaches that Jesus came to bring peace: “‘Blessed are
the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God’” (Matt 5:9). Which is it? Are
Christians peacemakers or troublemakers? * The
person conducting the services should read or assign to be read John chapter 2,
verse 13 through chapter 3, verse 21. Commentary:
A recent Sabbath reading addressed Jesus’ cleansing the temple being the
thrice recorded events that produce the stormy sea of the Jonah analogy …
Jesus certainly did not appear as a peacemaker when He made a whip of cords and
proceeded to use this whip on the money-changers. He appeared as anything but a
peacemaker. But before a disciple sets out
to right the wrongs of this world, the location—the temple—of where
Jesus drove out sin must be considered. Disciples are today the temple of God
(1 Co 3:16-17; 2 Co 6:6), and if this temple conducts business on the Sabbath
[in Matthew’s account of Jesus cleansing the temple three years after
John records a similar cleansing, Jesus drives out the moneychangers of the
Sabbath, which was also the 10th day of the first month], the
disciple can expect Jesus to cleanse it. It is Jesus who cleanses the
temple, not a Levitical priest. The same applies today: Jesus will cleanse what
needs cleansed in this era. The work of endtime disciples is to preach
repentance as John the Baptist preached repentance, not to compel repentance or
to convert the masses or to reform the social system of this world. Jesus will
cleanse the hearts of those who are convicted by the preaching of repentance;
thus, Christian ministry functions today as witnesses for Christ, not as social
reformers or do-good mischief-makers. John the Baptist did not go
into the cities to deliver his message of repentance. He did not go where the
audience was. Rather, those who would hear his words sought him in the
wilderness. His audience came to him, and this difference makes all the
difference: endtime disciples need not go to where the
“unconverted” masses huddle in the squalor of despair, but need to
preach repentance in whatever wilderness they find themselves, for those who
will hear will come to them. Those who will not hear—those who will not
believe—will not hear even if personally confronted by Christ Himself. There is little need for
Christian ministry to preach repentance to Muslims or Buddhists or Hindis, for
though they are in need of repentance and salvation, they have the small luxury
of time on their side. Until they are born of Spirit—they are now born of
water, born of woman and the breaking of the embryonic sack—they cannot
come to God, nor will they want to come to God. And God has made allowance for
this through the two harvest model of salvation, with the firstfruits
[equivalent to Judea’s early barley harvest] now having judgment upon
them, then after the thousand years the main harvest of humankind [equivalent
to Judea’s wheat harvest] receiving a second birth and judgment in the
great White Throne Judgment. These two grain harvests of
Judean hillsides, an earlier (before the thousand year reign of Christ Jesus)
and a latter harvest, together form the single harvest of God, of which a tithe
is brought to It is God’s desire that
all be saved, but only a tithe belongs to God … to whom does the other
90% belong? Does this 90% belong to the prince of this world? Look around
yourself. What do you see? Do you see a Christendom that lives as Jesus, an
observant Jew, lived? Do you see Christians keeping the commandments of God? Do
you see Christians keeping the Sabbaths, plural, of God? Do you see Christians
spurning adultery, greed, drunkenness, idolatry? Or do you see Christians
living like their heathen neighbors, having the same divorce rates, the same
number of personal bankruptcies, the same weekend activities, the same
Christmas parties, the same Valentine Day and Halloween observances, the same
groceries in their shopping carts, the same smiles when off-color jokes are
told, the same immodest apparel (baring of flesh), the same in every aspect but
for what they call themselves. Does a devout Muslim live more
like how Jesus lived than does a devout Southern Baptist? Think about the question: if a
disciple has truly been born of Spirit, the disciple will not have his or her
mind set on the things of this world—“the desires of the flesh and
the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions” (1 John 2:16). The
“mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit
to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Rom 8:7). The mind of the fundamentalist
Muslim is set on the things of the flesh, especially the advancement of Islam
in this world. But is not the mind of the Southern Baptist equally set on the
things of the flesh: Mike Huckabee, an ordained
Southern Baptist minister, is running for president of the The Christian bishops attending
the Council of Nicea (ca. 325 CE), called by the Emperor Constantine to resolve
differences that were dividing Christendom, would never have told Constantine
that he was an agent of the prince of this world—they would never have
told the Emperor the truth even if they had realized what they were doing
… the Emperor invited 1800 bishops to the conference (there were about a
1000 in the East and 800 in the West), but only 250 to 320 attended, with the
count differing according to the source. So the question must be asked, why did
1500 bishops stay away when Why five of every six bishops
boycotted the Council of Nicea will not be known until the resurrection. What
is known, though, is that God formally delivered Christendom into the hand of
the spiritual king of Christendom’s lawlessness
is apparent every Sunday morning. The most hopeful sign now seen
is the mostly empty Church parking lots on Sunday mornings—God is
preparing a people for spiritual birth, with His work of preparation beginning
by getting this people away from the lies told about Him in Sunday morning
services. How much love is there is
bringing a sword to humankind? How much love is there in telling the truth? And
the echo of Pilate’s question can be heard: what is truth? A person determines truth on the basis of his or her faith.
Rabbinical Judaism does not find that Jesus was a reliable source of truth. Judaism lacks faith in
Jesus’ words being those of God. Likewise, Muslims will believe Mohammad
before they will believe Moses. Mormons will believe Joseph Smith before they
will believe Jesus’ words recorded in the gospels. Seventh-Day Adventists
will believe Ellen G. White before they will believe John. Other disciples will
believe Herbert W. Armstrong before they will believe Paul. The Church is one assembly, not
many assemblies that actually bear arms against each other. If a person
believes Joseph Smith, then let the person follow Joseph Smith. Let Joseph
Smith bring salvation to this person. Likewise if the person believes Moses or
Mohammad, then let the person follow either Moses or Mohammad and let Moses or
Mohammad bring salvation to the person. If the person believes Ellen G. White,
or Herbert W. Armstrong, then let the person follow White or Armstrong—and
let White or Armstrong bring the person salvation. But the Apostle Paul asks,
“What then is Apollos? What is Paul?” (1 Co 3:5). And today,
disciples must ask, Who is White? Who is Armstrong? Who is Calvin? Who is
Luther? Who is Menno Simmons? The person who believes that
Mohammad was a prophet of God, or who believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet,
must still come under Moses who wrote that if a prophet arises among the mixed
circumcised and uncircumcision people of God, and if what the prophet
prophesies comes true (isn’t this
the test of a prophet, whether what he or she says comes true) and if the
prophet would have the people of God serve other gods, the prophet is to be
rejected [stoned] for the people of God are to keep His commandments and to
obey His voice and walk after Him, to serve Him and hold fast to Him (Deut
13:1-5). Yes, if Mohammad taught people not to keep the commandments of God, he
was to be stoned. If Joseph Smith taught people not to keep the commandments of
God, he was to be stoned—and Mormons do not keep the Sabbath commandment.
Calvin, Luther, Menno Simmons did not teach the people of God to keep the
commandments, so they are to be rejected … it is only by the faith one
person places in another person that any of these individuals are held up as
ministers of God, and faith can be placed in anything, including in sticks and
stones sculpted with iron tools. It takes the same degree of
faith to believe that a crafted stone is god as it takes to believe that Jesus
was the Creator of all that is. It doesn’t take more faith to believe
that a gold-sheathed wood sculpture is god than it takes to believe that Jesus
was the Son of God. Faith is faith. It doesn’t take more faith to believe
in God than it takes to believe in Evolution, nor does
it take less faith. It all comes down to whom or
what will the person believe. If the person sincerely desires to be one with
Christ, and will, when in a far land, turn to God and begin to love God with
heart and mind, obeying God, keeping His commandments, then God will bring this
person to the mental landscape represented by physical Judah, and will
circumcise the heart of this person so that he or she can understand the things
of God (Deut 30:1-6). God will mentally separate this person from the world so
that the person can keep the commandments and can focus on heavenly Look around yourself. What do
you see? Is there even one in ten who will keep the commandments of God? If
there isn’t, then you have work to do for you don’t know who that
one will be, so you will have to go to all ten—and perhaps, two of the
ten (a tithe of a tithe, one of a hundred) will come to God, with one of the
two then being returned to feed all whom have come. A disciple should not be
disheartened when confronted by unbelief or disbelief. Jesus encountered more
unbelief than any of us will. The Apostle Paul encountered unbelief. And that
is the story of Christianity in this era: it is only those who truly want to be
one with Jesus that can come to Him as the Body of the Son of Man. And He
won’t force anyone to be one with Him although it remains His desire that
all would be saved. * The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal. * * * * * "Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©
2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved." [ Home ] [ Sabbath Readings ] |