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 alone is insufficient for salvation and is incomplete until it is manifested in works.
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Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of January 16, 2010
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.
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When the Reformation began in the 16th-Century, the movement toward worshiping the Lord in spirit and truth (John 4:24) was not new but a continuation of Councils and dissent that reached back to the 1st-Century and the Jerusalem Conference (Acts chap 15). However, what was new is that the last Elijah, for the first time, figuratively lay over the dead son of the widow of Zarephath in an attempt to breathe life back into the body of Jonah. It will be necessary for this last Elijah, like the first Elijah, to lay over the dead Jonah, the dead Body of Christ, three times before the son breathes on his own, but when the son breathes of himself, the Church will say to this last Elijah what “the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth’” (1 Kings 17:24).
The three times that the last Elijah will lay over the dead Body of Christ take 483 years (69 prophetic weeks) to happen: the restoration of life to the Body of Christ began in the 16th-Century and will be completed in the 21st-Century, with the seventieth week constituting the seven endtime years of tribulation; i.e., the 1260 day long Tribulation and the 1260 day long Endurance. The restoration of the Church was not accomplished by the Council of Trent, or by the Dordrecht Confession of 1632, or by Joseph Smith in the 19th-Century. It wasn’t accomplished by Ellen G. White or by Herbert W. Armstrong, nor will it be accomplished by any human being. The last Elijah is not a physical man as the first Elijah was, but is the glorified Christ Jesus. And the seventy weeks prophecy is given when the seventy years prophesied by Jeremiah are complete, or in 539 BCE — the seventy weeks prophecy doesn’t reach behind the day when it was given, nor is it fulfilled on any date prior to the end of the age when “‘the decreed end is poured out on the desolator’” (Dan 9:27). Therefore, these seventy weeks with a year representing a day can be counted backwards from the decreed end.
For the sake of illustration, if the Second Passover liberation of Israel from indwelling sin and death—this liberation will cause the Body of Christ to breathe on its own—occurs on the second Passover of 2011 (a year near in time), then the Rebellion (great falling away — 2 Thess 2:3) will occur on or about Christmas 2011; this will be the opening of the fifth seal (Rev 6:9–11). The wrath of the Lamb (the opening of the sixth seal) will then begin on the December solstice in 2012, and Satan and his angels will be cast to earth on Halloween 2014. This, then, will see Christ Jesus return on the first day of Abib (with the month of Abib beginning with the first sighted new moon crescent after the equinox) in 2018. So if 2011 is the year of the Second Passover, then the restoration of the Church began in 1528, and probably began in April … the Sabbatarian Anabaptist Andreas Fischer began his ministry in 1528.
The restoration of the Church doesn’t come through an angelic delivery of another testament of Jesus Christ; it comes from rereading Scripture, with this rereading based on believing the writings of Moses and hearing the voice of Jesus, and Andreas Fischer best represents a Radical Reformer who early-on sought theological purity.
It can generally be said that the Reformers sought to return the Old Church (the Roman Church) to Scripture … Martin Luther did not set out to divide Christendom, or to establish a denomination that would compete with the Roman Church. He sought to reform an institution that was out of control. He sought to end the selling of indulgences, pig bones, and wood splinters. But Luther, unlike John Wycliffe and Jan Hus before him, benefited from the additional century that placed his reforms of the Roman Church close to when the last Elijah would take up the Church to restore life into this corpse.
Luther’s first and chief article of faith—the article that was for Luther necessary to believe—is that Christ Jesus died for the sins of disciples and was raised for the justification of disciples; that He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and God has laid on Him the iniquity of all; that all have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works and merits, but by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood …
There is a very serious error imbedded in what Luther believed: Paul writes to the saints at Corinth, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Cor 12:27).
If Christ is the Lamb of God, and if He is the Head of the Church, and if disciples are collectively and individually the Body of Christ, then these disciples are collectively and individually the Body of the Lamb of God, with Christ Jesus being the Head of this Lamb … the head alone of a paschal lamb is not sacrificed. When the head dies, the body also dies. But concerning the Lamb of God, the Body was not created until after the Head ascended as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering to be accepted by the Father; therefore, the Body could not be sacrificed when the Head was, but waited being sacrificed until the first disciples grew in grace and knowledge to the maturity of full personhood. And this is the reason why, when the glorified Jesus breathed on ten of His first disciples, He said, “‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld’” (John 20:22–23 emphasis added).
Luther used John the Baptist saying, “‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’” (John 1:29) to support his position that God laid on Jesus the iniquity of all, but, question, does Jesus take away the iniquity of the unbeliever? Does Jesus take away the iniquity of, say, Qin Shi Huang (dod 210 BCE)? Or did the death of Qin Shi Huang satisfy the record of debt, with its legal demands, that stood against this first Chinese emperor, who was not born of God and had no indwelling eternal life, no immortal soul, but was as beasts are, under natural grace in that his sin was not counted to him as sin for he was not under the law? Did Jesus need to die for that portion of humanity that doesn’t have, according to Paul (Rom 5:13), sin reckoned as sin because that portion is not under the law? Did Jesus need to die for the person who has never heard of Moses, of Jesus, of the Most High God? Or did Jesus die for the transgressions of Israel, past, present, and future?
Paul writes,
For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (Rom 2:12–16 emphasis added)
According to Paul’s gospel, Qin Shi Huang will perish without the law if the work of the law (which is love for God, brother, and neighbor) is not written on his heart, with no exceptions for not knowing what the law required. Therefore, when Paul writes that “the doers of the law will be justified,” Paul contradicts Luther’s primary point that all are justified freely, without their own works and merits. Clearly Paul holds that the person who will be justified produces the works of the law, regardless of whether the person has the law. This is a position quite far from what Luther wrote about Christians receiving righteousness entirely from outside themselves. Luther never understood that grace is the garment or mantle or covering of Christ Jesus’ righteousness, and faith alone is insufficient for salvation and is incomplete until it is manifested in works. Luther was simply wrong when he said that faith alone makes someone just.
Peter wrote,
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. (2 Pet 1:5–10 emphasis added)
James wrote,
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. (2:14–26)
John wrote,
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. (1 John 5:2–4)
If the faith of disciples has overcome the world, then disciples’ faith cannot be overcome by the world. This would imply that if a disciple truly has faith, the disciple will not present him or herself as the obedient servant of sin, which leads to death (Rom 6:16). Therefore, the disciple who, when sin no longer has dominion over the person, voluntarily returns to lawlessness has been overcome by the world and is without true faith. Yes, that is correct! The disciple who presents him or herself as the willing servant to lawlessness lacks the faith to be worthy of Christ Jesus.
Luther’s faith was greater than his spiritual understanding. Regardless of his influence within the Reformation, Luther was and throughout his life remained a spiritual novice who never understood what James wrote or why Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Isaac. Luther never understood Paul’s epistles; he couldn’t put aside the errors that cost the Body of Christ its life at the end of the 1st-Century. And Luther’s acceptance of these errors would have brought to Luther the same fate that Jan Hus suffered if Luther had not benefited from the last Elijah beginning to lay over the Body of Christ. Luther was lucky, whereas John Wycliffe and Jan Hus lived too early, too long before the seventy weeks were to begin. But neither Luther nor Huldrych Zwingli nor the Bohemian Brethren was a major player in the last Elijah’s attempt to breathe life back into the Body of Christ. The major players were the Radical Reformers, with Andreas Fischer and Oswald Glaidt being early pastors of importance.
Luther and Zwingli were visible leaders in the world’s attempt to reform the Roman Church, but apparently the last Elijah was not particularly interested in merely correcting the practice of selling indulgences: the restoration of the Christian Church involved restoring life to the 1st-Century Church, then bringing this restored Church forward to the Second Passover in the 21st-Century when all who claim to be Christians will be born-of and filled with the spirit of God, for the revealing or disrobing of the Son of Man with leave the Church alone with the commandments written on hearts and placed in minds as the reality of Moses leaving Israel alone at Sinai for forty days. And as Israel at Sinai broke faith with the Lord in the golden calf incident, Christians following the Second Passover will break faith with the Lord even before the majority of them rebel against God on day 220 of the Tribulation.
The difference between the proposed reforms of John Wycliffe and Jan Hus and the reforms of Luther and Zwingli was when they occurred in the historical record: if Wycliffe and Hus had been successful, the Christian Church would have remained lawless and spiritually dead as it remained under the reforms of Luther and Zwingli. In rejecting James, Luther effectively prevented reformers following his teachings from hearing the voice of Christ Jesus—
How can a person hear or recognize the voice of Jesus?
Despite the miracles He performed, Jesus was no favorite of the Pharisees. Throughout his ministry, Paul fought an ongoing war with the Circumcision Faction. And Evangelical Christians are quick to label anyone who would have disciples walk as Jesus walked as Pharisees or pharisaical—as legalists. They are quick to state that “‘all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John [the Baptist]’” (Matt 11:13), but they neglect Jesus saying in the same passage that “‘no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him’” (v. 27) … does the Son choose to reveal the Father to “Christians” who will, when free to keep the commandments, eagerly transgress them? Or does the Son choose to reveal the Father to a person after the Son’s heart, a person such as King David was, a person who would write,
Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord!
Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart (Ps 119:1–2)
John writes, “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death” (1 John 5:16–17).
Disciples have been given authority by Christ Jesus to forgive sins that do not lead to death by simply asking God that the sin be forgiven. That’s all that’s necessary. Nothing more is required. Certainly no money is exchanged between sinner and clergy; the sinner needs to do nothing except to sin no more. And Luther was wrong, for all wrongdoing is either sin that leads to death or sin that does not lead to death, with Moses identifying which transgressions of the commandments lead to death.
There is no love within a disciple—either for God or neighbor—if the disciple will not go after the disciple who has wandered away from the truth and endeavor to bring the disciple’s brother back into the fold of Christ Jesus. Thus, today, Christendom has within it Christians who try to bring other “Christians” back to Christ when they, themselves, to not know Christ but worship demons, while sincerely believing “the Christ” they worship is the Son of God. They will not be convinced that they are not born of spirit and fully mature in the faith; they will not be convinced that their willing lawlessness identifies whom they serve. Whereas the Reformers that breathed physically in the void created when the last Elijah initially lay over the Body of Christ to return life to this corpse sought purity in their worship of God, this last generation seeks no such purity but a “feeling,” a relationship, an excuse to worship God from the comfort of this world, not inconveniencing themselves by keeping the commandments. They shall receive what corresponds to their deeds (2 Cor 11:15).
Again, reform of the Church was not a new issue in the 16th-Century. The figurative void created beneath the last Elijah lying over the corpse of Christ was new, however. And in this void, a necessary “space” created so that Radical Reformers could separate themselves from the State Church, Luther and the Protestant Reformers had room to physically breathe, thus beginning a second tier of lawless Christendom, a tier that (because it wasn’t Roman or Orthodox) assumed it represented the restoration of the Church.
Not everything was known when the glorified Jesus left His disciples forty days after He had breathed on them, saying, “‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22). John’s vision (i.e., the Book of Revelation) had not been given. The visions of Daniel would not be unsealed until the time of the end; so at the time of the Jerusalem Conference, it wasn’t possible for disciples to explicate prophecy. The commonly held belief was that Jesus would return within their lifetime, but that commonly held belief was based in innocent ignorance. And those who taught this error lived long enough to be disappointed, with their faith challenged by Jesus not returning when they expected Him.
To a lesser degree, those disciples who believed Herbert Armstrong’s skewed understanding of prophecy expected Jesus to return in, first, 1975, then at any time. They expected Jesus to take them to a place of physical safety in 1972, then at every spring High Day convocation after that date. But year after year, they have been disappointed, with their disappointment kept in check by their continued expectation of an emerging European superpower and the decline of the United States. Truthfully, these disciples hate their neighbors: they expect Christ to save them and to condemn their neighbors. They are as empty of love as is the Evangelical who expects to be raptured bodily into heaven to escape the Tribulation.
So how is love to be shown to the person who will not listen, who not only won’t listen but who is absolutely convinced that the faithful disciple is a legalist and is in danger of being eternally lost?
What could Moses have done differently? What should Moses have done to convince the nation of Israel that left Egypt not to rebel against the Lord? Was there anything Moses could have done differently, other than not strike the rock?
What can be said to the Lutheran who remains certain that faith alone is adequate for salvation? That faith neither needs to be supplemented by virtue or made complete by being manifested in deeds? How is a faithful disciple to show love to this Christian who has been primed by the Adversary to commit spiritual suicide? The Father and the Son will show their love by liberating this Christian from indwelling sin and death at the Second Passover, but what is the faithful disciple to do to warn this Christian or all Christians that they need to “cover” that inner firstborn son of God by taking the sacraments of bread and wine on the Passover?
Really, the hands of faithful disciples are tied: Jesus said that if they [the generic they] would not believe Him, they will not believe His disciples, and such has proven to be the case. No amount of warning will accomplish anything. The man of perdition will argue for the greatness of America, for the exceptionalism of the United States, for the divine inspiration of the founding fathers who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the United States’ Constitution, for the necessity of returning to the Christianity of the founding fathers, for Locke’s rights of man descending from God. The man of perdition will begin as an American advocating “American values,” then extend to the world forced acceptance of these values that are a mingling of the profane and the sacred as Christmas is … it is in Christmas [the holiday] that disciples can now see how the man of perdition will mingle Christ with Locke in an unholy union that seems “right” when presented in plausible arguments based on human philosophy and vain deceit, according to the traditions of America, the world’s last and best hope to govern itself (i.e., govern itself apart from God). Much will be said by the man of perdition about God: he will come to believe that the angel inside him is Christ Jesus. And at some point when he has used Christian military force and Christian baptism to squelch Islamic fundamentalism, he will declare himself God. But he will prove to be a man possessed by the Adversary; he will be the man who leads most of Christendom into the lake of fire.
Christians today, with very few exceptions, refuse to believe the writings of Moses so that they can hear the voice of Jesus, who speaks the words of God. And frankly, until the last Elijah breathes life back into the Body of Christ through its liberation from indwelling sin and death at the Second Passover, faithful disciples can do little but wait in what will be spiritual Jerusalem.
Jesus told His first disciples,
Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. (Luke 24:46–49 emphasis added)
Disciples are not to go door-to-door, house-to-house in this era. They are not to teach or preach to the world when they have no authority to do so. even though they are the temple of God, they are to remain quiet and learn.
Paul instructs Timothy, “Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing” (1 Tim 2:11–15).
There is a problem inherent with what Paul writes: in his epistle to the Romans, Paul wrote, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come” (5:12–14).
If sin entered the world through Adam, then why does Paul say that the woman was the transgressor? She was, but she was also covered by Adam’s obedience—she was covered by her husband until Adam was no longer obedient, at which time sin entered the world. Understand, Eve’s transgression was not counted as a transgression for her disobedience was covered by Adam’s obedience because Adam was created first. It was when Adam ate that both of them realized they were naked: they were no longer “clothed” in obedience to the Lord.
Outward or physical circumcision is making naked a man before the Lord so that the man is only covered by the garment of obedience; the man is obligated via circumcision to walk uprightly before the Lord as Abraham was commanded.
The Lord came to Abram and said, “‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly’” (Gen 17:1–2). Ratification of this covenant was by outward circumcision; by making the sons of Abraham [now that aspiration was added to his name] naked before God, through removing the natural covering for the head of the penis, with the penis itself physically representing the inner self that would be a son of God when born of spirit … is that last juxtaposition too great a stretch to be easily made? In human beings, female is the default sex, a statement established by genetic research and confirmed by every man lifting his shirt to reveal two underdeveloped teats. An embryo about six weeks of age has the ability to develop as either a male or a female person: the embryo has two sets of ducts, Wolffian for male and Muellerian for female, held in readiness. If testosterone and other androgens are released by hormone-producing cells, the Wolffian ducts develop into a channel that connects penis to testes, but without the release of testosterone, the embryo becomes a female with the Wolffian ducts withering away and the Muellerian ducts expanding into oviducts, uterus, and vagina; so without the timely release of testosterone—if nothing is done—every human being would be female. Likewise, if a human being is not born of spirit, the person would die and never live again when the person ceases to breathe: the default state of the dead (physically living but spiritually lifeless human beings) is death. Therefore, it is not a stretch to say that the “maleness” coming from possession of a penis is counter to the default state of human beings, which is physically female and spiritually death. Hence every person (regardless of the person’s physical biology) born of spirit is a son of God, for the insertion or addition of a second breath of life functions for a living human being as the timely release of testosterone functions in a human embryo. Thus, physical circumcision—removal of the penis’ foreskin—functions as the shadow and copy of cleansing the heart by faith so that it can be circumcised by spirit, thereby making the person eager to obey the Lord, with obedience functioning as a garment put on in the manner that a human male puts on a pair of pants to cover his nakedness.
Most likely Abraham did not understand why the Lord gave him outward circumcision as the ratifying sign of the covenant that required Abraham and his descendants to walk uprightly as bipeds before Him. Paul may not have understood why he felt compelled to write what he did to Timothy. But the first Adam was the shadow and type [the left hand enantiomer] of Christ Jesus, with the first Eve being the shadow and type of the Christian Church … the Church is the Woman who is to learn quietly in all submissiveness, who is not permitted to teach or to exercise authority over a man (the last Adam). The Church is the Woman who will be saved through child-bearing; i.e., through bringing many sons of God to glory. Thus, the Church has no grant of authority to establish anything. It has no right to change Sabbath days or holy days or when the sacraments of bread and wine are to be taken. It has no right to make any of those changes that caused the Body of Christ to lose the breath of God and become a spiritually lifeless corpse.
So that there is no mistake: in this era—between Calvary and the Second Passover—there is no need for a biological male to be outwardly circumcised, for every disciple is covered by the garment of grace, Christ Jesus’ righteousness. Every disciple has been made naked before God via circumcision of the heart, and this nakedness has been covered by Christ’s righteousness. When the Second Passover occurs, disciples will be filled with, or empowered by the spirit of God. And the Son of Man will be revealed, with this revealing coming by the Body of Christ being disrobed [stripped of grace] so that Christians are only covered by their obedience to God. Still, there is no need for a son of God to be outwardly circumcised, for outward circumcision will not be needed until there is again an earthly sanctuary following the Second Advent. But when filled with the spirit, no Christian will have an excuse for disobedience, for sin and death will no longer dwell within the disciple.
Because death is the default state for every person born of woman, no person has indwelling immoratity coming from human birth. As testosterone must be released at the appropriate time for a human embryo to develop into a male—if this testosterone is not released, the embryo will develop normally as a female person; the embryo will not perish for lack of testosterone—a human person must receive a second breath of life for this human person to develop into a firstborn son of God. Without receiving this second breath of life during the person’s physical lifetime, the person remains numbered among the dead and will be resurrected to life in the great White Throne Judgment, when all who have drawn breath (and who have not been called as firstfruits) will live again … the salvational default state of human beings is resurrection in the great White Throne Judgment.
As the Woman, the Church is to learn in quietness—
But what happens when the Church refuses to learn in quietness? Can faithful Sabbatarian disciples be to Christendom as Timothy was at Ephesus? This is the question that will be addressed again and again this spring.
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The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal.
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"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."