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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 knowledge. 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 19, 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. The
person conducting the services should read or assign to be read 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4, verse 13, through chapter 5, verse 11. Commentary:
The Apostle Paul apparently believed that Jesus would return within his
lifetime; thus, his death would have been a faith-testing trial for him. When
Paul writes, “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we
who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede
those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thess 4:15). That word from the Lord had
caused Paul to believe that the time was short—and delivery of a message
that time is short has occurred in
every generation since. In the 20th-Century, Herbert W. Armstrong
beat that drum of time is short almost
to death, and certainly until his death. As a result, following his death the
work he had built on a foundation that was not the one Paul laid in heavenly
Jerusalem (1 Co 3:10-11) dissipated into a fog of whining and distrust as those
who followed him underwent faith-testing trials. Did Jesus say that He would
return in the lifetime of His first disciples? The implication of John
21:22—“Jesus said to him [Peter], ‘If it is my will that he
remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!’”—is
that John would remain alive until Jesus returned, but that is not what Jesus
said. Rather, the assumption that can be easily taken about the passage is that
Jesus would return within John’s lifetime; however, the only declarative
part of this exchange is that Jesus commanded Peter to follow Him. It is this
command to follow that has become transferable to disciples ever since. The prophecies of Daniel were
sealed and secret and not spiritually available to Jesus’ first
disciples. Oh, they thought they could understand these visions in the same way
that the sons of light at Qumran
thought they could understand these prophecies when the War Scroll was written a century of so earlier. The discovery of
the Dead Sea Scrolls yields considerable knowledge about what was believed
about Daniel’s visions. Jesus’ first disciples
thought they understood Jesus’ parables when He explained them, but
Jesus, the night that He was betrayed, told them that He had only spoken to
them in figures of speech (John 16:25)—the explanations that Jesus had
given to the parables (Matt 13:10-13) were in figures of speech; were in
metaphorical language in which one thing is called by the name of another
thing. Jesus told His first disciples, “‘For to the one who has,
more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has
not, even what he has will be taken away’” (v. 12). His first disciples had knowledge, and more would be given
to them until they had an abundance, but—and here is the
key—Gentile converts did not have knowledge when, by faith, they believed
in Jesus’ sacrifice. And because
these Gentile converts did not have knowledge, what they had (the promise of
salvation) would be taken away. Why did Gentile converts not
have knowledge? And where in the letter written at the conclusion of the
Jerusalem Conference (Acts chap 15) is there any mention of them needing to
possess knowledge of God? The visible Christian Church
offers cheap salvation to all who will be either sprinkled by, or dipped in its
water. Say the sinner prayer and you
shall be saved. Profess Jesus is Lord with your mouth and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved. And now the person
who is saved has something that can be taken from the person. Before receiving
the promise of salvation, the person had nothing that could be taken from the
person for the loss of physical life was already assured. Think about the above sentence!
What do you have that God can take from you? Your health?
Your family? Your possessions?
Your breath? And which of these will He not take from
you regardless of the amount of knowledge you have? Which of
these—health, family, possession, breath—can you hang onto for the
next century? God has already taken them from you when He consigned the
descendants of the first Adam to disobedience (Rom 11:32). Your death is certain, it is only a matter of time. So what do you have to
which more can be given so that you will have an abundance?
Only knowledge. There is nothing else. And how can the
person without knowledge—who has no knowledge—have knowledge taken
from the person? It isn’t knowledge that
will be taken from the person who has no knowledge—it is the promise of
eternal life … the person who has professed with his or her mouth that
Jesus is Lord and who believes in his or her heart that the Father raised Jesus
from the dead has the promise of salvation, has something that can be taken
from the person because the person lacks knowledge. You who have been born again,
who have received the Holy Spirit; you who had little knowledge of God when you
professed that Jesus is Lord; you who have believed your teachers of
lawlessness that you do not have to live as a spiritual Judean—you will
have the promise of salvation taken from you because you have not grown in
grace and knowledge. You might sing many praise songs and might sit in a front
pew, but without growth in knowledge, you will lose the promise of salvation
that came with receipt of the Holy Spirit. And this is Jesus’ promise to
you. * Jesus deliberately withheld some
knowledge from His first disciples through either the knowledge not being able
to be conveyed by words used as representations for the things of this physical
world, or because it was not then the end of the era … it is this latter
reason why Paul apparently believed that he would live to see Jesus’
return, for it would have been cruel to tell Paul that all he suffered, all he
fought for, all he accomplished would die long before Jesus returned at the end
of an era still two millennia in the future. Today, former Believers have
become skeptics, dismissing Paul as a fraud and Jesus as a false prophet. This
is especially true of former disciples of Herbert Armstrong: the small amount
of knowledge they had acquired from Armstrong has been taken from
them—and they celebrate the loss of this knowledge as liberation from
error and a personality cult. They write with bitterness about their liberation
from Herbie’s cult on Internet blogs, little
realizing that not only has the knowledge they once had been taken away, but so
has been their promise of salvation. They serve as examples of what will be
seen on a far larger scale once the seven endtime years of tribulation begin. When
God “sends a strong delusion” (2 Thess 2:11) over liberated [from
indwelling sin and death] disciples who did not love the truth enough to obey
the commandments, repentance will not be possible because the person, as a
result of the delusion, will not admit being wrong. The delusion will prevent
them from repenting. And they will kill Believers by choking them in ash
clouds: skeptics attempt to do spiritually today through their eruptions of
disbelief that explode as volcanic ash cast into the upper atmosphere what the
spiritual sons of Cain will do once the mantle of Grace has been removed. But
as gritty ash clouds are all that remain of mountains, all that will remain of
these skeptics are ashes under the feet of glorified saints. Again, to the disciple who has
knowledge, more will be given. Herbert Armstrong had a small amount of
knowledge. More would have been given if it had not been rejected in January
1962, but because under Armstrong’s authority and under color of being
the heir apparent to Armstrong’s theological fiefdom, Garner Ted
Armstrong [Herbert’s son] rejected revelation (rejected additional
knowledge and understanding), what little knowledge Armstrong had bestowed to
his fiefdom was taken from it by Joe Tkach Jr. and
his elfish minions. Therefore, in orbit are a few lifeless asteroid size
rocks—the larger Church of God splinters, UCG, LCG, PCG, RCG—and
much space dust, the independent Sabbatarians, all cast into outer space by the
death-throe eruptions of the 1990s. But the majority of Armstrong’s
fiefdom fell to earth as wind-blown dust and has been plowed under by
disbelief. Paul wrote, “Now
concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have
anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the
Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thess 5:1-2) … if Paul
was expecting the day of the Lord to come in his lifetime, it would not have
come as a thief in he night, for Paul and all with him would have been
expecting the coming of this day. A Catch 22 situation?
Expectation of Christ’s return prevents Christ’s return? No, not
really. Christ will come when He determined that He would come before the foundations
of the earth were laid. Is there ever a time to read a
passage literally? If all that Jesus told His first disciples was in figures of
speech, how can more knowledge be given to those who
already have knowledge? How about seeing the question answered through a simple
example: the person who knows to keep the Passover sacraments on the night that
Jesus was betrayed, the dark portion of the 14th of Abib, also knows
about the second Passover, on the 14th of the second month, at even,
with those who were either spiritually defiled by touching a dead body or who
were on a long trip at Passover taking the second Passover. Knowing to keep the
Passover is having a little knowledge. Understanding why the sacraments of
Bread and the Cup replace a sacrificed lamb is having a little knowledge, not
at all being complete in knowledge. The disciples made by Herbert Armstrong had
a little knowledge, for they took the sacraments on the night that Jesus was
betrayed as the Apostle Paul instructed the saints at Corinth to take these
sacraments (1 Co 11:23-26). Paul would label knowledge of how to take the
Passover sacraments as the spiritual milk (1 Co 3:1-3), not meat. Therefore,
those Sabbatarian disciples who do not take the Passover sacraments on the
night that Jesus was betrayed—the Seventh Day Adventists are the foremost
example—have lost knowledge that is spiritual milk and are in danger of
having their promise of salvation taken from them (if this promise has not
already been taken from them). Although some of the spiritual
asteroids contend that knowledge of the Passover is partial evidence of
Armstrong having restored all knowledge, the recovery of this knowledge simply
does not make their case. Not taking the sacraments as Jesus established the
example leaves disciples outside of the covenant by which Jesus bears the sins
of disciples. Disciples—as God told Cain—would be accepted if they
did well, meaning if they obeyed the voice of God in all He spoke through Yah, who entered His creation as the man
Jesus. But without taking the sacraments on the night that Jesus was betrayed,
they were not covered by the mantle of Christ’s righteousness; they were
not under Grace. As a result, the Body lay dead (spiritually lifeless) so that
lawless disciples would not perish because of their unbelief, manifest as
disobedience. Armstrong and perhaps a few
before him get credit for taking the sacraments on the night that Jesus was
betrayed: again, this taking of the sacrament on the dark portion of the 14th
of Abib is spiritual milk, is having just a little bit of knowledge to which
God would have added more if revelation had not been rejected in 1962. But
because revelation was rejected, God waited forty years until an entire
generation was spiritually dead before giving to the children of that spiritual
generation the knowledge that there would be another liberation of Israel, now
a spiritually circumcised nation (a nation circumcised of heart), from bondage
to indwelling sin and death in a manner foreshadowed by physically circumcised
Israel’s physical liberation from physical bondage to a physical Pharaoh.
It is this recovery of The Passover is the only
observance for which a second observance is given … physically circumcised
Israel was offered the promise of salvation after demonstrated obedience by
faith (cf. Rom 9:31-32; 10:6-8; Deut chap 30), but was a spiritually
dead body. By touching itself, circumcised So adding to knowledge of the
Passover and when it should be taken [what Armstrong had] has come knowledge
that there will be a second liberation of Israel in a manner foreshadowed by
the first liberation, and that this second liberation will come at the second
Passover. Jesus said, “‘Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will
it be in the days of the Son of Man … so will it be on the day when the
Son of Man is revealed’” (Luke 17:26, 30 — also Matt
24:37-39) … Noah entered the Ark on the 10th day of the second
month, the day when selected lambs would have been penned for the second
Passover. And “on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all of
the foundations of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens
were opened” (Gen 7:11). Plus, On the day when the foundations
of the earth burst forth; on the day when manna came—the 17th
day of the second month— Knowledge has been added to
knowledge already possessed, but from the one who had knowledge of the Passover
but who has lost this knowledge—who no longer believes that disciples
must take the sacraments of bread and wine on the night Jesus was
betrayed—even what this person had [again, this person no longer has
knowledge] will be taken from him or her. Therefore, the person will not know
the times or the seasons when Christ will return and will be caught unaware.
The person will be one who declares peace and spiritual security are upon the
Church when “sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come
upon a pregnant woman” (1 Thess 5:3). Endtime disciples should feel a
sense of sadness when seeing so many who once had knowledge utter banal drivel
in their commented posted to Web blogs such as Ambassador Watch, or in books and articles celebrating their
liberation from the ideological oppression of Armstrong, who was merely one of
many teachers of Israel to lead, for a while, a remnant of Israel from Babylon
to heavenly Jerusalem. Armstrong was certainly not God’s essential
endtime man as he has been labeled by wannabe cult leaders. He was a failure as
a prophet or prophecy pundit, for he lacked even rudimentary knowledge of
endtime prophecies about To those who have knowledge of
God today, more will be given, with this “more” represented by a
comparison between the size of Israel under Samuel and the size of Israel at
the end of King David’s reign. The amount of knowledge the leading edge
of the remnant of spiritually circumcised Israel that is today possessing
heavenly Jerusalem has in comparison to the amount of knowledge Israel will
have at the end of the seven endtime years of tribulation is as the geographical
territory controlled by Israel was when the Ark of the Covenant was returned (1
Sam 7:1-4) in comparison to the geographical territory Solomon inherited from
his father, David. But those hundred plus thousand
disciples who once had a little knowledge thanks to Armstrong but who have
rejected what they had, from them will be taken salvation. They no longer have
any knowledge to lose; they have only their spiritual lives. Meanwhile, those who continue
to grow in grace and knowledge are children of light (1 Thess 5:5). They, we,
are not of the night. We neither spiritually sleep nor run to drunkenness.
Having put on the breastplate of faith and love, we encourage one another,
building one another up, just as we are doing today, this Sabbath day, one
Sabbath closer to when the second Passover liberation of * 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 ] |