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.

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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 20^th-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.

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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 cover 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 14^th of Abib, also knows about the second Passover, on the 14^th 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 14^th 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 Israel about which the major prophets prophesy: Jer 16:14-15; 23:7-8; Ezek 20:33-38; Isa 43:3-4; 11:11-16. It is about this liberation that the spiritual asteroids have scant knowledge.

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 Israel was spiritually defiled and in need of taking the second Passover. Christ Jesus is on a long journey [He is the reality of the young nobleman — Luke 19:12]; thus He will take the second Passover when He drinks the fruit of the vine “‘new with [disciples] in [His] Father’s kingdom’” (Matt 26:29).

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 10^th 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, Israel came into the wilderness of Sin on the 15^th day of the second month. All of the congregation grumbled against Moses and Aaron (Ex 16:1-2), with this grumbling coming on the dark portion of the 16^th day of the second month, after the first day’s journey into the wilderness. The Lord told Moses to tell the people that at evening they shall eat meat, and in the morning bread, with the meat being quail coming on the 16^th and bread coming in the light portion of the 17^th day of the second month.

On the day when the foundations of the earth burst forth; on the day when manna came—the 17^th day of the second month—Israel will be free from bondage to indwelling sin and death. The seven endtime years of tribulation will have begun. The death angels will have passed over all of spiritual Babylon, slaying firstborns not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God. Between when defiled Israel, that last portion of Israel to cover itself with the blood of the Lamb, took the Passover sacraments at even on the 14^th day of the second month and the morning of the 17^th day, the death angels will have passed over the land.

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 comments 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 Israel. But he did lead many into observance of the high Sabbaths of God although he never well understood the plan of God—and for leading some into observance of the high Sabbaths, he deserves credit.

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 Israel will occur.

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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."

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