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 the king of all things green.
Printable/viewable PDF format to display Greek or Hebrew characters
Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of January 31, 2009
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.
In the past three Sabbath readings, the base for understanding why “Christianity” seems to be on the retreat throughout Europe, the United States, and Canada was being laid: Christianity as the world recognizes the ideology is about the Father and the Son, but is not of the Father and the Son … if Christianity were of the Father and the Son, then Christianity would look like it did in the 1st-Century when the ideology was another sect of Judaism.
All of the foundational tenets of visible Christendom are contrary to what Scripture reveals; yes, all of them! Human beings are not born with immortal souls, for eternal life is the gift of the Father through Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit does not have personhood, but is the divine breath of the Father or of the Son. Grace is not unmerited pardon, but the covering of Christ Jesus’ righteousness put on daily as if His righteousness were a garment. The Father is not the Creator of all that has been made; the Logos, who entered His creation as His only Son, created everything that has been made. Thus, Israel never knew the Father, nor knew the beginning or the end of the plan of God.
The listing of Christendom’s false teachings could go on for paragraphs, but the recognition of Christendom’s falsity can be reduced to simply saying that there is no way that Christianity can be mistaken for a sect of Judaism. Christianity abandoned the Sabbath prior to the Council at Nicea; it abandoned the Passover at the Council of Nicea. It abandoned observing the law of God even before it rejected the teachings of Pelagius … modern rabbinical Judaism, clinging to a lifeline connected to nothing, shares with Pelagius the belief that Adam’s sin set a bad example for humankind, but did not permanently taint human nature; that human beings can by force of moral-will choose to do good and thereby earn their salvation. So early Christendom [i.e., mid 1st-Century Christianity] can never be mistaken for a sect of modern Judaism: the Apostle Paul wrote that God consigned (or “concluded” in its archaic usage) humankind to disobedience so that he could have mercy on all (Rom 11:32); that every disciple was a son of disobedience (Eph 2:2–3) prior to being born of spirit. It is having understanding of spiritual birth that separates those disciples who know the Father and the Son from visible Christendom and from modern Judaism—and Jesus said that “‘this is eternal life, that they know you [the Father] the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent’” (John 17:3). To not know the Father and the Son is to lack having eternal life, a simple statement that by its truth denies to both visible Christendom and Judaism possession of eternal life.
As a Philadelphian, you need to understand and to be humbled by the knowledge that the self-identified Christian you meet in the market or over a backyard fence does not know the Father and the Son and therefore does not have eternal life, but is to the Father and the Son as ancient Israel was to the Father. The fact that you, as a Philadelphian, know the Father and the Son, and that you realize you would not know either if the Father had not raised you from the dead and given you a second life that is growing in grace and knowledge (i.e., maturing spiritually) is not a matter about which you should feel exalted. You have the opportunity to rule the day if you keep the commandments of God and teach them to others: you will not then feel exalted for you will then be exalted. Until that time, you need to always remember that you have the knowledge you have because the Father drew you from this world by giving you a second life. You did nothing that you know-of to cause the Father to draw you, but you have been chosen to be one of the firstfruits and to bear fruit out of season—and some disciples who are also born of spirit have chosen to be vessels of wrath so that Scripture can be fulfilled (cf. Rom 9:22–23; John 17:12).
Christian fellowship with either vessels of wrath or with self-identified Christians who have not yet been born of spirit is really not possible. A meal can be shared with the person if he or she has not been marked as one to be avoided, but little serious discussion of the things of God is possible. You as a Philadelphian can explain the principles of discipleship, but usually such explanations produce nothing more than blank stares. Seldom will anyone attempt to argue … the other person just doesn’t get it and has no comeback, for even disagreement would be welcomed on these occasions. That blank stare is a little disconcerting, for it is as if you, a Philadelphian, have mentally slain the other person and that was certainly not your intention.
So many blank stares have been encountered that they probably are not coincidental, but are the typical response of the person not truly born of spirit when accosted by knowledge of the Father and the Son.
What is steadily being culturally rejected or politically defeated are the tenets of visible Christianity: church attendance in Europe (with the exception of the Russian Orthodox Church) can hardly fall lower than it is. The same is true for most of North America. Whereas the United States was founded as a Christian nation, not a fact now taught in public schools, the separation of Church and State found in the First Amendment has been used to exclude Christianity from schools and the workplace, from American foreign policy, from political demonstrations. To publicly condemn biblically prohibited activities is now hate speech for which a person can be prosecuted. Even to thank God for a beautiful day is prohibited if the person is a Canadian postal employee. So visible Christianity has been pushed to the margins of Western culture—and this is perhaps where it should be exiled as a people is prepared to believe God and not demons.
The Christianity with which every person has had some personal encounter is not of God, but is of the bright light reflected off the arms and chest of the humanoid image King Nebuchadnezzar saw in vision. Visible Christendom comes from the demonic kings of Persia ruling over the minds of humankind. But the first horn or king of the king of Greece will defeat and trample the king of Persia, with this trampling seen in the marginalization of visible Christianity.
The first horn or king of the king of Greece is the color of 14-carat gold, with his color revealing his ideology: he promotes earth worship, not the false worship of the Father and the Son. He is king of all things green, including carbon credits. He stands firmly behind the Obama presidency: it’s no wonder that ex-President George W. Bush has been one of the most disliked men in America, for Bush with his “Christian” values and rejection of the Kyoto Protocol was one of the last national leaders fronting for the spiritual king of Persia … the battle lines along which war is fought between the kings of Persia and the king of Greece are neither static nor represented by a person or a nation. They are manifest in this world as ideas that a person holds; thus, a person can both represent the kings of Persia and the king of Greece, for the kings of Persia and the king of Greece are both Babylon, their identity taken from their head, Satan the devil. So ex-President Bush could represent the king of Greece when he sent U.S. forces into Afghanistan in 2001 and into Iraq in 2003, but his refusal to sign the Kyoto Accord was resistance to the king of Greece. His Mexico Agreement that prohibited U.S. tax dollars from funding overseas abortion was resistance to the king of Greece. Therefore, within the thoughts of this one man war was being fought between the kings of Persia and the first king of the king of Greece—and Bush, because of his faith in the Father and the Son (neither of whom he really knows today), would not turn loose of those things that shine like light off silver. He had to be discredited, mocked, and replaced by a national leader green to his core.
The green movement will temporarily prevail politically and spiritually.
From now until the second Passover liberation of Israel, Evangelical and Catholic Christians will have a difficult time. They have no friend in the White House. They have little or no influence in the American legislative process. They will be hampered in whatever they endeavor, and they will be forced to accept an anti-God agenda. They will know that the Father and the Son condemn the things that the U.S. does, but the spiritual kings of Persia will be utterly trampled by the first king of the king of Greece. So when the second Passover occurs, they will loudly declare the death of a third part of humankind as God’s revenge on the lawless ways of this world. Then they will, 220 days later, rebel against God when they have no covering for their sins but their obedience … they won’t believe the Father and the Son now, and they won’t believe then.
U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama is the world’s president: he looks like the world; he is liked by the world; his ancestry reaches from the desperation of the third world to the prosperity of the first world; and as a firstborn, he will not cover himself by taking the Passover sacraments on the night Jesus was betrayed.
If the election of President Obama portends the triumph of the king of Greece over the kings of Persia, something that cannot now be said with certainty, then few enemies remain for the king of Greece to defeat—and when none remain, the first horn or king of the king of Greece will be suddenly broken … if this occurs during Obama’s administration, utter chaos will grip the United States on the morning after death angels pass over the world for Obama’s administration will have ended in a recognizable act of God.
Visible Christendom will feel vindicated, and will not believe that it should now begin to live as spiritual Judeans. Therefore, it will be from those who are not today Christians that the majority of the firstfruits come when judgments are revealed. What was gold will become living gold when born of spirit and born liberated from indwelling sin and death.
*
The person conducting the services should again read or assign to be read Daniel chapter 8, then chapter 7, in this order.
Commentary: Borrowing a line from last week’s reading, Nebuchadnezzar as a human king is one of the kings of nations that lie in his own tomb (Isa 14:18). The king of Babylon against which Israel will take up a taunt is not an earthly king, but is the old dragon, Satan the devil, who comes to human beings disguised as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14–15). And Babylon is no longer a physical or earthly empire but the single kingdom of this world that is now ruled by the old dragon, who serves God as Nebuchadnezzar and his armies served God … the prophet Ezekiel wrote,
In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare, yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed against her. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it; and it shall be the wages for his army. I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored, because they worked for me, declares the Lord God. (29:17–20 emphasis added)
Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army worked for the Lord, executing His judgment on nations, including Israel; whether Nebuchadnezzar realized it, he and his army were mercenaries, hired as common soldiers, their wages being the spoils of Egypt.
In Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon is identified as the head of the bi-colored humanoid image he saw in vision—and in Daniel, disciples see Darius the Mede receive the Chaldean kingdom (Dan 5:30–31). So the two horns of the ram can now be likened to the two arms of the humanoid image Nebuchadnezzar saw, with the first horn to come up being the Medes and the second longer horn being the Persians (cf. Dan 8:3, 20; 5:30; 2:32). As one arm of a man is bigger and stronger than his other arm, one horn of the ram was higher and stronger than the other horn.
The vision Daniel receives in chapter 8 references “‘the appointed time of the end’” (v. 19 — also v. 17 & 26); the vision Nebuchadnezzar receives is of “‘what will be in the latter days’” (2:28). Neither vision was for the 6th-Century BCE, or even the 4th-Century BCE. Both visions are for the period humanity is either in or about to enter. Neither vision was fulfilled by their shadow or type. Therefore, the trampling of the ram, the kings of Persia, occurs at the end of the age or in the latter days. It will here be asserted that this trampling is ongoing and/or about to conclude with the he-goat having unprecedented power.
The first king of the king of Greece appears as a single horn between the king’s eyes. If now, the belly and thighs of the humanoid image Nebuchadnezzar saw is the king of Greece, this single first horn would appear as an erect penis on the humanoid image … Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar that there shall be “‘a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth’” (2:39) — don’t sex and the appetites of the belly presently rule over all the earth? They do, don’t they? If images of beautiful young women draped over the hoods of new cars are necessary to sell these cars, then indeed, sex rules so the first horn of the king of Greece now rules the economies of this world. If now, these new cars are green models, hybrids that pollute less, the first horn’s victory will be complete, especially if the person who purchases this car can bend gender identity on and off the job.
When the first bronze horn of the king of Greece is broken suddenly because he is first, four horns will sprout from around the stump of the first horn (Dan 8:8; 11:4). These four horns or kings are the four kings of Daniel chapter 7, with these four kings quickly reduced to two kings, the king of the South and the king of the North. It is these two kings that form the two iron legs of the humanoid image Nebuchadnezzar saw, and the dull silver color of these two iron legs discloses that both will support forms of false Christianity when the great falling away occurs.
These two iron legs will be the subject of next Sabbath’s reading.
*
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."