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The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and commentary are more extensive for this week and next than will be usual; for the following will most likely be new and unfamiliar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath’s selection is discipleship. Possible songs include the following hymns: Weekly ReadingsFor the Sabbath of April 8, 2006
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 service should read or assign to be read Romans chapter
8, verse 18 through chapter 9, verse 29. Commentary: As noted in last Sabbath’s reading, the question
of freewill has confronted Christianity from its beginning. Does a person choose to become a disciple of
Christ Jesus, or is the person made a disciple despite the person’s will? Is
one person “predestined” to be glorified while another isn’t? If the creation has been “subjected to futility,
not willingly, but because of him who subjected it” (Rom 8:20), then all that
has been created, including humankind, is in a state of futility (i.e.,
lifelessness) by design. It wasn’t original
sin that caused this futility, for then the first Adam would be responsible
not just for sin or lawlessness (from 1 John 3:4) entering the world, but also
for the “lifelessness” or futility of the elemental elements of the earth and
of the heavens that existed prior to Adam’s creation. Obviously, no, the first
Adam is not responsible for what came before him. No one is responsible for
what predates the person. So only the Logos,
who was born as the man Jesus of Nazareth, is responsible for the futility of the
created universe, for all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing
was made (John 1:3). All things mean just that: the futility, itself, was
created by the Logos, who was Theos, and was with Theon from the beginning (vv.
1-2). The implication of Scripture is that all things have a beginning before which
there was nothing physical, or nothing able to be observed or measured by
humankind. This implication carries within itself the concept of “a beginning,”
which introduces the relative temporal relationships of past, present, and future, thereby necessitating the
existence of “time.” The apparent solidity of matter requires one “moment” to
become another moment so that matter
can relocate itself, and not be forever confined to its then-existing
geographical location, with the measurement of the parading moments becoming
humanity’s expression for the passing of time. But if one moment truly becomes
another moment and does not exist as merely an illusionary matrix, then that
which has a beginning must continually be changing in a measurable way—and the
universe is continually expanding through the decay of dark matter, this decay
evident by the uniformity of background temperatures in all quadrants of deep
space. Thus, the passage of time occurs at the decay rate of heavy mass
particles, and is limited or restricted to the amount of heavy mass particles
available for decay. Therefore, that which has a beginning also has an end
that is discernable [in the future]. The Apostle Paul writes that the creation needs to
be set free from bondage to decay (Rom 8:21); the flesh of every human being is
subject to this same bondage to decay—and the expression “bondage to decay” is
a euphemism for Death, as is “futility.” Life was in the Logos
(John 1:4), and this life is the light of humankind, not the light of
bacteria or bruins. Except for those human beings that have been born of water
and of Spirit (John 3:5), nothing living or dead truly has life. For within time, where one moment becomes the next moment through
decay of dark matter, everything, including rebelling angels imprisoned in this
darkness, is subject to death, and indeed, must die. Only in the
supra-dimensional heavenly realm where one moment doesn’t become the next
moment, regardless of activity, is there everlasting life—and any life short of
everlasting is not truly life, but delayed death. The supra-dimensional heavenly realm exists without
decay, thus without beginning or end as humankind perceives these constructs.
That which has life has everlasting life, for life and the absence of life
[i.e., death] cannot co-exist in the same entity at the same moment…in order
for an entity with life in the heavenly realm to lose that life [i.e., to die],
the entity must first be confined in a dimension governed by, or subject to
change, with parading moments. During one of the changes from moment to moment,
life is or will be lost. Hence, the iniquity that was found in an anointed
cherub (Ezek 28:14-15) produced a disharmony that threatened to jam up or bring
to a halt all activity in the heavenly realm, where, because of described
conditions of a paradox, all life must function as one entity for the moment
doesn’t change. In order words, a person sitting in a chair must rise from the
chair before another person can sit in the same chair. The moment in which the
first person sits must yield to the moment when that person rises—and in turn,
that moment must yield to the moment when the second person sits. But in the
timeless heavenly realm, the two individuals must function as one entity in
that one flows out of the chair as the other flows into the chair. All activity
must be coordinated to the extent that all living beings move and think as one
self-aware organism, somewhat analogous to the bodily cells of a human being
working together to give life to a lump of clay that is nothing more than the
base elements of the creation. The consistent analogy found throughout Scripture
is that to the elemental elements of the earth, “breath” has been added to
create life. And because the visible reveals the invisible (Rom 1:20) and the
physical precedes the spiritual (1 Co 15:46), the discernible breath that was
added to a lump of red clay to produce the first Adam (Gen 2:7), created before
plants or any other animals was a type of the divine Breath [Pneuma ’Agion] added to the breathing lump of clay that formed the last Adam. (Gen 2:5-9 — for a discussion of the “J” and “P” creation accounts, see http://homerkizer.org/typology.html Before proceeding, and because of the long standing
tradition stemming from the creation account recorded in Genesis chapter one of
Adam and Eve being created on day six of a seven day creation week, a word or
two must be said to clarify confusion: the account recorded on Genesis one is
of the spiritual creation, not of the physical creation. If it were of the
physical creation, then serious problems exist for the waters of the earth will
be above the heavens [plural — above the
heavens would be beyond outer space] as well as below, and the plants will
have been created before the sun and the moon. But these problems cease to
exist when a disciple realizes that the account of Genesis one is of the
spiritual creation, with the earthly ministry of Christ Jesus being the light
that came from darkness to form the first day. And the creation account of Genesis
chapter two forms the account of the physical creation, which has Adam and Eve
being driven from the garden of God before they enter into His rest. Again, the first Adam, a type of the last Adam (Rom
5:14 & 1 Co 15:45), was created before any other life was created, and
forms the lively shadow of Christ Jesus, created spiritually as the first of
the firstfruits. Disciples are the children of God, born from above into fleshy
tents that are subject to decay. These children of God are not the tents, an important
distinction to remember. Their life is not the life that is fueled by the
cellular oxidation of sugars; the “life” of their decaying tents is fueled by
physical breath. So it is the life of the tent of flesh that is subject to
decay, not the life that comes from above through receipt of the divine Breath
of God [Pneuma ’Agion]. The tent has
been created as a type of, and as the temporary housing for a new creation that
will be a vessel for honored use, or a vessel for dishonorable use. For too long, the Sabbatarian churches of God have
shied away from the phrasing honored/dishonorable,
opting instead to substitute special
and ordinary usage as a better
understanding of the great White Throne Judgment which emerged in the 20th-Century.
For too long, modern Christianity fled from the early Reformed Church’s
understanding of predestination. It became culturally offensive to teach that a
person was ordained by God to fry in hell, while another person was ordained
for glory. So the remnant of spiritually circumcised Israel returning to the Jerusalem above from spiritual Babylon
shadowboxed with the long-dead Apostle Paul as it looked for explanations that
would pull the fangs from, “What if God,
desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much
patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the
riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for
glory” (Rom 9:22-24). No good explanation emerged, so predestination became a divisive subject
until the mid 20th-Century when the leading edge of returning Israel
began teaching that the mass of humanity wasn’t today called by God, and was
not now a part of the household of God, and therefore, was not now under
judgment (1 Pet 4:17), so upon death, would not fry in hell. Only the household
of God is under judgment, with the righteous of this household being scarcely
saved (v. 18). So predestination became when a person
would be called from the world, and given the Holy Spirit. Those individuals
who were foreknown and predestined were to be called by God in
this present evil age, while the mass of humanity would await its calling until
it was resurrected in the great White Throne Judgment. And as far as this
teaching went, it improved upon John Calvin’s understanding of predestination. But it also missed much of what Calvin understood:
some individuals whom God has endured are vessels of wrath, meaning that these
vessels have been created for dishonor just as Judas Iscariot was given by the
Father to Jesus as the son of destruction. Yes, created for dishonor contains within itself that concept that the
vessel has been made alive through receipt of the Holy Spirit—the vessel
created for dishonor will be a Christian; that is, will have been given to
Jesus by the Father, which is why both have endured the vessel. What Calvin missed was that vessels created for
dishonorable use have been made alive in the heavenly realm through receipt of
the divine Breath of God. Calvin didn’t understand that until born-from-above
or born of Spirit, no individual has any life in the heavenly realm. Human
beings do not have immortal souls. Hence, the person who has not yet received
birth in the heavenly realm is not subject to the second death, and cannot fry
in hell, but awaits resurrection in the great White Throne Judgment when the
person will be “born” a second time…a person must be born a second time before
the person can die a second death. So, what about the unrighteous of the household of
God? What about Judas Iscariot, who was given to Jesus so that Scripture would
be fulfilled? What about those disciples who will betray their brethren when
the man of perdition is revealed—these disciples have been drawn by the Father
(John 6:44) and given to Jesus as Judas was drawn and given to Jesus. The great
falling away must occur if Scripture is to be fulfilled, meaning that disciples
will necessarily be drawn by the Father for the purpose of falling away. And if
being drawn to betray one’s fellow disciple or if being drawn for the purpose
of falling away isn’t being created as a vessel of dishonor— Even among Sabbatarians there are disciples who
have been drawn as vessels for dishonorable usage: a disciple doesn’t have to
look far, or to look hard to find swindlers and con men and cultmeisters
shearing the lambs of God. Each of these spiritual reprobates has a following;
some have large followings. Each comes as a “super-apostle” who fails Paul’s
test of genuineness (2 Co 11:7-15). And they know who they are. They know
whether they preach or teach out of compulsion, or out of the need for a
vocation. If a disciple has been drawn for dishonorable use,
shall God not have compassion on the vessel when judgments are revealed? Herein is a question that mortal human beings do
not have to resolve: if the Father draws a person from the world for the
expressed purpose of the disciple betraying his or her brethren—as Judas
Iscariot was drawn and given to Jesus, or as Pharaoh had his heart hardened so
as to bring about the destruction of the nation representing sin—will the
Father also not have mercy on the person who was drawn to fulfill Scripture? Or
shall the Father and the Son break the “unclean” vessel, knowing from the
beginning that the vessel’s purpose would be fulfilled by its dishonorable
usage? If the latter case were true—and it seems to
be—then every disciple who knows to keep the commandments of God and who feels
compelled to do so needs to thank God by striving to keep the commandments even
beyond the best of the disciple’s abilities. The disciple was created as a son
of God intended for honorable use, and nothing can separate the disciple from
the love of God. If the former case were true, that the Son shall
have compassion on those disciples drawn for dishonorable use so that Scripture
will be fulfilled, then why are many called, but few chosen (Matt 22:14)? Is it
because tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or the
sword (Rom 8:35) can or did separate the vessels created for dishonorable usage
from God? Is it because those vessels had no staying power inherent in them?
Did the Father draw a disciple He knew would fail as a test of the disciple, or
as the means of eliminating the disciple from the main crop wheat harvest that
will be resurrected to judgment in the great White Throne Judgment? The answer is in the story of Jacob and Esau (Rom
9:10-13). * The reader
should now read Genesis chapter 25, verses 19 through 34; followed by Genesis
chapter 27, verses 1 through 41. Commentary: Before Esau was born, because of the qualities of
timelessness, God knew what Esau would do, knew how he would value his
birthright and inheritance—and knew that he would determine in his mind to kill
Jacob as Cain killed Abel, and as rebelling disciples will kill faithful
disciples when the man of perdition is revealed. Satan killed his figurative
brothers [i.e., a third of the angels] when he rebelled against the Most High,
so the act of killing a brother causes God to hate the individual. And
disciples drawn by the Father to be sons or daughters of destruction (as Judas
Iscariot was) are hated by the Father because He knows what they will do—and
knows that they will slay their brethren regardless of whether drawn or not.
They are of their spiritual father, Satan the devil, who was a murderer from
the beginning. They are murderers, betrayers, and they have been drawn to be
used by the Father to make known the
riches of his glory for vessels of mercy. 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
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