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 two witnesses.
Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of April 23, 2011
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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And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth. / These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. (Rev 11: 3–13)
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The two witnesses will prophesy for 1,260 days — the two witnesses will be two prophets, brothers that form the mirror image of Moses and Aaron, and their ministry doesn’t begin before the Second Passover liberation of Israel and lasts only until the single kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man (Dan 7:9–14; Rev 11:15–18). Those forty-two months are spiritually equivalent to the forty years that Israel wandered in the wilderness, but to hold equivalency, these forty-two months will be an intense period, with the plagues that the Lord brought upon Egypt being replicated inside these forty-two months.
The ministry of the two witnesses will not be one of bringing human persons to Christ Jesus, for God will do this bringing of unbelievers to Christ through giving the kingdom of this world to the Son of Man at the end of the Affliction, the 1260 days of the two witnesses’ ministry. Then, when Satan has been cast from heaven (Rev 12:7–10) and is no longer the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2), all people will be baptized in the breath of God and will have the Torah written on hearts and placed in minds so that all peoples know the Lord: instead of bringing human persons to Christ one at a time, each individually drawn from this world (John 6:44, 65) as is presently the case, the Father will deliver all peoples to Christ Jesus who will then place His mind and His nature in all peoples. The ministry of the two witnesses will be to deliver the good news to all peoples that once the Adversary is cast from heaven and they are baptized in the breath of God, all they have to do is endure to the end and they shall be saved. They have to do nothing else. They will be as Seth was, born of Woman [Eve] as a replacement for righteous Abel (Gen 4:25). They will be replacements for the holy ones slain by their brothers in Christ in the 21st-Century as 1st-Century holy ones were slain for their belief in Christ (Rev 6:11).
Since the Father will fill and empower every Christian—every person who professes that Jesus is Lord and sincerely believes that the Father raised Jesus from death—with His breath at the Second Passover, thereby giving indwelling eternal life to Christians who as of today have no life, no other conversion of Christians is necessary: the two witnesses have a work to do among Christians, that of assuring them that they must keep the commandments for no sacrifice remains for them once they have been filled with spirit, but that work is not one of conversion. The Father takes care of transforming Catholics and Baptists, Mormons and Lutherans into living sons of God. And through the sudden spiritual birth of these Christians, the Father demonstrates to all angels how they suddenly came into existence; hence the rebellion of the vast majority of Christendom on day 220 of the Affliction discloses to all angels what the Adversary’s rebellion looks like to the Father. Therefore taking the kingdom from the Adversary and delivering it to the Son of Man, with the ensuing filling of the remaining third part of humankind with the breath of God, demonstrates to all angels the certainty that they will be replaced by human sons of God that have to do nothing but endure [not rebel] to the end of the age.
As the men of Israel numbered in the census of the second year were replaced virtually man for man (cf. Num 1:46; 26:51), today’s Christians who will be given indwelling eternal life—they do not presently have either an immortal soul or a living inner self—at the Second Passover liberation of Israel will be virtually replaced man for man by the third part of humankind (from Zech 13:9) when the world is baptized in the breath of God (Joel 2:28) and this third part, none of whom are today Christian, is born of God and born filled-with and empowered by the breath of God. This third part of humankind will be born as spiritual Seth, the replacement for dead spiritual Abel, righteous Christians who strove to walk as Jesus walked, keeping the commandments as Jesus kept the commandments.
· In the Affliction, Sabbath observance will mark those Christians who are of God, thereby distinguishing them from Christians who have rebelled against God through mingling the sacred [Christ] with the profane [the day of the invincible sun; the birthday of the invincible sun];
· In the Endurance, the last 1260 days of the seven endtime years, the tattoo of the cross [Chi xi stigma] will mark those Christians who are of the Antichrist, the Adversary who has been cast into time;
· Marking denotes difference: for as long as the Adversary retains dominion over this world, those Christians who are of God will be marked to show their separation from this world … when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man, false Christians will be marked to show that they are not of the Son of Man.
The ministry of the two witnesses—not the two apostles—is not and will not be one of converting unbelievers, but one of establishing a separation between Christians who are genuine and Christians who are false, testifying about who is and isn’t genuine through striking the earth with every kind of plague “as often as they desire” (Rev 11:6). That is correct, the two witnesses will strike rebelling Christians where they live because they have rebelled against God … they will not ignore unbelievers who will be given indwelling eternal life when this world is given to the Son of Man, but God judges unbelievers, not the saints who are to judge the Church (1 Cor 5:12–13). The two witnesses will not be a Christian weapon forged by God to destroy Islam and Buddhism or any other “ism”; rather, the two witnesses will testify against greater Christendom through bringing upon Christian lands droughts and bloody floods and disease epidemics, thereby destroying Christian lands for Christ Jesus in a manner analogous to how the Adversary when cast from heaven will destroy the infrastructure of this world throughout the Endurance.
Remember, the Affliction—the last 1260 days of the Adversary’s rule over the single kingdom of this world—forms the mirror image of the Endurance, the first 1260 days of the Son of Man’s rule over the single kingdom of this world: the mirror image of a person raises his or her left hand when the person raises his or her right hand. Thus, those Christians who are not of the Adversary must be marked in the Affliction whereas those who are not of the Son of Man must be marked in the Endurance.
The Adversary in the Endurance will prevent those Christians who are not marked with the tattoo of the cross from buying and selling.
Christ Jesus will prevent those Christians marked with Sabbath observance from buying and selling in the Affliction … how will He do this? By taking the lives of uncovered firstborns at the Second Passover, the governments of this world will collapse. Governance will become local, with its administration being by neighborhood churches that will exclude Sabbatarians because they keep the Sabbath. Through any number of devices [the most common probably being that stores are only open on the Sabbath as food and trade goods become increasingly scarce], these rebelling neighborhood churches will marginalize and cutoff faithful Christians.
When cutoff from neighbors and access to commerce via the internal necessity to keep the Sabbath, Christ will do internally what the Adversary will do externally in the Endurance. To keep the Sabbath when stores are only open on the Sabbath, or when relief food supplies are only distributed on the Sabbath will mean that the Christian cannot buy and sell but must live however he or she can; i.e., must live by faith for not simply three and a half years but for most of seven years. However, except for the Remnant (from Rev 12:17), faithful Christians will be martyred during the Affliction, thereby cutting short the amount of time they must live without buying or selling.
Initially—for 220 days, or until the lawless one is revealed (2 Thess 2:3)—faithful Christians, if they have the means, should be able to buy and sell and prepare for when they are cutoff from all avenues of commerce, but they will not be preparing in a time of plenty but in a period of increasing shortages. They should have been squirreling away food and clothing for by their prayers, they have known that the Affliction was a reality they would have to endure:
And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:
“Our Father in
heaven,
hallowed be your
name.
Your kingdom
come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in
heaven.
Give us this day our daily
bread,
and forgive us our
debts,
as we also have forgiven our
debtors.
And lead us not into
temptation,
but deliver us from evil.” (Matt
6:7–13 emphasis added)
When Christians prayers have been for God’s kingdom to come—for the single kingdom of this world to be delivered to the Son of Man—what have Christians expected, that somehow they would be exempted by death from experiencing the transition years when the kingdom of this world is taken from its present prince and delivered to the Son of Man? Or have Christians not really believed that the Kingdom would come? Have Christians carelessly assumed that because nothing much has changed for nearly two millennia, not much would change in their lifetimes, when they have camera-phones connected to the internet and instant around-the-world communication? Have they transformed the living God into a pocketsize caricature of God that can be thanked when they are spared and the tornado strikes their neighbors, or the tsunami strikes Japan instead of the Atlantic or Gulf coast? Have they no understanding, that for them to pray for Thy Kingdom come, they are praying for this present world to end and for the seven endtime years of tribulation to begin? Have they no shame, praying for the return of Christ but making no preparation either physically or spiritually for His return, assuming that because they have invited Jesus into their hearts or because they were sprinkled with water shortly after birth, they will somehow be as the widow of Zarephath was, their freezer always being found with food in it?
The widow of Zarephath and her son were preparing to die when the prophet Elijah called to her and asked for all she had … will Christians give all they have to the last Elijah when they have nothing but death awaiting them? Will they give their lives to Christ Jesus, thereby taking upon themselves the mark of God, Sabbath observance, or will they mark themselves for death by clinging to the cross, an instrument of death and the image of the fourth king of Daniel chapter seven, the image of the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse?
The ministry of the two witnesses isn’t to convert Christians who have already been filled-with and empowered by the breath of God, or to convert the third part of humankind that will be filled with the breath of God when the single kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man; rather, the ministry of the two witnesses will be a testimony against greater Christendom that could have redeemed the time—before the Second Passover and the 220 days immediately after—to spiritually and physically prepare to endure to the end [the end of the age, or the saint’s personal end]. The ministry of the two witnesses will, when the man of perdition is revealed on day 220, shift to being a testimony against rebelling Christians, with the plagues they bring upon the earth producing a separation between faithful and unfaithful Christians, with entire regions struck because of collective rebellion against God.
The two witnesses will strive to bring down the kingdom of this world, thereby causing all peoples to hate and despise them and to cheer at their deaths as if the world had won a football game; for all eyes must be on them when Death is dealt its mortal wound by these two being publically resurrected from death … these two will do in public and by day what Christ Jesus did privately and in the dark of the night, thereby giving substance to Jesus saying, “‘So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops’” (Matt 10:26–27).
Jesus’ resurrection was covered by darkness and by occurring in the heart of the earth; the two witnesses’ resurrection—their testimony that death has been defeated—will be by day and will be seen by the peoples of this world that collectively represent Sodom and Egypt. The glorified saints form the great city that is heavenly Jerusalem: the peoples of this world that are and will be born of God when baptized in the breath of God form the great city where the Lord was crucified. The two witnesses will go to neither Sodom nor Egypt nor earthly Jerusalem, but their deaths and their slain bodies will be seen via the forms of mass communication that have been developed under the Adversary’s administration of this world.
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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."