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 salvation.
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Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of April 24, 2010
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 we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified. (Rom 8:28–29)
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1.
Will disciples believe Scripture? The question seems straightforward enough and simple enough that it can be answered. If the Father has drawn a person from this world (John 6:44, 65), giving to the person a second breath of life, will the person believe God and by faith walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6), following Paul as he followed Jesus (1 Cor 11:1 et al)? This walk was not easy for Jesus. It certainly was not easy for any of the first disciples, costing all of them but for John their physical lives. It is not easy today although it ought to be.
Belief (i.e., believing the Father and the Son) when a person is surrounded by doubt, by unbelief, is difficult, especially when the Adversary supports doubt with more help than needed. Belief seems to be a blind canyon with sheer sidewalls, vertical ascents that cannot be scaled. A person is naturally afraid to trek far into this canyon; so most Christians linger around the canyon’s mouth, talking tough—until faced with cancer or some other malady that is the stock of the medical profession. Then instead of turning to God with whole heart and mind, they turn to their insurance policies to see if they have enough coverage, and to the national government for additional help paying bills that they cannot financially cover.
What does it mean to be saved? Or to pray fervently as Elijah prayed that it might not rain, and for three and a half years it did not rain on the earth (Jas 5:17)?
Faith is belief in an inseparably linked concept that includes action or works. Faith doesn’t exist where there is no belief; nor does faith exist where belief is not manifested in doing what it is that a person professes to believe. These three “things” form a closely held tri-part Venn diagram that encloses itself [i.e., squeezes shut the crescents of wilderness] as a person matures … to believe God is to do by faith those things that will cause the person to become the fractal image of Christ Jesus, with “Christ” being the fractal of all who believe the Father.
But two time-separated paradigms are at work when it comes to believing God: in the future when the spirit of God is poured out on all flesh (i.e., when the world is baptized in the breath of God — pneuma Theon), there will be no distinction made between human beings. All will be born of God; all will be filled with, and empowered by the spirit of God; all will have the Torah written on hearts and placed in minds so that all know the Lord. Belief will not be difficult. It will be the season of the firstfruits, the season when humankind will bear the fruit of God. The kingdom of this world will have been given to the Son of Man. And the person who will be saved only has to endure to the end. This person has to do nothing but endure in faith—but endure for the three and a half years when he or she cannot buy or sell without marking oneself for death. This is the period that John identifies as the Endurance in Jesus [hypomone en Iesou] (Rev 1:9). This is the last 1260 days before Jesus returns as the Messiah.
When Jesus said that the one who endures to the end will be saved, and this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nation, and then the end will come (Matt 24:13–14), Jesus meant exactly what he said. He was asked what would be the sign of His coming and of the close of the age (v. 3), and He answered that question: following persecution, with disciples being put to death and hated for His name’s sake; following many falling away and betraying brethren and hating brethren; following many false prophets leading many astray; following increased lawlessness and the love of many growing cold, the kingdom of this world will be taken from toppling Babylon and given to the Son of Man (Dan 7:9–14; Rev 11:15–18). Then, and not before then, Christ Jesus will baptize the world in spirit (Matt 3:11) through the breath of God being poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28), and from this point forward all who endure to the end shall be saved. The news is even better than this: when the Endurance begins, except for the Remnant (from Rev 12:17) all of humankind will worship demons, but 250 days into the Endurance, the third part of humankind will rebel against the Antichrist as the majority of Christendom rebelled against God 220 days into the Tribulation [Affliction], leaving only 1010 days of enduring for those who will be saved.
The above is the paradigm under which those who are not today Christians will be saved.
Christians who are today part of the greater Christian Church, regardless of creed, will be likewise filled with, and empowered by the breath of God at the Second Passover liberation of Israel, with this Passover liberation being the event that initiates the seven endtime years of tribulation. It will at this Second Passover liberation that firstborns not covered by the blood of Christ will die suddenly and without apparent natural causes; it will be because of these deaths that saints will be hated for Jesus’ name’s sake. And because every Christian who professes that Jesus is Lord will be born of God and born filled with spirit, making all Christians brethren without doctrinal differences resolved, that many will betray one another and hate one another and lead many astray. The lack of love that presently exists in the greater Christian Church—the hatred Trinitarians have for Arians, and vice versa—will cause both to kill the other, thereby condemning both to the lake of fire.
With very few exceptions, Christians are not today born of God although many think that they are. If they were born of God, they would be “saved,” a tricky concept to address because of how the word and the concept have been abused for centuries. And it is here where this reading needs to begin; for today, before the Second Passover, a differing salvational paradigm is in play than will be after the kingdom is given to the Son of Man. There has been no mass outpouring of the spirit. Humankind is in a period that forms the right-hand enantiomer of Christ’s Jesus’ earthly ministry and the three days and three nights when the earthly body of Christ was in the grave. The resurrection of the Body of Christ occurs at the Second Passover. Until then, the saints are as the first apostles were when Jesus only spoke to them in figurative language that they could not understand (John 16:25). And what disciples have not been able to understand is that saints—those Christians who are saved in this era—have been and continue to be individually called by God as the first apostles were known beforehand by the Father and given to Christ Jesus (John 17:6). Jesus lost none of those whom the Father gave Him except for the man of destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled (v. 12). Likewise, Jesus will lose none of those whom the Father has foreknown and predestined except those necessary to fulfill Scripture. Saints who were and are foreknown by the Father and predestined for glory (Rom 8:29–30) are “saved” even before they are called and justified; they are saved because they are foreknown by the Father. They will be given to Christ Jesus who will not lose any except those necessary to fulfill Scripture.
2.
How can a person know for certain that he or she has been called? Jesus said, “‘For many are called, but few are chosen’” (Matt 22:14); yet, Paul writes that for those whom the Father foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ [as a fractal image], and those whom He predestined, He called and they have been—past tense—glorified even though they have not been called, a conundrum that has entangled Christians in Greek paganism since the days of Paul.
In Volume 1 of the Autobiography of Hebert W. Armstrong (1986 edition), Armstrong writes about the start of the Radio Church of God, saying that it began as an infinitesimally small way through evangelistic meetings at the Firbutte School, west of Eugene, Oregon, in July 1933. Armstrong writes of being warned about “an elderly ‘Bible scholar’ with quite a reputation in the community” (509), a Mr. Belshaw. If this scholar were to embarrass Armstrong, no one would again come to his meetings. And sure enough, as warned, this Mr. Belshaw attended Armstrong’s second meeting and asked a question: “‘Have you been saved yet?’” (510).
Belshaw’s question, Have you been saved yet, has since come, within the Sabbatarian churches of God, to represent mocking a person; for Armstrong answered the question, “‘Jesus said, in Matthew 24:13, that he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved’” (510). Armstrong writes that he said more, which will again be addressed for he got the rest of what he said wrong, but it is Belshaw’s question and Armstrong’s answer that came to represent in the 20th-Century the difference between Sabbatarian churches of God and Evangelical Christendom.
Apparently Belshaw expected Armstrong to say that, yes, indeed, he was saved—and Belshaw would use Matthew 24:13 to embarrass the minister who claimed he was already saved.
But neither Mr. Belshaw nor Mr. Armstrong understood Scripture; for if Paul is to be believed, the person whom the Father foreknew is saved before being called or justified. This person, because of being foreknown—that is, because the Father knows the end from the beginning as He can simultaneously see both from His heavenly perspective—has been predestined to be glorified while this person still lives physically. So in this era before there is a mass outpouring of spirit, it is in being foreknown where salvation lies; for the person who is foreknown will endure in faith to the end. That is the given. That is not ever in doubt.
But who is foreknown by the Father is the better question.
Paul writes,
I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. / But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it [salvation] depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. / You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 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—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? (Rom 9:1–24 emphasis added)
To be foreknown is also to be prepared beforehand for glory … is God unjust, taking from the common lump of clay that is humanity, clay to make a vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? Is God a respecter of persons, favoring this person but hating that person before either person is born? Or is it that God knows the end from the beginning? Is it that God knew Esau would not value either his inheritance or his heritage before Esau was born? Is it that God knew Judas Iscariot would betray Jesus even before Judas knew that he would; for Jesus said in prayer to the Father, “‘I have guarded them [the disciples], and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled’” (John 17:12).
Was Judas Iscariot called by God to betray Jesus so that Scripture would be fulfilled? Will thousands of thousands be called to rebel against God in the great falling away (2 Thess 2:3)? Or does the Father already know that when the greater Christian Church is liberated from indwelling sin and death most of Christendom will rebel against Him through unbelief and seek to return to sin, following the lawless one into condemnation? Can He truly “see” this future rebellion from His heavenly perspective? If He can, then there is nothing that is not already known, including how a person will respond to unexpected stimuli.
The person who, today, wrestles with questions of faith—how can I support my family when keeping the Sabbath is going cost me my job; how am I going to make the payments, house, truck, car, boat; what are friends going to think, giving up a good job for “religion”—doesn’t know what the future holds, or even what the person will do. But the Father knows. Not only does the Father know how the person will respond, but the Father knows what is needed to cause the person to grow to spiritual majority, as if the person were a stalk of grain. The Father knows how much time to allot for growth, how much incentive [fertilizer] is needed, and how He will use the person who is now “His son.” All the person knows is that doing what is right will change everything, and not for the person’s physical good.
A test [trial] is not a test [trial] unless the thing is difficult. To continue doing what the person has always done, to continue believing what the person has always believed is the wide road that goes through the broad gate. It is not the road taken by the few who will be chosen.
Salvation is not a two track paradigm, with both tracks simultaneously existing. It is a single paradigm within two eras, (1) the present long spiritual night that began at Calvary and that will not end until the kingdom is given to the Son of Man, and (2) the Endurance, the daylight portion of the third day of the spiritual creation week. In this present era, no one will be called who is not foreknown by the Father and predestined to be glorified … out of love for human beings, God does not call anyone who will not make it. And we have returned to the work of Herbert Armstrong.
Armstrong never understood the endtime good news [gospel] that must be proclaimed to all nations before the end comes; nor did he ever understand spiritual birth. He thought he understood both subjects; many of his disciples still believe him rather than Scripture, such was his persuasiveness. But if a person who has been called is not to be figurative cannon fodder, then what the Father knows about the person that perhaps even the person doesn’t know about him or herself is the person will act on faith when the person hears the voice of Christ, with the hearing of Jesus’ voice made possible by believing the writings of Moses (John 5:46–47). Before the Father draws a person from this world by giving to the person a second breath of life, the Father “knows” that this person will endure in faith to the person’s end. Except to fulfill Scripture, the Father will not give life to this person otherwise.
Paul writes,
For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) or “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Rom 10:5–17 emphasis added)
Paul cites the Moab covenant (Deut chaps 29–32, especially 30:11–14), identifying this covenant as the righteousness based on faith; for without faith, Israel, when in a far land, would not turn to the Lord to begin keeping the commandments and all that the Lord says (Deut 30:1–2). Thus, the person who by faith does what the law requires needs only to add confessing with the mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in the heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead to be saved … is there anything here said about enduring to the end? There isn’t, is there? For the person who by faith turns to the Lord when in a far land (i.e., when far from God) and begins to obey His voice in all that the Lord commands in the Book of Deuteronomy (cf. 30:2 & 30:10) will not suddenly cease keeping the commandments after hearts have been circumcised (30:6), but will continue in the way of the Lord that the person has freely chosen.
What about the disciple who bears no fruit—who has no new growth on which fruit can be borne—and is cut off by the Father (John 15:2)? … Let us first stay with Paul, who also cites the prophet Joel: “‘And it shall come to pass [when? after the spirit has been poured out on all flesh — 2:28 — and the Lord shows signs and wonders in the sky — v. 30] that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved’” (2:32).
What Paul writes is time specific and referent specific. What Jesus said about enduring to the end is also time-and-referent specific and specific to the same peoples and to the same time as what Paul wrote.
Paul writes about Israel, his people, and about when and how his people will be saved. The principle under-girding what Paul writes applies equally to Gentiles, who are by culture and tradition far from God, as it does to Israelites whom God has delivered into captivity in far lands because of their unbelief. This specificity has the spirit being poured out on all flesh; has all of humankind being baptized in spirit, the divine breath of God. No longer is the person born of God foreknown by the Father.
Everything changes once the greater Christian Church is liberated from indwelling sin and death at the Second Passover through being filled with and empowered by spirit. Everything changes a second time when the kingdom of this world is taken from its present prince and given to the Son of Man 1260 days into the seven endtime years of tribulation. No longer will the Adversary and his angels reign over this world; no longer will the Adversary be the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2). Rather, Christ will become the prince of this world, and He will change not only human nature but the natures of the great predators (Isa 11:6–9) for He will give to humankind His mind and His nature.
Herbert Armstrong rejected belief that saints are today born of God … indeed, as history has shown, most of his disciples were not born of God; they did not endure in faith to the end. And no second or third generation follower of Armstrong’s ever made a journey of faith when in a far land; none cleansed their hearts so that they could be circumcised. All are part of greater Christendom.
No second and third generation believer who was of the former Worldwide Church of God and who now clings to one of its derivative splinters—UCG, LCG, PCG, RCG, ICG, CGI, etc.—has been born of God. None claim to now be born of God, and they claim rightly. If they will endure in faith as the patriarchs and prophets of old endured in faith, they will be given spiritual life for the first time when Christ Jesus returns; they are of Israel as the patriarchs and the prophets and the righteous men of old were of Israel. But they are not now born of God as sons, for their enduring in faith remains in doubt. And rather than lose a son in this era, the Father has simply chosen not to call them even though He may well have called their parent[s] or grandparent[s]. And how will they know that they have not been born of God? It is their custom to keep the commandments, as it was the custom of the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18). So what Paul writes in Roman 8:7 doesn’t pertain to them, except that they remain hostile to God … proof that they are like the rich young ruler is that they will not follow Christ. They are perfectly satisfied following Herbert Armstrong although they almost always deny that they follow a man.
The Sadducees and Pharisees of Jesus day would follow this teacher or that teacher, but would not follow Jesus—and those Sadducees and Pharisees form the shadow and type of Sabbatarian Christians in this present era.
Jesus said,
I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? (John 5:30–47 emphasis added)
The Jews to whom Jesus spoke would have insisted that they believed Moses, but that wasn’t the case—and that isn’t the case with Sabbatarian disciples who follow Armstrong or White or any who are without understanding of spiritual birth.
When the spirit of God is poured out on all flesh, there is no distinction made by the Father between this person or that person; so the people themselves will make the distinction between one another, with the one who endures to the end being the one[s] who will be saved. However, in this present era the Father distinguishes the one who will be saved from the one whom He chooses to not yet give life (i.e., raise from the dead — John 5:21).
Those leftover disciples from Armstrong’s 20th-Century ministry or White’s 19th-Century ministry stand as dolmen marking the trek from spiritual Babylon to heavenly Jerusalem … 21st-Century saints must pass by these stone monuments on their way to salvation. Unfortunately, these leftover disciples are too often impediments around which saints, foreknown by the Father, must step.
Again, it is only those saints who have been foreknown by the Father as the first disciples—all twelve of them—were foreknown that have been called in this era.
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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."