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 cup of God's wrath.
Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of April 30, 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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When Jesus had spoken these words [about being one, the Father in Jesus and Jesus in the disciples], He went out with His disciples across the Kidron Valley, where there was a garden, which He and His disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed Him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with His disciples. So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to Him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed Him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. So He asked them again, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.” This was to fulfill the word that He had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.” Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant's name was Malchus.) So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?” / So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound Him. First they led Him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people. (John 18:1–14)
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The words that Jesus spoke had to be fulfilled: none of first disciples, except for the son of destruction, Judas Iscariot, were to be lost before the spirit was given near the close of the day of the Wave Sheaf Offering, which in that common year of 31, was on the 18th of Aviv, Sunday, April 29th (Julian). This is when the spirit was given, not fifty days later on Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks, when the last of the harvest of firstfruits is celebrated.
Shall humankind not drink the cup that the Father has prepared for all men [and women]? Shall humanity not experience the seven endtime years of tribulation? Shall Christians not be filled with the breath of God? And shall Christians—who have been first to receive indwelling eternal life as Adam and his descendants have been first to receive physical life—not rebel against God as Adam and Eve rebelled through mingling the sacred [knowledge of what is Good] with the profane [knowledge of what is Evil] when they ate the fruit of the tree in the midst of the Garden of God?
Rebellion against God is nothing more than determining for oneself what is good and what is evil … rebellion against God is unbelief, simply not believing God, judging God by the person's own conception of right and wrong, good and evil. Rebellion against God begins with mingling the sacred with the profane as in worshiping Father and Son one day after the Sabbath rather than on the Sabbath; i.e., worshiping Christ [the sacred] on the day of the invincible sun [the profane]. And the most grievous offense a Christian can commit against God is mingling ancient Mithraism with Judaism, thereby giving birth a differing calendar of high Sabbaths, with Christmas and Easter the highest Sabbaths on this false calendar.
The celebration of Christmas as the birthday of the firstborn Son of God mingles Christ [again, the sacred] with the profane [the birthday of the invincible sun] and amounts to flipping the Most High God the bird: the Christian who celebrates Christmas tells God by his or her works that this Christian will not be ruled by God. So shall this Christian not drink the wrath of God? Shall this Christian's blood not flow from “the great winepress of the wrath of God” (Rev 14:19)? What right of complaint does the Christian have? Ignorance? No, the Second Passover liberation of Israel removes ignorance as an excuse; for the Father by filling every Christian with the His breath [pneuma Theon] writes the Torah on the heart and places it in the mind of every Christian so that all Christians will Know the Lord. Yet even when filled with knowledge of God and the power to implement what the Christian knows is right, the vast majority of Christendom will rebel against God and continue to worship fallen angels, notably the Adversary, the present prince of this world.
When Saul Alinsky wrote Rules for Radicals (1971), he dedicated the book to Lucifer, the Adversary; for Alinsky, born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1909, to immigrant Russian Jews and reared in a strict orthodoxy, wrote in the opening paragraph of the first chapter of Rules for Radicals, “What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.” … Saul Alinsky represents Judaism's rebellion against God as well as any priest serving ancient King Manasseh did—
After Manasseh led Judah astray (2 Chron 33:9) and the Lord spoke to Manasseh, then brought upon Judah the army of the king of Assyria who captured Manasseh and bound him in bronze chains and took him to Babylon (vv. 10–11), Manasseh in distress repented and humbled himself before God and the Lord caused Manasseh to be returned to Jerusalem (vv. 12–13) where he took away the foreign gods and idols that were in the temple Solomon built, and he tore down all the altars he had built in the Jerusalem and he restored the altar of the Lord and returned to offering sacrifices (vv. 14–16). But the people of Judah did not fully return to the Lord, but continued to sacrificed on the high places where they had previously sacrificed to sticks and stones, only they now dedicated their sacrifices to the Lord (v. 17).
Because of what Manasseh did, the Lord condemned all but the poorest have-nots of Judah to be taken to Babylon in bronze chains:
And the king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem. / Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.
Still the Lord did not turn from the burning of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. And the Lord said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.” (2 Kings 23:21–27 emphasis added)
In a stretch that isn't really a stretch, the bronze chains with which Manasseh was bound when he was carted off to Babylon in type represent the Greek values with which the endtime people of God are shackled and delivered to the spiritual king of Babylon, the Adversary, with democracy being the foremost of these demonic values.
King Manasseh caused the people of Judah to accept as normal, right and proper, idolatry and rebellion against the Lord. Even though he was afflicted, repented, and sought to mend his ways, he could not undo the damage he caused when he, the son of Hezekiah, placed idols in the temple of God. And this will be the case in the Affliction, the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years: the damage caused by today's Christian leaders from the Pope to Billy Graham to John Hagee cannot be undone even by God filling every Christian with His breath so that all know Him. The damage is too extensive. Hence, 220 days after the Second Passover liberation of Israel, Christendom will rebel against God in the Apostasy about which Paul wrote (2 Thess chap 2) … very few Christians will not rebel—and except for the Remnant (from Rev 12:17), all who do not rebel will be martyred, with most of these martyrdoms occurring between days 220 and 580 of the Affliction, or between the opening of the Fifth Seal (Christmas 2011) and the opening of the Sixth Seal (the December solstice 2012) if the Second Passover liberation of Israel occurs this year.
The kindest outcome that God can offer to the Christian that sincerely desires to serve and please Him but who hasn't used the past seven years of plenty to prepare for what is to come during the seven endtime years of tribulation—the most loving outcome is martyrdom, the loss of physical life at the hands of fellow Christians who believe they do God a favor by killing the faithful disciple (John 16:2). And actually, they will be doing God a favor for they will test the faithful disciple's belief of God and they will greatly lessen the suffering that this faithful disciple will have to endure; for the faithful disciple's next conscious thought will be one of meeting the returning Christ Jesus in the air.
And the preparation that counts isn't one of putting away foodstuffs, but one of gathering knowledge, acquiring and holding the spirit of prophecy, preparing oneself to serve as a witness in the Endurance, the last 1260 days of the seven endtime years. Of course, not to have done some preparation to shelter in place during the Affliction is manifested unbelief [rebellion] against God that can be forgiven, but the consequences of which cannot be escaped.
The widow of Zarephath had little initially and could do little to escape the consequences of the drought declared by Elijah; therefore, when she was willing to give everything she had to Elijah, her jar of flour and jug of oil never remained empty. And moving this narrative into the spiritual realm, with Christ Jesus forming the last Elijah, when disciples are willing to give all they have to Christ, including their own lives, their means of sustenance will remain viable. For most, they will have to give their lives to have their lives returned to them at the Second Advent. For the few who have the spirit of prophecy, they will have to give their lives in service to God in the Endurance when they will be witnesses for God as Aaron spoke Moses' words to the people of Israel in the wilderness: the Remnant will speak the words of the glorified Lamb of God to the third part of humankind (from Zech 13:9) in the Endurance.
Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?” — Jesus had to drink the cup the Father had given Him to drink. He had a choice of whether to drink or not drink, but He was really without a choice: He came into this world to die as the accepted Passover Lamb of God. He didn't give up being a deity to long enjoy the benefits of physical life. Paul writes,
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:4–11 emphasis added)
If Christians are to not look after their own interests but the interests of others, how will they accomplish this in a period when human survival will be threatened? How did the widow of Zarephath look after the interests of Elijah rather than her own interests? How will the Christian who possesses the spirit of prophecy look after the interests of strangers in the Endurance? Will the Christian having understanding of what has happened and what will happen not extend shelter and comfort to the bewildered third part of humankind suddenly born of God when the divine breath of God is poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28)? Yes, the Christian with understanding will be as the widow of Zarephath was.
But greater Christendom must drink the cup that the Most High God has prepared for first Christians, then all peoples. No Christian will escape the Affliction; for the only place of safety that exists is in the grave.
Saul Alinsky in Rules for Radicals provided an effective guideline for how to collapse the present governance of this world, using the democratic process to produce an ungovernable society, thereby delivering the death knell to the Adversary's best attempt to demonstrate the advantages of self-rule, self-government to those angels that had joined him in rebellion against the Most High and those angels that had not. Unwittingly, Alinsky did the work of God just as ancient king Nebuchadnezzar was a servant of God (Jer 25:9); hence, Alinsky has done more for the Most High as a community organizer than he could have done as a rabbi, what his parents desired for him. For all Americans, all peoples of this world must drink from the cup of God's wrath, with the pious sealed in death except for those of the pious who have the spirit of prophecy.
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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."