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 discipleship.
Printable/viewable PDF format to display Greek or Hebrew characters
Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of June 6, 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.
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This week’s reading will continue in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and will look at the temple, the house of God, in its context.
Many Sabbatarian disciples look for a third temple to be built in the modern State of Israel, with animal sacrifices resumed in this temple, before prophecies about the cessation of the “regular burnt offering” or the “daily sacrifice” can be fulfilled. These disciples are without spiritual understanding. Beginning with what is translated as the “daily sacrifice” being simply “the daily” in Hebrew, with the presumption that the daily is a sacrifice but without the linguistic necessity of this sacrifice being of an animal, and realizing that animal sacrifices “covered” but did not pay the death penalty for the sins of Israel, disciples mature in their discernment understand that ancient Israel’s animal sacrifices were the shadow and type of Christ Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary.
Jesus’ death at Calvary pays the death penalty for all those in ancient Israel who demonstrated their faith and belief in God by walking uprightly before the Lord, thus obtaining the promise of inheriting everlasting life when judgments are revealed. Prior to Jesus ascending to the Father as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering, then on this same day returning and breathing on ten of His disciples, saying, “‘Receive the Holy Spirit [pneuma hagion — breath holy]’” (John 20:22), no one but Jesus had indwelling everlasting life, received as a second breath of life [pneuma Theon] when the breath of the Father descended upon Jesus as a dove (Matt 3:16). The breath of God that David had with him (Ps 51:11), that Moses had (Num 11:17), that Abraham had (Gen 17:5 — seen in the addition of the /ah/ radical to Abram), that John the Baptist had (Luke 1:15) did not give eternal life to any of these great men (and women, as in the case of Sarah) of old; for if any of them would have received a second breath of life that person would be the last Adam, not Christ Jesus (cf. 1 Cor 15:45; Rom 5:14). Each of them had use of power coming from the Lord, power like that of wind and like that possessed in speaking. But for each, eternal life remained a promise, something to be inherited, a reality that would come to pass when judgments were revealed.
The promise of the Moab covenant (Deut chap 29–32) as mediated by Moses was inheritance of eternal life upon demonstrated obedience by faith: the Moab covenant is not a copy of a heavenly thing that was ratified by the shedding of blood (Heb 9:23), but is a heavenly thing ratified by a better sacrifice (i.e., a song) as the Lord’s covenant with Noah not to again send a flood of water over the earth is a heavenly covenant ratified by the rainbow.
Better promises are not added to an abolished covenant; nor does an abolished covenant receive a new mediator … foremost of the better promises added to the Moab covenant when its mediator became Christ Jesus was actual receipt of everlasting life under the covering of Christ’s righteous, euphemistically called charis or grace.
It is with the giving of the spirit [ton pneumatos] (John 7:39) that Jesus’ disciples received indwelling everlasting life in the 1st-Century and receive indwelling life now, but the lack of differentiating words for receiving the use of the power of God and being raised from the dead by the Father (John 5:21) through receipt of a second breath of life has caused confusion from the beginning; e.g., John the Baptist receives the “spirit” before the spirit is given. And after the spirit [to pneuma] is given, Jesus will send (the spirit) of the truth (John 14:17) that is the [parakletos/n], the Comforter or Advocate (v. 16).
Those who had “the spirit of God” before “the spirit” is given did not receive a second breath of life and did not have an indwelling immortal soul. They had no life but that which came from the first Adam, with that life coming when Elohim [singular in usage] breathed into the nostrils of the corpse of mud (Gen 2:7). The flesh of men is activated or made alive by the breath of Elohim [again, singular in usage], but Jesus calls such living men “the dead” [nekros] (Matt 8:22) that are to bury “the dead of themselves” [heautou nekros]. They are “the dead” [nekros] that the Father raises and makes alive (again, John 5:21).
If “the dead” [nekros [please see PDF for delineation of the nuances in theses Greek words/accents/puntuation marks]] are to bury the dead [nekros [please see PDF for delineation of the nuances in theses Greek words/accents/puntuation marks]], the inherent problem of language simultaneously revealing and concealing knowledge becomes visible: in English, in inscription and audibly, “the dead” looks like and sounds like the dead, whereas in Greek the accent on the case ending produces a slight distinction, [please see PDF for delineation of the nuances in theses Greek words/accents/puntuation marks], so that “the dead” becomes the mirror image of the dead. Thus, the loss of breath that transforms “the dead” [nekros [please see PDF for delineation of the nuances in theses Greek words/accents/puntuation marks]] into the dead [nekros [please see PDF for delineation of the nuances in theses Greek words/accents/puntuation marks]] becomes a shadow and type of the absence of the breath of God [pneuma Theon] that leaves living human beings as lifeless in the heavenly realm as corpses are lifeless in this earthly realm … in the natural world death follows life, while in the heavenly realm death precedes life, as “life and death” in this world form the chiral image of death and life in heaven, with baptism for disciples representing death of the type that came when the flood of Noah’s day took the lives of air-breathing creatures.
Of course, the earliest Greek manuscripts are written in uncials (all capital letters) and written without accent marks, punctuation, or separation into words; so while the distinction between [please see PDF for delineation of the nuances in theses Greek words/accents/puntuation marks] nekros and nekros was “heard” in the 1st-Century, the distinction is inscribed for 21st-Century disciples … just as case endings separate the Logos [O Logos] who was God [theos] and who was with “the God” [ton Theon] in the beginning (John 1:1) from one another, accent marks show that the one is the mirror image of the other so that when Philip said, “‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us’” (John 14:8), Jesus reasonably replied, “‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father’” (v. 9).
A dead person is not a living person—and a disciple would not usually mistake the dead for the living. But when it comes to receiving a second breath of life and being born of spirit, the dead are often mistaken for the living … the dead [tos nekros] inevitably mistakes secular Christendom for the once living and soon to be restored to life Body of Christ.
For ancient Israel, animal sacrifices were a covering of the sins of physically circumcised Israel as grace covers the sins of the inner new selves that have been born of spirit [pneuma Theon] as sons of God; hence, the animal sacrifices were a shadow and type of Christ’s righteousness that disciples put on “daily” as an ancient Israelite dressed him or herself daily. So “the daily” or the “daily sacrifice” is, today, the garment of obedience that disciples put on every day, with disciples now covered by the obedience or righteousness of Christ Jesus. But when the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 17:30) or disrobed following the second Passover liberation of Israel from indwelling sin and death, disciples will be able to, and must necessarily “cover” themselves with their own obedience—and with sin no longer dwelling in the fleshly members of disciples (Rom 7:15–25), disciples will be without excuse if they take sin back inside themselves; they will have committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit [pneuma hagion], with this blasphemy not being forgivable.
Obedience is a garment that is put on “daily” … when Adam ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, both he and Eve realized that they were naked (Gen 3:7). Because Eve was taken from Adam and was his helpmate, Adam was Eve’s “covering.” Therefore, sin did not enter this world when Eve ate forbidden fruit, for her disobedience was covered by Adam’s obedience. But Adam had no covering but his obedience to the one command the Lord had given him; so when Adam ate, no covering remained. Both were naked. Physically, they were naked before, but as grace is a mental landscape, obedience is mental clothing. Therefore, the Rebellion (or great falling away) of 2 Thessalonians 2:3 will see the vast majority of newly liberated Christendom return to sin, to disobedience, thereby making these rebelling Christians bondservants to sin that leads to death (Rom 6:16). And when this Rebellion occurs, Israel’s daily putting on of obedience as a garment will cease; the daily or daily sacrifice will have ended.
Those Sabbatarian disciples that look for the resumption of animal sacrifices in a rebuilt temple look amiss. They have abandoned Christ; they are without discernment, and having tasted of the goodness of God, they are now really without hope for Christ Jesus will not be crucified anew. Hence, it is important for disciples to understand that they are today the temple of God, and their daily obedience is the sacrifice they offer to God.
Fortunately, disciples are, for a short while longer, still under grace, but with the second Passover liberation of Israel, grace ends. Disciples will be liberated from indwelling sin and death, and disciples then must necessarily and will be able to cover themselves with their own obedience. So when Christendom—circumcised of heart Israel—rebels against God as a third of the angels rebelled when iniquity was found in an anointed cherub, Israel’s daily covering ends and by extension, the “daily” or “daily sacrifice” will be thrown down as the sanctuary and righteous Abel are trampled underfoot (Dan 8:11–14). The daily sacrifice will not resume until after judgments are revealed upon Christ Jesus’ return as the Messiah; for the third part of humankind (Zech 13:9) that will be born of spirit when the world is baptized in spirit (Matt 3:11) will be given the mind of Christ and will be spiritually as Seth was physically, the replacement for righteous Abel, accepted by God without having offered any sacrifice. This third part of humankind only has to endure to the end to be saved (Matt 24:13; 10:22), and it is this good news or gospel that must be proclaimed to all the world as a witness to all nations before the end comes (Matt 24:14).
Humankind uses words to take knowledge from the past and to convey knowledge to the future, but because meaning [signifieds or linguistic objects] must be assigned to words [signifiers or linguistic icons], words conceal meaning as well as reveal meaning, each dependent upon what the auditor [reader] brings to the words in question. Therefore, the Sabbatarian disciple who refuses to accept that the giving of “the spirit” [ton pneumatos] is an euphemistic expression for the giving of a second breath of life that gives real life to the inner new self in the heavenly realm (or in that portion of the heavenly realm within the bottomless pit) cannot today comprehend the reality that the temple of God is Christ, Head and Body. This Sabbatarian will, most likely, attempt to establish him or herself as a teacher of Israel—and the damage being done to the Body of Christ by this wannabe teacher is far greater than this disciple will know prior to his or her resurrection. In most cases, it would be better for the disciple, many with Ambassador College degrees, if the disciple were rebaptized with a millstone around his or her neck.
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The person conducting the service should read or assign to be read 1 Corinthians chapter 3 & 4.
Commentary: The idea that Paul spoke to the saints at Corinth as he would to carnal men [sarkikos] (3:1) who were infants in Christ should change how endtime disciples perceive Scripture; for it wasn’t just the saints at Corinth that needed milk, but also the Hebrews to whom God spoke through the Son.
What most Sabbatarian Christians today regard as spiritual meat is powdered milk pressed into chewable “bones” by the traditions of men; it is dog food, the crumbs that have fallen from the table of God … these Sabbatarian Christians have eaten more dog biscuits than have the dogs of America.
When Jesus withdraw from Galilee and went to the district of Tyre and Sidon, a Canaanite woman of that region pleaded with Him to heal her daughter. He didn’t answer her prayer either yea or nay, but she cried after Him until His disciples begged Him to send her away. Finally He told her, “‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’” (Matt 15:24), and “‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs’” (v. 26). Her response won the day: “‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table’” (v. 27).
Jesus commended her faith, as the faith of early Sabbatarian converts in the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th Centuries was commendable. But not much growth has occurred in the centuries between when Andreas Fischer was hung for preaching the Sabbath (ca 1529 CE) and the end of the 20th-Century, so little growth that Sabbatarians should be ashamed of themselves … how can an Ambassador trained pastor preach the same thing for 40 years and not realize that he or she is spiritually dead. Even “the dead” would recognize that no growth over forty years isn’t growing in grace and knowledge.
It’s long past time when Sabbatarian disciples should get up off the floor and begin to eat at the table of God … if they need spiritual booster seats or high chairs, get them high chairs. Put bibs around their necks and take their bottles away from them. If they must drink milk, let them drink it from a cup, and not a sippy cup. If they spill their cup, sobeit, but enough of this calling milkbones the meat of God’s word—if these Sabbatarians, after thirty and forty plus years in the faith, still insist that they have not been born of spirit but are only begotten, then perhaps we who have been born of spirit should believe that they, indeed, have not been born of spirit but are still carnal men and women, begotten by God as Catholic and Evangelical are “begotten” by God in that they will initially receive a second breath of life following the second Passover. Until then, they are spiritually lifeless—or worse, they have died on the vine because they would not listen to the voice of Christ Jesus. Either way, they are without the discernment that comes from being a living part of the Body of Christ.
Jesus was not sent to the nations; His disciples, when “‘clothed with power from on high’” (Luke 24:49), are sent to the nations … are disciples today clothed with power from on high? They are not, are they? And that means until minds are opened to understand Scripture (v. 45) and until disciples begin to do miracles as Jesus did, as Peter did, as Paul did, Christians should remain where they are; they should not take their version of Christianity to the world, for the theology that has been taken to the world since early in the 2nd-Century CE is that of a secular religion, with just how secular this theology is being most visible in the Borgias’ Vatican and in the reign of Pope Alexander VI.
The Christianity that “Christians” have taken to the world for past 1,900 years is not of Christ Jesus, but is a counterfeit faith that kept Scripture from being destroyed while the Body of Christ awaited restoration at the time of the end, and resurrection after the third day.
Jesus came to the lost sheep of Israel, implying that despite the Pharisees or Sadducees claims of righteousness, they were lost sheep as was all of the nation of Israel; the Pharisees and Sadducees were sheep without the faith of the Canaanite woman who endured being called a dog to receive a bone from the Lord. And so will it be during the seven endtime years of tribulation: Christianity is the endtime lost house of Israel, a nation that was and will again be circumcised of heart (Rom 2:28–29), but in the Endurance, it is the third part of humankind (Zech 13:9) that will have faith like that of the Canaanite woman.
The “meat” of Scripture that today’s Christendom teaches is as poisoned as was Chinese milk tainted with melamine, a nitrogen compound commonly used in plastics and fertilizers but put into watered down milk to skew the milk’s actual protein value. Christianity injects a large amount of Greek paganism into its greatly watered down gospel, sweetened with cheap grace and warmed to room temperature by its You all come message that ignores the fact that unless the Father draws a person from this world, the person cannot come to Christ Jesus (John 6:44, 65). The person can only pretend that he or she is a Christian—and that is what most of Christendom does: plays pretend with God.
In Jerusalem, when saved from a zealous mob by Roman soldiers, Paul asked permission to speak to the mob, and part of what he said was what Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews at Damascus (Acts 22:12), had told him: “‘The God of our fathers appointed you [Saul] to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; for you [Saul/Paul] will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard’” (vv. 14–15).
Ananias tells Paul that he has been chosen to receive three things—(1) to know the will of God; (2) to see the Righteous One; and (3) to hear the voice of God; i.e., to hear words conveyed by the breath of God [pneuma Theon]—for Paul was to be a witness to, or for these three things. Thus, it was Paul to whom the task was given to lay the foundation of the house of God with this foundation being Christ Jesus … Paul was given the rather thankless task of trying to make spiritual birth “real” to an overly superstitious culture. And Paul’s Roman citizenship assured him of a hearing before the emperor, something that none of the other apostles could claim as their birthright.
Paul says that he was set apart from his peers before he was born (Gal 1:15) that he might preach Christ among the Gentiles (v. 16); his claim is that he was chosen to be a witness for Christ before he was born, that he was chosen to lay the foundation of the house of God. And about this foundation Paul said, “Let each one take care how he builds upon it” (1 Cor 3:10) … not much care has been taken by present and past teachers of Israel as to where or what they scabbed together on mental depressions they imagined was the foundation Paul laid, with the Borgias’ Vatican perhaps the worst of these ramshackle constructions. But it isn’t what was done that is the greatest problem; it is what Sabbatarian Christians in the churches of God expect to be done in the near future that poses the greatest threat to infant sons of God.
By looking for a physical temple to be built in earthly Jerusalem (one might be built, but that temple will not be of God, or the house of God), carnally minded Sabbatarian disciples will inevitably be unprepared for the second Passover liberation of Israel and the restoration of Christendom. They will not believe that God would give His spirit and fill with His spirit a billion plus presently lawless Christians who are really “Christian” in name only. They will not accept them as brothers—and where token acceptance is extended (especially in the case of messianic Judaism), so many rules and regulations will be given to these new Christian converts (from the Christianity of the interregnum) that these infant sons of God will be driven into the waiting arms of the man of perdition. Whereas these Sabbatarian disciples should be laborers that help in the harvest of God, they will instead be baby killers. Thus, they, themselves, will be rejected.
For half a century, Herbert Armstrong reduced the gospel of Christ Jesus to a “give” versus “get” way of life. At the physical level he was correct, but the disciple is not a physical creature that acquires the things of this world. Rather, the disciple is the inner new self that has been born of spirit through the person receiving a second breath of life, the breath of God [pneuma Theon], and the disciple doesn’t store up treasure here on earth but in heaven, where the disciple has actual life while dwelling in a tent of flesh here in this world. It is the tent of flesh [soma] that acquires the things of this world; that needs to gather the things of this world to sustain life; that practices either a give or get way of life. The new creature has no need for the things of this world and isn’t involved in a get way of life, but either believes God or doesn’t.
What Armstrong should have said is that the gospel of Christ can be reduced to either believe God (John 5:24) or perish in the lake of fire. Evil is nothing more than unbelief. Sin is disobedience, manifest as a transgression of the Law. The Lord consigned all of humankind to disobedience (Rom 11:32) because of the transgression of the first Adam (Rom 5:12–14); thus, the sin of those who have not come under the Law will not be reckoned or counted against them in this lifetime. They need no “covering” for their transgressions of the commandments. They are “covered” by a natural form of grace, or simply, natural grace. But this doesn’t mean that they will be or are saved. This merely means that they will not immediately die physically for their transgressions of the Law; they have “time” for the work of the Law to write itself onto their hearts (Rom 2:15) if that is their desire … the work of the Law is to love God with heart and mind, and to love neighbor as self. If the Lord didn’t or doesn’t reveal Himself to the person by calling the person out from sin, the work of the Law is reduced to the person loving neighbor and brother as the person loves him or herself.
Grace saves no one: Christ’s death at Calvary paid the death penalty for every transgression of the Law that Israel, natural and circumcised of heart, commits/committed in this world. Christ’s death reconciles man to God so that the Father will give life to the dead. Grace, now, covers the transgressions of the Law committed by these born of spirit sons of God so that these sons will not immediately die or be killed for their lawlessness as the man taken while gathering sticks on the Sabbath was stoned to death (Num 15:32–36); disciples are not under the Law as the man taken while gathering sticks was. But if grace saved disciples, then disciples would be genuinely surprised when those disciples who have done evil are resurrected to condemnation (John 5:29) … if grace were unmerited pardon of sin, as perceived by most Christians, no basis would exist for judging either the one who has done evil or for the teacher of lawlessness who will be denied when judgments are revealed (Matt 7:21–23), for the sins of both would be pardoned before judgments are revealed.
No one born of spirit can claim that the inner new self did not have ample opportunity to learn to walk uprightly before the Lord without any of this son of God’s spills and falls being counted against the disciple … it isn’t how the son of God walks when first born of spirit that matters, but how this son walks immediately prior to when judgments are revealed. The death penalty for sins committed by this son of God while learning to walk uprightly are not pardoned but are “covered” by Christ’s righteousness and are not counted against the disciple at the time when they are committed. Judgment is the determination of whether the son of God should pay the death sentence for these sins, or whether the death penalty will be given to the Adversary. And disciples who hear the words of Jesus and believe the One who raised him from the dead will pass from death to life without coming under judgment (John 5:24); so judgment comes from unbelief in some degree.
No one without the Law (i.e., no one who is not Israel) can claim that the person did not have a chance to love neighbor and brother. Everyone can show genuine love to neighbor and brother; so everyone enters into judgment as equals. In the great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20:11–15), those things that were done in secret will become known, whereas for those who have been and now are born of spirit, everything will be known upon Christ’s return (1 Cor 4:5).
Paul writes, “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law … [f]or when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law” (Rom 2:12, 14). Therefore Gentiles by loving brother and neighbor as self do without the tutorage of the Law those things that the Law requires, sans loving God whom they do not know. So in the great White Throne Judgment the good that a person has done and the harm to others will serve as the basis for judgment: every person will be as one of the two thieves crucified on either side of Jesus at Calvary, for when the person is resurrected from the dead the person will have the Law written on the person’s heart and placed in the person’s mind so that the person will accuse him or herself of wrongdoing and even excuse him or herself (v. 15) if cause for excuse exists.
Christ will judge with righteous judgment; for the person will be a witness for and against him or herself. The person knows what was in the person’s mind when an act was done, as does the Lord know, the two witnesses that are necessary to establish a matter. But again, the one who hears the words of Jesus and believes the One who sent Him will pass from death to life without coming under judgment (again, John 5:24), a statement that is in apparent conflict with, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes the judgment’ (Heb 9:27) … with God, baptism by water as a type of the Flood is real death, with the person baptized coming under judgment as a member of the household of God (1 Pet 4:17). But there is no basis for condemnation or for rendering a judgment on the person who hears the words of Jesus and believes them. Thus, by hearing Jesus and believing His words, the person comes under grace, walks uprightly before God, and by faith does those things that are pleasing to God. By the person’s obedience, the person removes the imperative of judgment.
By this world’s standards, Paul was the scum of the earth (1 Cor 4:13), as are those who build on the foundation Paul laid … why? Because those who are of Christ do not set value on the things of this world that are passing away (1 John 2:17). They seek neither the wealth, nor the approval of this world. They seek neither to exercise authority over other men and women, nor the things of these men and women.
Paul urged the saints at Corinth to imitate him (1 Cor 4:16), with this being a common call: 1 Cor 11:1; Phil 3:17; 1Thess 1:6. Saints are to walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6), and to imitate the churches of God in Judea (1 Thess 2:14). Peter taught Gentile converts at Antioch not to circumcise themselves outwardly (if they were circumcising the flesh, the Circumcision Faction would have no objection to eating with them), but to live as Judeans while uncircumcised in the flesh. Thus, those matters about which the saints at Corinth would have judged Paul concerned whether Paul was a faithful steward of the mysteries of God.
Paul asks the saints at Corinth two pointed questions: “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”
There is nothing that Philadelphia has that Philadelphia did not receive; nor is anything any Sabbatarian disciple has that is of the truth that the disciple did not receive. Yet, in the past there were those in Philadelphia who behaved as if they did not receive the endtime good news that must be proclaimed to all the world as a witness to all nations—those disciples have since separated themselves from Philadelphia and now are as Phygelus and Hermogenes (2 Tim 1:15) were in the 1st-Century. Nevertheless, like Diotrephes (3 John 9) they attempt to put out of the church those who are genuine as they resist the authority of John and of Paul … they resist because they want the tithes and offerings of disciples so that they will not be thought of as the scum of the earth.
The message that was rejected by those who were once of Philadelphia is that if sin is not counted as sin where there is no Law, meaning that the sins of Israel in Egypt (particularly the nation’s idolatry and profaning of the Sabbath) were not counted against the nation, then an analogy is formed that has physically circumcised Israel in Egypt corresponding to spiritually circumcised Israel under grace, thereby giving to grace qualities of a mental or spiritual location as Egypt was a geographical location. Thus, Israel leaving Egypt following the first Passover corresponds to Christendom “leaving” grace following the second Passover, with Christendom being disrobed (stripped of the mantle of Christ Jesus’ righteousness) when the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 17:30) by disciples being filled with or empowered by the spirit of God.
Christians are not today under the New Covenant and will not be under the New Covenant until the second Passover, but following the liberation of Israel from indwelling sin and death, sin will not be remembered by God … simply put, disciples are presently under grace, with their sins being remembered but covered by Christ’s righteousness (the death penalty remains to be paid for these sins by either the lawless disciple or the Adversary who is ultimately responsible for all lawlessness), but when the New Covenant is implemented, disciples will have the mind of Christ, with the Torah written on their hearts and placed inside them. There will not be a war going on between the flesh and the mind; thus, disobedience will be rare—unless the person willfully chooses to rebel against God. And to this person the promise is that God will send a great delusion over the person so that he or she cannot repent but is condemned to the lake of fire because the person did not love the truth.
Under the New Covenant, even with sins not being remembered, repentance is still necessary. But until rebellion occurs when the man of perdition is revealed, the sins of Israel will not be remembered so those things that spiritual infants coming out of interregnum Christendom do that longtime Sabbatarian Christians condemn will not be held against these disciples. The lack of love for which Sabbatarian Christians are known will be their undoing whereas the rebellion of those coming out of interregnum Christianity will undo those who are presently lifeless.
A thing which Philadelphia had not previously received is that fire kindled in the dwellings of Israel six days of the week (i.e., fire that comes by the oxidation of combustibles) forms the shadow and type of human life that is continued through the cellular oxidation of sugars. Thus, kindling a “fire” in the dwellings of Israel is analogous to physical life, the life received from the first Adam. Therefore, the glory that shone from Moses’ face after entering into the presence of God, glory so bright the people of Israel could not look upon it thereby causing Moses to cover his face with a veil, is the shadow and type of the inner new creature that appears as the Son of Man appears (Rev 1:12–15).
· The relationship between an oxidizing fire and the glory that shown from Moses’ face is the relationship between physically circumcised Israel and circumcised of heart Israel;
· Kindling a fire in a dwelling is analogous to giving life to a human being;
· For six days a week, an Israelite does those things necessary to sustain the life of the flesh;
· But the Sabbath represents entering into God’s presence (cf. Ex 33:14; Num chap 14; Ps 95:10–11; Heb 3:16–4:11);
· The inner new self that enters into God’s presence is not like the fire kindled six days a week in the dwellings of Israel, but is like the glory that shown from Moses’ face.
Because the elders of Israel did not know what had become of the man Moses (Ex 32:1), Israel was given a weekly reminder of Moses, about whom the Lord said that he “‘shall be as God’” to Aaron and to Israel (Ex 4:16). The circumcised nation cast the golden calf from the gathered earrings of Israel following this nation rejecting both Moses and the Lord as its God. Hence, God used the Sabbath to force Israel to think of Moses [by not kindling a fire] as if Moses were God—and that is how circumcised Israel thinks of Moses to this day.
The inner new self that daily enters into God’s presence drags the tent of flesh in which it dwells before God every Sabbath as the reality of not kindling a fire on the Sabbath.
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This reading is long enough without beginning to address what disciples being the temple of God represents. So this reading will be continued next week (June 13, 2009) at this point.
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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."