The Philadelphia Church

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 Key of David.

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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.

As said in last Sabbath’s reading, God can only be worshiped in heavenly Jerusalem, a spiritual city that has no geographical coordinates. Physical Jerusalem, extremely meaningful to physical Israelites and to physically minded Christians, serves only as a shadow and copy of the heavenly city of spirit and truth. But this concept of ancient physically-circumcised Israelites in Egypt, in the Wilderness of Sin/Zin, and in physical Jerusalem forming a shadow and copy of the spiritually-circumcised nation of Israel—the greater Christian Church—in bondage to sin and death, followed by liberation through empowerment by the Holy Spirit seems too difficult for most of Christendom to comprehend; thus, Scripture remains an “encoded” message that can be “read” with the key of David, but a message that hasn’t used this key although this key was “hidden” in plain sight and occasionally handled by disciples. It was not used to unlock Scripture until the time of the end began. The Roman Emperor Constantine handled this key when he proposed using the Greek word hypostasis to explain the nature of the Godhead. The Apostle Paul laid the foundation of the spiritual house of God with this key, and he left this key to disciples “on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Cor 10:11), with the warning: “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (v. 12).

The person who does not use this key of David will fall either physically or spiritually (or both) during the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years of tribulation; for this person lacks prophetic understanding.

There are many teachers of Israel who sincerely believe that they stand on firm ground spiritually when they teach newly born disciples to commit spiritual suicide—they teach these babes in Christ to be spiritual kamikaze pilots, high on praise music and adoration for a Christ they do not know, eager to attack faithful disciples that walk as Jesus walked. These suicidal Christians, “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” (Rom 9:22), dive their bombs of lawlessness into any vessel of honor they label as a Judaizer. And as World War Two kamikaze pilots, loyal to Japan and the Japanese Emperor, valued preserving the Empire more than their own lives, today’s spiritually suicidal Christians, loyal to traditional Christianity and to the prince of this world, value preserving the very things that God says He hates more than they value obedience to God. Therefore, today’s suicidal Christians will perish in fire. They will die the second death because they do not love Christ and His Father enough to obey the commandments that have been written on their hearts and placed in their minds under the terms of the second covenant.

One caveat exists: if Christendom, incorporating the vast majority of today’s Christians, has not been born of Spirit, then these “Christians” presently have no spiritual life to lose in the lake of fire. Their lawlessness is now understandable, for God has consigned all of humanity to disobedience (Rom 11:32), meaning, simply, that those individuals who have not been truly born of Spirit cannot keep the commandments of God (Rom 8:7) but must break the commandments. A person who would be a Christian [but who is truly of the synagogue of Satan, saying that he or she is a Jew, an Israelite, but an Israelite unwilling to obey Christ] will, most likely, keep most of the individual commandments, but cannot (this must be emphasized) keep the commandments that collectively form a single law of God expressed in ten points and by the nine facets of its single fruit. What is usually seen is that the want-to-be Christian will keep eight of the individual commandments given to ancient Israel, choosing to transgress what he or she will inevitably label as the least of the commandments, the Sabbaths [plural] of God, and choosing to transgress the commandment about no graven images. Thus, this person, whom the world identifies as a “Christian,” just as the world identifies another as a “Jew” and a third person of the Book as a “Muslim,” remains a bondservant to disobedience and to the prince of this world. This person has no spiritual life; does not have the Holy Spirit; has no life but that which came from the first Adam, regardless of what the person believes about himself or herself. This person, because of his or her spiritual ignorance, will believe that he or she was born with an immortal soul that will go to heaven upon death—and this person will, inevitably, believe that his or her neighbor’s immortal soul will go to hell for his or her neighbor’s unbelief. This person blasphemes God and has no love for his or her neighbor. But this person will not be cast into the lake of fire despite his or her present lawlessness for this person has not been born of Spirit and is not now a part of the household of God, upon whom judgment has come (1 Pet 4:17). Rather, this person, unless born of Spirit between now and the person’s physical death, will be resurrected in the great White Throne Judgment and will then be as one of the two thieves crucified with Christ at Calvary.

As the physical body of Jesus died after hours on the cross at Calvary, the spiritual Body, crucified with Christ at Calvary, also died for lack of Breath [Pneuma ’Agion] in the 1^st-Century CE. The mystery of lawlessness was already at work while the Apostle Paul still lived: this mystery functioned as spreading gangrene, devouring living flesh in the stinking rot of iniquity.

A person who has truly been born of Spirit will keep the commandments of God by faith as an expression of his or her love for God and for neighbor. Under the second covenant, keeping the Sabbath serves as a memorial to Israel’s liberation from bondage (Deu 5:15), not a memorial to the creation of this world (Ex 20:11); therefore, failure to keep the Sabbath commandment is an expression of the individual’s continuing servitude to sin and to the prince of this world … failure to keep the Sabbath commandment on the seventh day [no person can enter into God’s rest on the following day – Heb 3:16-4:11; Ps 95:10-11; Num 14:40-42] reveals lack of love for oneself as well as for God.

Now, to the “key” that unlocks Scripture: most modern English translations attempt to render Hebraic poetic passages as translated poetry whereas the King James Version did not. And within the structure of Hebraic poetry is the evidence for typological exegesis.

Using the first four verses of Isaiah chapter 43 as the initial example and the English Standard Version’s rendering of this passage, a person reads:

Verse 1a:

But now thus says the Lord [YHWH],

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

The thought imbedded in “he who created you” and in “he who formed you” is complimentary—actually, they are the same thought, but presented from differing narration stances. The two presentations of the single thought form a “thought couplet,” the basic poetic unit of Hebraic poetry.

The relationship between the first presentation and the second presentation of the same thought—the relationship between the poetic stances or positions—is disclosed in the relationship between “O Jacob” and “O Israel”:

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The person conducting the service should read or assign to be read Genesis chapter 32, verse 22 to verse 32.

Commentary: The natural name of the second son of Isaac was “Jacob,” which conveys the meaning of being deceitful—the name describes the prevailing attribute of the person. As such, the name conveys information about the person that is part of the imbedded thought, “he created you, O Jacob,” for God said of Rebecca’s younger son that He loved him (Mal 1:2-3; Rom 9:10-13) while Jacob was still in the womb. Jacob was the second son in a second generation born of promise; he was not born righteous but deceitful. Nevertheless, he was born “loved.” In other words, God loved Jacob, whom God knew would be deceitful, while Jacob was in his mother’s womb. God knew that Jacob, because of his deceitfulness, would have to strive with God and with men, and would have to overcome through striving. Thus, the name “Israel” is given to Jacob after Jacob strove with God until the coming of the light.

·  Jacob is the natural name of Isaac’s second son, and the first presentation of the imbedded thought informing the thought couplet is the “natural” or physical presentation.

·  Israel is the name God gave to Jacob after Jacob strove all night with God; thus, the second presentation of the informing thought is the spiritual or godly presentation.

·  Israel incorporates all that Jacob was and all that Jacob would become through striving; thus, “Israel” as a name reflects a second naming or a second birth.

The thought couplet “he who created you, O Jacob, / he who formed you, O Israel,” together, forms the “natural” or physical presentation of an encompassing thought couplet that has as its spiritual presentation the couplet ‘“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; / I have called you by name; you are mine.”’ Thus verse one of Isaiah 43 is one primary thought couplet that consists of two secondary couplets:

·  43:1a consists of the couplet “he who created you, O Jacob, / he who formed you, O Israel,” with the first presentation of the imbedded thought about creating Jacob/Israel forming the natural presentation, and with the second presentation forming the spiritual portion of the couplet.

·  43:1b consists of the divinely uttered couplet “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; / I have called you by name, you are mine,” with the uttered “for I have redeemed you” being the physical presentation of the imbedded thought about redeeming/calling and with “I have called you by name” being the spiritual portion of the couplet.

·  43:1 — the complete verse represents one thought couplet that consists of a couplet forming the natural or physical presentation and of a second couplet forming the spiritual presentation of the imbedded thought that God created/formed and redeemed/called Jacob/Israel.

The structure of Hebraic poetry is built upon thought couplets, with groupings of couplets expressing movement from physical to spiritual, this movement occurring within each couplet and within the groupings of couplets … the poetic conceit continues with verse 2 (Isa 43:2) being one thought couplet consisting of two couplets, the first [natural or physical] representing water and the second pertaining to fire; thus, the pattern presented in verse one repeats in verse two. It can now be said that the couplet [again, consisting of two couplets] forming verse one forms the natural presentation of an expanded couplet that represents verses one and two, with the physical presentation being about being created and redeemed and the spiritual presentation about being saved from death, physically (by water) and spiritually (by fire).

Here, now, is where comprehending Hebraic poetic conceits opens Scripture and functions as prophecy: verses three and four (Isa 43:3-4) form one thought couplet that is like the couplet formed by verses one and two. The natural portion of this second expanded couplet [verse 3] pertains to the first Passover and Israel’s exodus from Egypt as recorded in the Book of Exodus. The spiritual portion pertains to a second time when the lives of men are given for the ransom of Israel, now a spiritually circumcised nation rather than a physically circumcised nation. Thus, in the structure of Hebraic poetic conceits is previously unrevealed prophecy about a second Passover liberation of Israel … being able to “see” that a second Passover liberation of Israel—this time from indwelling sin and death through being empowered by the Holy Spirit—will occur in a manner foreshadowed by the first or physical Passover liberation of Israel comes from employing the key of David, typological exegesis.

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The reader should now read Psalm chapter 146, verse 1; chapter 148, verse 1; and chapter 149, verse 1.

Commentary: English translators have, through their use of the linguistic icon /LORD/, concealed an important distinction that King David, a masterful poet, understood or at least understood late in his life: in 146:a, 148:1a, and in 149:1a, the Hebrew icon that has been translated as LORD is Yah, whereas the Hebrew icon in 146:1b, 148:1b, and 149:1b is the Tetragrammaton /YHWH/. It has been generally taught that Yah is a contraction for YHWH, but this is factually wrong and comes from those who are spiritually blind.

The Tetragrammaton YHWH has been deconstructed many times on Sabbath readings, so it does not again need to be deconstructed. Rather, using contextual evidence, Yah is the deity that in these poetic conceits of David equates to Isaiah’s use of “Jacob” in 43:1a, while YHWH is the conjoined [two being one as in marriage] deity that equates to Isaiah’s use of “Israel in 43:1a. Yah is the deity who did not give Jacob His name when Jacob asked (Gen 32:29). Yah is the deity that Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel saw on Mount Sinai (Ex 24:9-11). Yah is the deity that Moses saw from a cleft in the rock (Ex 33:17-23). But no one has seen the Father except Christ Jesus (John 1:18). Neither Jacob nor Moses nor the seventy saw the Father. Yah is not the Father, but He is the God of the Old Testament. He was the Logos or Spokesman for the conjoined YHWH, who was one Spirit as Adam and Eve were one flesh.

The relationship between Moses and Aaron forms the lively shadow and copy of the relationship between the Father (Theon – from John 1:1-2) and the Logos as Theos. This is why Yah said to Moses that he, Moses, shall be as God to Aaron, and he, Aaron, shall speak for Moses to the people (Ex 4:16).

·  Aaron and Moses, together, formed one unit analogous to YHWH .

·  Yah spoke to Moses and to physically circumcised Israel. Likewise, the man Jesus (Theos come as His only Son [John 1:14; 3:16]) spoke to His Apostles and to spiritually circumcised Israel.

·  The man Jesus spoke not His own words but only the words of the Father, as Aaron was to speak only the words of Moses.

·  Therefore, from the context of the Gospels, it can be asserted that Yah entered His creation which concealed His existence from Israel (Eccl 3:11) as His only Son, the man Jesus of Nazareth. And He came to reveal the Father [/WH/] to those human beings who would be born of Spirit.

But King David, a man after God’s own heart, knew that Yah was not the conjoined Tetragrammaton YHWH, but only the physical or natural portion of the conjoined Godhead; i.e., the “God” of physically circumcised Israel. And David revealed what he knew about Yah and YHWH through his use of poetic conceits structured in thought couplets, with some of the structuring as complex or more so as any phonetic structuring of an English poetic conceit.

Again, the key of David is not knowledge of who the endtime descendants of the ancient kingdom of Samaria are. It really isn’t possession of legitimacy to rule. It is a disciple understanding that the physical reveals the spiritual (Rom 1:20), and that the physical precedes the spiritual (1 Cor 15:46). The key of David is understanding typology—and no one or no organization has employed this key to the extent that The Philadelphia Church has.

The Bible is an encoded book, but the code of importance is not a substitution of letters and of finding names and event dates closely clustered in the Hebraic text. The code of importance is the code unlocked by the key of David, with this key disclosing that there will again be a Passover slaughter of firstborns that can be likened to the slaughter of firstborns in Egypt when Yah set His hand to liberate a physical nation from physical bondage to a physical king. This second Passover liberation will be of a spiritually circumcised nation from bondage to sin and death.

Now, to the caveat: if the greater Christian Church has not cleansed hearts by journeys of faith equivalent to Abraham’s physical journey of faith while yet uncircumcised, then the greater Christian Church has not yet been born of Spirit and can only exist as the greater synagogue of Satan, claiming to be spiritual Israelites, but lying to themselves and to the world which lacks the spiritual insight to distinguish between a Christian who has genuinely been born of Spirit and a so-called Christian that is a pretender, someone who claims to be born of Spirit but who continues in lawlessness as a bondservant to disobedience. And if greater Christendom is not genuine—and it is not as revealed by what it teaches about keeping the commandments of God—then salvation remains in Christendom’s future when the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28). It is then when the synagogue of Satan will acknowledge all who are of Philadelphia.

So, employing the key of David will have a disciple practicing typological exegesis, with the realization that the “spiritual” includes the “physical” as the Tetragrammaton YHWH includes Yah (/YH/), and with the realization that the physical precedes the spiritual (again, 1 Cor 15:46) as /YH/ or the Logos precedes the spiritual or /WH/, which is the iconic radical that represented the Father (Theon) and His divine Breath (Pneuma ’Agion) within the Tetragrammaton to ancient Israel. And because the spiritual includes the physical as in the man Jesus being first a physical human being before becoming a life-giving spirit with the glory He had before He entered His creation, the complexity of movement seen in especially David’s poetic conceits causes what initially appears as redundant verse to be prophetic revelation.

But this key of David cannot be fully employed by those who have not been born of Spirit. Neither sufficient faith nor belief is present in those who are of the synagogue of Satan—this key is meaningless to those who are physically minded.

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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."

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