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 Abraham.
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Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of June 12, 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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What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. / For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. / That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Rom 4:1–25 emphasis added)
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In a continuation of last week’s reading, the same Scripture passage will begin this reading:
The Adversary’s rebellion began with doubt in the anointed cherub who was the “‘signet of perfection, / full of wisdom and perfect in beauty’” (Ezek 28:12). This cherub who was in Eden, the garden of God (v. 13) knew what was “right,” but in being filled with wisdom, this cherub apparently began to judge the Most High … democracy is about equality. Democracy is about the lowest person in the realm having the same rights under law as the highest person in the realm. No person under the law that says, Thou shall do no murder, has the right to commit murder. From president or prime minister down, in a just democratic society no one is above the law: since the English Magna Charta was signed by John under duress, even kings have been under the law, thereby making the law the ultimate sovereign of the English peoples. Even those who make the rules must abide by the rules they make. But ancient King David, in the matter of Uriah the Hittite, was not guilty of murder in Israel, but was guilty before God, an interesting juxtaposition that cost David the life of his first son by Bathsheba.
If David would have been guilty of murder in Israel, that murder would have cost him his life not the life of his son. The Lord would have taken David’s life. But in ancient Israel, the king was not under his dictates for he could take from the people whatever he wanted (1 Sam 8:11–16), and the people would be the slaves of the king (v. 16). The liberty declared by Moses would be lost by the people—and this was the difference between Israel being administered by judges, with the Lord being the nation’s sovereign, and Israel being ruled by a king, with the Lord interacting with the king and the people suffering or being blessed according to the righteousness of the king. And in asking for a king, the Lord promised not listen to the people when they cried out to Him because of the reigning king (v. 18).
In Israel, the king replaced God for the people; hence, the king became the manifestation of the law. In practical terms, the king was above the law and the king’s capriciousness became the law of the land. Thus, a king that served alien gods that were no gods caused the people to serve foreign gods and thereby be cursed by the Lord.
To Uriah the Hittite, one of David’s mighty men (2 Sam 23:39), David was like God—and in the heavenly realm, God is the Law, for the Law merely reflects the manifested attributes of Love. This is not to say that God is codified rules and statutes as the law is in this world, but is to say that the very character of God is an expression of the commandments … the king in Israel ruled the nation as a shadow and type of the Lord ruling the congregation as the head rules the body and as the inner person should rule the tent of flesh in which this inner self dwells.
Israel became a fractal, with the character of the fractal reflected in the character of the king. Thus, those few Israelites who did not succumb to lawlessness during the reign of the kings over the House of Judah and over the House of Israel are seen in Scripture through the identifying phrase, the sons of the prophets (e.g., 2 Kings 4:1; 6:1 — in 4:1, the son of the prophets was married and was the father of two children, so he wasn’t a teenager: some who would teach Israel have errantly claimed that the sons of the prophets were the youth of Israel).
In a deliberately controversial claim, let it here be said that God is not hindered by law, but uses law/love as a tool to bring the sons of His house into the fullness of love. To someone who has succumbed to the Adversary’s broadcast of disobedience, God would seem to be above law, for there is no external restriction on what God can and will do. The only restriction comes from within God; hence, He is the Law. How then, can a Christian not keep the Law?
The common Christian will say some form of, Because Jesus kept the law Christians are not under the law and do not have to keep the commandments because Jesus dwells in them and has already fulfilled the law … Jesus has already been glorified, and these Christians remain the slaves of sin so why would Jesus dwell in any one of them, for Christ Jesus is not a servant of sin (Gal 2:17)? Is there a war going on within the Christian with the mind of the person desiring to keep the laws of God and the fleshly body of the person remaining subject to sin as their was within Paul (see Rom 7:7–25)? Paul was individually the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27) as every Christian born of God is the individually the Body of Christ. And in what Paul writes about his inner struggle to do right, to keep the commandments, is an apt description of what occurs collectively within the Body of Christ. So to not strive to keep the commandments is to openly acknowledge the person’s servitude to sin.
Democracy would place God under Law and subject to the whims and dictates of the assembly of his angelic sons, and this will never happen. Democracy would remove the Most High from being most high and would lower Him to the status of those beings He created—and it is through the identifier “Most High” that God refutes every premise embedded within democracy. So let it be acknowledged throughout the earth that God stands against democracy even though He permitted its demonstration here on earth for it is impossible to kill an idea unless the people themselves reject the idea. And what is presently being seen within the United States of America’s Body Politic is the double rejection of democracy, with the Tea Party movement wanting to return America to the republic it once was and with Marxists academics wanting to complete the transformation of America into a workers’ utopia.
That anointed cherub, Lucifer, who was full of wisdom apparently grew to doubt the love in the Most High seemingly being above law; so when this cherub finally disagreed with the Most High, his rebellion was revealed—rebellion that had been in existence for long enough to spoil (as one rotten apple spoils the apples it touches) a third of the angels.
In the heavenly realm, ideas are as things are in this physical realm. Thus, the concept of equality between the angels who were created and their Creator—because of the peculiarities of timelessness, the angels had no history of their preexistence so they would not have been able to perceive that the Most High existed before they existed—created heavenly gridlock of the sort seen on U.S. metropolitan freeways when a traffic accident occurs. The rebels and their concepts of equality had to be immediately purged from heaven; hence, a rent in the fabric of heaven opened, thereby forming the Abyss (i.e., the bottomless pit) in which all of the universe was spoken into existence by the Logos. This rent will close, the reason John writes, “And the world is passing away along with its desires” (1 John 2:17). The new heavens and new earth that are to come (Rev 21:1) are not in the Abyss; they are not physical. New Jerusalem is not a physical city, but is the assembly of glorified living stones that forms the fractal of Christ, its Head and its King.
The wisdom given Paul centered round Israel receiving a second breath of life, the breath of the Father [pneuma Theon], the breath of life that made alive the inner self of every Israelite. And once the inner self received life, it had to make a journey of faith equivalent to Abraham’s physical journey of faith from Ur of the Chaldeans [Babylon] to Haran [Assyria], then down to Canaan [Judea]. But Abraham (then Abram) didn’t stop and remain in the Promised Land but continued south to Egypt, where by a half-truth (and full lie) he acquired great wealth as Pharaoh took Sarah for a wife (Gen 12:15–16). The Lord afflicted Pharaoh because of Sarah (v. 17), and Pharaoh, more than a little angry but honorable, returned Sarah to Abraham and sent them and their possessions and flocks away (v. 20).
The nation of Israel in Egypt was the physical magnification of Pharaoh holding Abraham’s helpmate (wife) captive in the Pharaoh’s house … in a narrative movement upward, the Lord held in relationship to Israel the same position as Abram held with Sari. Israel was to be the Lord’s helpmate [wife]. Thus, the Lord afflicting “Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife” (Gen 12:17) was a type or shadow of the Lord afflicting Pharaoh and all of Egypt with plagues in the days of Moses—
Returning to last Sabbath’s reading and the concept of thought-couplets, and of Christ Jesus being the Alpha and Omega [cursory research about where vowels sounds are made in the mouth can be found in studies of the English vowel shift that occurred between approximately 1400 CE and 1700 CE], if historic narrative were presented as Hebraic poetics, Abram’s journey into Egypt and exodus from Egypt would occupy the physical portion of a thought-couplet, and Jacob’s journey to Egypt and Israel’s Exodus would occupy the spiritual portion. The two journeys to Egypt are parallel narratives; they form one thought (narrative) couplet.
In David’s expanded thought-couplet (Ps 32:1–2) that Paul sites when he writes about Abraham, Paul compares disciples in the 1st-Century to Abraham believing God and having their faith/belief counted to them as righteousness. This comparison would place early Christians in the physical portion of the second thought-couplet (i.e., in Ps 32:2a), with this second thought-couplet [both its physical and spiritual portions] forming the spiritual portion of the expanded couplet. Thus, when Paul neglects to cite, “and in whose spirit there is no deceit [guile]” (Ps 32:2b), he neglects disclosing to these 1st-Century converts that a Second Passover (another or second Passover liberation of Israel, a liberation that occurs on the Second Passover) will complete the spiritual portion of the second thought-couplet.
The above addresses an extremely important omission by Paul: either Paul doesn’t know about the second Passover liberation of Israel, or he is not at liberty to disclose knowledge of this second liberation. Either way, Paul inadvertently sets disciples up to fail in a manner similar to how Herbert Armstrong’s prophecy-based ministry set disciples up to fail; for Paul neglects too much of the Abraham story.
If Scripture could be neatly categorized, the initial presentation of the thought, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven” (Ps 32:1a) equates to the male goat sacrificed on the altar on Yom Kipporim (Lev 16:15), and equates to Abram going down to Egypt and Pharaoh taking Sarai as a wife.
The second presentation of the same thought, “[implied — Blessed is the one] whose sin is covered” (Ps 32:1b) equates to the Azazel goat over whose head the sins of Israel are read (Lev 16:21), and equates to Israel, in the person of Joseph then his brothers and finally his father, going down to Egypt and Pharaoh making the people slaves before the Lord through Moses leads the nation north to the Promised Land.
The third presentation of the same thought, “Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity” (Ps 32:2a) equates to Christ Jesus as the reality of the goat sacrificed on the altar on Yom Kipporim being sacrificed at Calvary and to the resurrected Christ Jesus being the reality of the Azazel goat as Christ covers the sins of disciples with His righteousness in the heavenly realm.
The fourth presentation of the same thought, “[implied — Blessed is the man] in whose spirit there is no deceit” (Ps 32:2b) equates to Christians being filled-with and empowered by spirit following the Second Passover liberation of Israel. They will then cover lawlessness with their own obedience to God.
Paul either knows nothing about the Second Passover liberation of Israel, or what he knows about this liberation is hidden within what he writes when he says, “And I know that this man was caught up into paradise … and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter” (2 Cor 12:3–4). Most likely, when he wrote his treatise to the Romans, he knew nothing about the Second Passover liberation of Israel. He didn’t need to have knowledge of this liberation to do the job for which he was called; for every person must come to God by faith. It will be as difficult for endtime Christians to come to God as it was for 1st-Century Pharisees and Sadducees—Judaism at the time of the second temple had Scripture, and the people searched Scripture to find in it eternal life (John 5:39). But the fathers of Israel had prevented Israel from receiving indwelling eternal life when the nation broke covenant with the Lord at Mount Sinai. All who would receive indwelling eternal life would have to be individually called by the Father, with this calling not beginning to occur until after the Logos came as His only Son, the man Jesus of Nazareth.
It is difficult for Christians to accept the reality that God is not, today, trying to save the world, but is only calling those who are foreknown by Him and predestined to be glorified (Rom 8:30). No one else is being called. So the millions and now nearly two billion Christians in this world are as Sari was in Egypt and as Israel was in the Egypt and as Judaism was during the reign of Tiberius. The difference is quantitative, but with a caveat: slavery equates to death. As Sari was taken by Pharaoh to be his wife, and as Israel was taken by Pharaoh [a different Pharaoh, but one occupying the same position of authority] to be slaves, in the 1st-Century the Adversary took Christians captive: all who were in Asia left Paul (2 Tim 1:15), and converts about whom Paul had often written began to “walk as enemies of the cross of Christ” (Phil 3:18), and the Jews sought to kill Paul, who wrote to the saints at Thessalonica, “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work” (2 Thess 2:7) … what mystery of lawlessness? The same one presently seen within “common” Christian fellowships, the one that has Christians worshiping on Sunday instead of on the Sabbath?
Paul couldn’t tell spiritual infants able to only digest milk (see 1 Cor 3:1–3) that the Church as the Body of Christ must die from loss of the breath of God [pneuma Theon — i.e., the Holy Spirit, pneuma hagion] as the physical body of Jesus died on the cross from loss of physical breath. Telling Christians that the Church must die when the Church, as the last Eve, believed the same lie that the first Eve believed—You shall not surely die (Gen 3:4)—and when Jesus said that the gates of Hades would not prevail against the assembly of Him (Matt 16:18) was not an option for Paul. If he had said that the Church must die it is small wonder that any disciples stayed with him. So Paul couldn’t write what is obviously apparent at the end of the age: the Church is not today one body, but is a corpse utterly lacking any spiritual life. The common Church is enslaved to sin (as evidenced by the day on which it seeks to enter into God’s presence) that has led to death … it is dead! But again, the gates of Hades will not prevail over the Church, which will be brought back to life when it is liberated from indwelling sin and death at the Second Passover. Then every Christian, regardless of denomination, sect, or creed, will be filled-with and empowered by the spirit of God. The Torah will be written on hearts and placed in minds so that every Christian Knows the Lord. All Christians will be under the New Covenant. And the Christian who endures to the end shall be saved—but enduring to the end means not returning to sin as a dog returns to its vomit to devour again what made it sick before.
In fairness to Paul, he couldn’t tell new converts what James wrote:
But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. (2:18–24 emphasis added)
Abraham believed God, and his belief/faith was counted to him as righteousness. But that belief was about Abraham being the father of a son who would be the heir of his house and that belief had to be tested to prove whether it was genuine … the faith that is counted to the disciple as righteousness has to be tested before it is made complete. Jesus passed when tested. And in fulfilling all righteousness, disciples will have their faith tested; for what does Scripture say?
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. / When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba. (Gen 22:1–19 all emphasis has been added)
Yes, Abram believed God and the Lord counted that belief/faith as righteousness (Gen 15:6), but righteousness coming through faith didn’t satisfy the Lord in Abraham’s case, the point that James makes and the point that Paul ignores for Paul writes to spiritual infants only able to digest milk, not the meat of the gospel … for the person who contends that all Scripture, especially the epistles of Paul, are the infallible word of God, is not the epistle of James also included within all Scripture? Is not the account of Abraham being commanded to sacrifice Isaac included within all Scripture? What is to be made of “God tested Abraham” (Gen 22:1)? Would God test Abraham and test Jesus and not test Peter, Paul, John? Of course the first disciples were tested—and Peter failed his first testing in that he denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed on the morning of the 14th of Abib, 31 CE. But once Peter received the spirit as one of the ten (see John 20:22), he didn’t again fail a test for when he was brought before temple leaders, he said to them, “‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard’” (Acts 4:19–20).
Once the Body of Christ is resurrected to life at the Second Passover, will not the Body be tested by God? Certainly it will be tested—and it will fail its testing, for Paul writes concerning the coming of the Lord [the Second Advent],
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. (2 Thess 2:1–6 emphasis added)
The Rebellion didn’t occur in the 3rd or 4th Centuries CE, for the Body of Christ died with the Apostle John (ca 100–102 CE). The Body of Christ—i.e., the temple of God—wasn’t alive when most Sabbatarian scholars have the Great Apostasy occurring at the council of Nicea (ca 325 CE). The mystery of lawlessness that was already at work when Paul wrote (2 Thess 2:7) prevailed over faith and left the Body dead, crucified with Christ and hanging dead on the cross as Jesus hung dead from the ninth hour (3:00 pm) until shortly before sunset (6:00 pm) when Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus hastily buried Jesus’ body in the Garden Tomb. So what most Sabbatarian scholars identify as the Great Apostasy is really the metaphorical burying of the Body of Christ so that it can no longer be seen in this world; for once the Passover is no longer kept on the 14th of Abib, the Church has morphed into being the pious of this world.
The wisdom that Paul possesses is knowledge that since Calvary salvation isn’t limited to those individuals who are outwardly circumcised: Paul apparently understood that Israel served as a type and shadow of the entirety of humankind. But he lacked disclosing in his epistles the fullness of what physical circumcision as a type and shadow of circumcision of the heart meant, for again, he was writing milk to spiritual infants.
When Abraham (then Abram) journeyed with his father Terah to the land of Haran (Gen 12:31), named for Abram’s youngest brother who died in Ur of the Chaldeans (v. 28), with the land of Haran being the land of the Assyrians, the land that metaphorically represents Death as Egypt represents Sin — when by faith Abraham left his father in the land of Haran, Abraham formed the shadow and type of the inner new self with his father Terah representing the now-crucified old self that is buried by baptism into death (Rom 6:4). If this inner new self will not by faith journey into the Promised Land that is not, for the inner self, a geographical land but the Sabbath, this inner self does not believe God; does not trust God; and is lacking in the faith that caused Abram’s belief of the Lord to be counted to him as righteousness. For when does Scripture say that Abraham believed God? Not when Abram remained with his father Terah in the land of Haran; not after first believing God when the Lord said to Abram, “‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you’” (Gen 12:1); not after Abram journeyed south into the land of Canaan then down to Egypt and back up to Canaan, separating from Lot, his nephew; not after Abram rescued Lot from the four kings and Abram paid tithes of all he recovered to Melchizedek. Only after repeatedly acting on faith did the Lord come to Abram in a vision and say, “‘Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great’” (Gen 15:1).
But Abram wasn’t accepting of what the Lord said: “‘O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezar of Damascus? … Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir’” (Gen 15:2–3).
The promise the Lord made to Abram when Abram remained in the land of Haran was that the Lord would make of Abram a great nation, and would bless Abram and make his name great so that Abram would be a blessing to all the families of the earth (Gen 12:2–3) …
Did Abram leave his father Terah’s house to receive the promise of his offspring becoming a great nation, for Abram was already 75 years old when the promise was made to him (Gen 12:4) and he still had no offspring? It would be reasonable to assume the promise of having a son to inherit his house was a lure strong enough to get Abram to leave his father. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that Abram had a legitimate complaint against God that was centered round the issue of no offspring. This would now make Abram’s lament about Eliezar of Damascus being the heir-apparent of his house understandable.
Paul skips over most of the Abram narrative to make his point that Abraham believed God and had his belief counted as righteousness; thus, disciples are justified by belief, by faith, and not by the works of human hands. For Paul also writes that “it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” (Rom 2:13) whereas the sinner [the transgressor; i.e., the person who doesn’t believe God] without the law will also perish without the law (v. 12).
Christians have the law: it is with them, written in the Bible they hold dear. They are not sinners without the law; for they willingly sin through unbelief, through not believing either the Father or the Son, but believing a man [or many men] who told them that they were not under the law but under grace so that they were free to sin with impunity. That is not however what Paul told them! Rather what Paul told them is that they were freed from being sons of disobedience so that they could live without sin, without lawlessness shackling them to death; for again, Paul wrote, “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness” (Rom 6:16).
Abraham, after journeying to the Promised Land then down into sin and back to the Promised Land, wanted the son that was promised to him. He was not a novice; he was not a new convert. He had journey far in faith … if every Christian would journey as far in faith as Abraham journeyed, the Church would again be the sect of the Nazarenes, a sect of observant Judaism.
When Paul writes, “For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be heirs, faith is null and the promise is void” (Rom 4:14), but Paul also writes,
For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. (Rom 2:25–29)
Plus, Paul writes in this same epistle, “So I ask, did they [natural Israel] stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! / Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them” (Rom 11:11–14 emphasis added).
It is not possible for a person who lives as a Gentile to make an Observant Jew jealous. It is, however, possible for an uncircumcised person [a Gentile] who lives as a Jew and who walks as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6) and who imitates Paul as Paul imitated Jesus to make a natural Israelite jealous.
Peter writes,
And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. (2 Peter 3:15–17 emphasis added)
Peter’s warning remains as viable today as it was in the 1st-Century. There are things in Paul’s epistles that lawless people can twist to their own destruction … take care that the lawless do not also destroy you.
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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."