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 Giving Relief To The Oppressed.
Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of June 24, 2006
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.
The person conducting the service should read or assign to be read John chapters 8 & 9.
Commentary: Who caused the man to be blind? Jesus said the man was blind so that the works of God might be displayed in the man (9:3)…the man was blind from birth for the expressed purpose of being used as words from the Father, uttered by Jesus through His act of healing the man. And again (as in chapter 5), the healing was on the Sabbath, revealing that the work of Jesus and the unspoken words of the Father, which humankind consigned to disobedience (Rom 11:32) cannot hear, are about giving relief to the oppressed, with the ultimate expression of this relief being crossing dimensions and entering the heavenly realm.
Sin separates man from God, but not how this
concept is usually taught through using the example of Adam and Eve eating
forbidden fruit in the garden. After losing his “covering” of obedience and
realizing that both he and Eve were naked, Adam with the woman attempted to
hide from Elohim
[singular in usage], but his nakedness and his sin did not separate him from Elohim, who
sought the two of them and found them. Again, humankind cannot hide, even
behind sin, from God, who does the separating at His discretion—Elohim did the
separating when They [plural usage in Gen
Earlier translations of the Greek original into English use the word “concluded” for consigned. The meaning is the same: God gave humankind over to the Adversary, that old serpent Satan the devil, as bondservants for the destruction of the flesh without sin being reckoned to these bondservants. And because God did the separating, the giving of humankind over to the Adversary, God will pay the ransom price demanded by the Adversary for humankind’s release—humankind will be recovered from disobedience through paying a price, the death of the firstborn son of God, Head and Body, in this physical world.
As has been stated before, the problem with
prophecy is what is revealed. The ancient nation of
Prophecy reveals that Grace ends when the seven endtime years of tribulation begin. Grace ends because disciples will be filled or empowered by the Holy Spirit, and thereby liberated from the law of sin and death that presently continues to dwell in the flesh. The new creature, born from above, born of Spirit, is liberated from sin and death with spiritual birth, but the tent of flesh in which this new creature, an actual son of God, dwells remains under the righteous requirement of the law. Hence, death remains dwelling in the flesh—if a disciple has not been or is not killed from an outside cause, the disciple has or will [if not liberated] die from so-called natural causes for the righteous requirement of the law will be fulfilled in every individual the Father has drawn from his or her consignment to disobedience.
Jesus’ death at
Therefore, the teachings of so-called Christian
leaders have caused most Christians to believe that the student is greater than
his or her Teacher, and the servants are greater than their Master. These
Christian leaders work hard to convince the laity that because Jesus kept the
commandments of God, neither they nor the laity have
to keep the commandments. But Jesus said that it was enough for the student to
be like his or her teacher, and for servants to be like their master (Matt
Whereas the present crop of Christians’ leaders have ably pointed out that God by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as a sin offering, condemned sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3), these leaders neglected to say why Theos (from John 1:1-2) came as His Son, His only (John 3:16)—the reason why the Logos, who was Theos, entered His creation as the man Jesus of Nazareth was, again, so “the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us [disciples]” (Rom 8:4). And what is the righteous requirement of the Law? It certainly isn’t to live as the disciple formerly lived when consigned to disobedience and when a subject to the prince of the power of the air’s broadcast of disobedience. Yet this seems to be the essence of Dispensationalists’ gospel of iniquity.
· The righteous requirement of the Law has sin [lawlessness — from 1 John 3:4] being counted as sin, and reckoned against the sinner.
· The garment of Jesus’ righteousness, like a cloak as bright as the sun’s brilliance, covers the Body of the Son of Man until Zion brings forth her children in a day (Isa 66:8).
·
This garment
of Grace will be laid aside to reveal all of the Son of Man on that day when
· The other son is loved, but this son will be slain by his bloody brother.
·
So a third son
will be born to
Natural grace covers the son of disobedience so
that sin is not counted as sin through his or her consignment to disobedience: as
a bondservant of the Adversary, the son of disobedience’s sin is reckoned to
the Adversary, the son’s master. No person can serve two masters. Until the son
of disobedience was/is ransomed from the Adversary, the son remains the
Adversary’s servant, regardless of whether this son of disobedience represents
himself as a sinner or as a great religious teacher as the Pharisees were. And
here is where understanding of a mystery of God enters discussions about
belief: until Jesus’ death at
When a human being has been drawn by the Father
from the world, the person becomes fully responsible for his or her every
violation of the Law—the person is no longer covered by Satan through the
person being a son of disobedience. Therefore, because this person remains in a
world subject to Satan’s broadcast of disobedience, the person as an infant son
of God would not long survive before he or she sinned and was subject to
immediate death. Hence, the glorified Jesus covers the infant son of God with
His righteousness, which the infant son puts on like a garment in the same way that
ancient
Because Jesus had not been sacrificed at Calvary, the scribes and the Pharisees could not have been ransomed sons of God, but had to still be sons of disobedience, consigned to the Adversary for the destruction of the flesh (1 Co 5:5) so that when born anew in the resurrection their [newly received] spiritual life might be saved. So what Jesus said to them was absolutely correct, but has been so poorly understood that the Adversary, as a disguised angel of light, has passed his servants off as ministers of righteousness (2 Co 11:13-15). Yes, Christian ministers who teach sons of God a gospel of lawlessness are themselves servants of their father, Satan, the devil. They have not been ransomed from disobedience, but have been planted in the fields of God as tares, where they have bred more tares, until the fields of God are fields of tares, meeting in many fellowships on the 8th day, assembling together to brand as “legalists” genuine disciples. Yet, a little grain still grows in these fields—and the task of The Philadelphia Church is to recover as many of these scattered stalks as possible, while delivering to the untilled hillsides the good news that all who endure to shall be saved (again, Matt 24:13-14), that these untilled hillsides will yield the majority of the endtime harvest of firstfruits, that these untilled hillsides will be born anew when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh (Joel 2:28), immersing the world in a baptism of Spirit (Matt 3:11), with a baptism of fire to follow after the thousand years.
The scribes and the Pharisees of Jesus’ day serve as spiritually lifeless shadows not of the tares, who remain sons of disobedience without the Holy Spirit even though they pose as servants of God, but of false ministers and false apostles and false prophets within the spiritual nation of Israel who do have the Holy Spirit and who have been called by God to be endtime sons of destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. It is these endtime sons of destruction that have crept into the churches of God for the purpose of betraying brethren, for delivering genuine brethren up in the tribulation, for causing many to fall away, for causing one brother to hate another brother, for leading many astray (Matt 24:9-12 et al). And because these false teachers and prophets seem to be genuine, thereby deceiving those who do not believe that they can be deceived, these false brethren have, like rotten eggs, risen to the baptized surface of the churches of God. Their lives stink, but that stench remains contained in a calcified shell usually titled Pastor General. But as with all rotten eggs, sooner or later they crack—the modern historic record of Sabbatarian Christianity.
False shepherds devour the sheep instead of healing the injured and recovering the lost. False shepherds inevitably blame others for sin for what they, themselves, are guilty of doing.
Because of the accepted teachings of the sons of
disobedience who were then the leaders of
The so-called healings of televangelists where the healed fall backwards are not works of God, but are the work of the prince of disobedience, who postures as an angel of light. When God is involved, the person who falls will fall forward, not backwards—and did the blind man fall at all? No. The blind man went as one sent to deliver a message to those who claimed they could see. And so it was when the Father spoke through the works of Christ Jesus.
If the man Jesus healed had been blind from birth
for the expressed purpose of being an instrument of God, then every genuine
disciple is also an instrument of God, with all that has happened to the person
being not only for the person’s good but being used as a work of Jesus through
which the voice of the Father is heard. The ramifications [and realities] of
Jesus’ statement should humble every “Christian,” for Judas Iscariot was also a
person called to fulfill Scripture (John
All of the firstfruits have been called to fulfill Scripture, with endtime disciples called to be either of the hated son or of the loved son; the false son or the son predestined to glory. Two sons were born to Isaac, who preferred Esau over Jacob because Isaac ate of Esau’s wild game (Gen 25:28). And a student should pause here to ask, Why did Isaac prefer wild game? Isaac was the son of promise whom Abraham took up on the mountain to offer as sacrifice to God. A wild ram was sacrificed instead even though Abraham and apparently Isaac were willing for the patriarch to kill his son. The answer to this question might not be immediately evident, but the question has an answer that will look back to what happened on the mountain.
So as two sons were born of promise to Isaac, two
sons will be born to the last Adam when the seven endtime years of tribulation
begin. One son will claim to see, but will see nothing although he will harvest many souls for the Cross. He
will be as a wild ram, a son of disobedience still consigned to the Adversary.
He will be the seed of that tare planted by the Adversary (Matt 13:24-30),
while the other son, having been healed through spiritual birth, will see, and
will profess the greatness of the Christ to a generation foreknown and
predestined to be the great harvest of firstfruits after this son is slain by
his brother, as Cain slew righteous Abel. Thus, many disciples are called to
vision, but few are chosen to actually see God (Matt
Again, all transgressions of the law (i.e.,
lawlessness) is sin (1 John 3:4), the wages of which is death (Rom
Because God has consigned every person to
disobedience (Rom 11:32), removal of a person from this consigned state
requires that a ransom price must be paid, just as the release of Medieval Christian
soldiers captured by Islamic armies required paying a ransom. And Jesus’ death
at
When the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh, thereby changing even the animal natures of the great predators (Isa 11:6-9), all of humanity will have life in the heavenly realm where no ransom has yet been paid, a situation that will have changed when Satan is cast into the lake of fire after the thousand years. But to fulfill the righteous requirement of the law, the hated son of promise [i.e., the false shepherd, apostles and prophets] that were never of Israel will be condemned to the lake of fire before the loved son is “harvested.” The hated son will be given as the ransom for the loved son in the heavenly realm.
This is enough for one day. The problem with prophecy is, again, in what is reveals—and what is revealed has the majority of the present day Christianity being called as drawn vessels of God that are intended for dishonorable usage. This majority has been drawn from the world to become the ransom price paid in the heavenly realm for the endtime harvest of firstfruits, born of Spirit when or immediately after Satan is cast from heaven.…A problem here exists for the greater Christian Church: if Jesus’ death at Calvary ransomed the disciple from disobedience, future lawlessness by the person ransomed requires a death—and Jesus will not be crucified a second time. Grace is not unmerited pardon of the disciple’s sins, for prior to being drawn from the world, the Adversary paid, or would pay [depending upon perspective] with his life for the disciple’s sins. But if the Adversary is confined within the physical creation and can not again enter the heavenly realm, and if the Adversary will not be cast into the lake of fire until after the thousand years, then the deaths required by the righteous requirements of the Law can only be paid by those disciples who bear the mark of the beast. Thus, all of Christendom that takes onto hands and into minds the tattoo of the Cross once the Tribulation begins will die a second death in the heavenly realm when Christ returns. These “Christians” are thrown into the lake of fire to fulfill prophecy—and this is a prophecy that is as hard to deliver as it is to hear.
You, who attempt to enter God’s rest on the following day as the ancient nation of Israel so attempted in the wilderness of Paran (Num 14:40-41) have been purchased for a price (brought with the precious blood of Jesus) to die in the lake of fire as the “sin” offering made in the heavenly realm. Beg God to grant you repentance before it is too late. Beg God to allow you to keep the commandments of God as you attempt to walk uprightly before Him under the garments of Christ’s righteousness. Beg God to allow you to keep His Sabbaths, and to enter into His rest as He commands. For if your arrogance is such that you will not beg God to change you from a vessel destined for dishonorable usage to a vessel to be used for honorable use, you are without hope despite what you presently believe.
Satan is every disciple’s accuser, but he doesn’t accuse his own, for their actions are the result of his broadcast of disobedience (Eph 2:3). Only when God draws a person from the world, thereby separating the person from the Adversary, does Satan bring accusations against the person. But as the person was formerly covered by Satan’s disobedience, the called disciple is covered by the garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness until the Son of Man is revealed. Then, every disciple will be covered by only his or her obedience to God—and obedience to God means keeping all of the commandments, including the Sabbath commandment.
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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."