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 sins forgiven vs. sins not remembered.
Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of June 28, 2014
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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After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this." At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And He who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who is seated on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." (Rev 4:1–11)
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20.
Those living entities close to the throne of God give honor, glory, and thanks to God. They praise God; for He is worthy of worship. And if those in the presence of God worship Him through giving thanks to Him; through giving honor and glory to Him, it would logically follow that the Elect, who have been glorified without coming under judgment, should also give thanks to God; should also give honor and glory to Him, and should not ask Him to secure for them parking places they can secure for themselves … the god that secures parking places is a corner idol—
The Christian prays for a parking place: the supermarket’s parking lot is full. While cars are coming and going, the Christian is never near an opening. Someone else is always closer. And the Christian, frustrated, calls out to God, Get me a parking place, that’s all I ask. Then the request is formalized in a prayer made in Christ’s name … what is God, a Billiken, carved from ivory, sold to tourists with a romanticized story? Something for a Yupik carver to sell to the tourist who already has a carved bear and seal? Or maybe God is made of carved wood covered with gold leaf, His face stained by painted tears?
Or is God the deity to whom German mothers, and Russian mothers (also, French, English, Italian, Finnish—mothers of the world—prayed for the safe return of sons fighting in the Great Patriotic War? Did not American mothers and grandmothers pray to God for the protection and safe return of their sons from the Korean Conflict, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan? Is it not to God that both the Metro of Moscow and the Old Believer on the Kenai Peninsula prays, with the ancestors of these two separated since 1660 CE by how many fingers should be used to make the sign of the cross? Is not the number of fingers used of more importance than a parking place? Is not how you say Jesus’ name in bastardized Hebrew of more importance than a parking place? No, not to the person who needs to get quickly get into and out of the supermarket; for the Christian isn’t certain that she turned the stove burner off under the chili she was warming for her husband’s lunch—and he’ll be home before she gets back if she doesn’t quickly get a parking place.
There is something seriously flawed in the logic of the Christian who prays for those things the Christian can do for him or herself, such as look at a roadmap and go “this” way to get to Seattle. “That” way takes the Christian to Austin, and great barbeque, but “that” way to a long ways out of the way if the Christian is trying to catch the ferry before it sails.
Christians don’t need biblical prophecies to tell them that the Middle East is a dangerous place. They can figure that out for themselves. What they need biblical understanding for is realization that the Adversary’s administration is a house divided along color lines, yellow [gold/bronze] versus white [silver/iron], with this division exploding in demonic war that brings about the end of the Adversary’s long rein as the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air.
Why would a Christian bring a trivial matter such as needing a parking place to God’s attention: He already knows what the Christian needs, truly needs. And if the Christian needs a parking place, the Christian will have that parking space without asking. The Christian then only has to thank God for the space, thank God for all He does for the Christian, thank God for the glory that He has allowed the Christian to witness. When God already knows what the Christian needs, then prayers should be about thanking God, giving Him honor and glory.
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Over the past two years, Readings and other writings of Philadelphia have addressed certain textual problems; e.g., the Jesus of Matthew’s Gospel is not the “Jesus” of Luke’s Gospel. They have differing descent from David, differing birth narratives, hear differing words when raised from baptism, face different temptations and order of temptations, and say different words when faced with death, with these differences being too great to reconcile without discounting one Gospel and emphasizing the other. However, neither Gospel agrees with Mark’s Gospel, despite Mark being a source text for both. And none of the Synoptic Gospels agree with John’s Gospel …
The preceding is not much of a recommendation for the New Testament. No wonder both Judaism and Islam believe early Christians got things wrong. The reality of the New Testament is that they did.
But early Christians also got things right, with Matthew’s Gospel in particular disclosing surprising spiritual insight—not anticipated insight, for the Gospel is about disciples born of spirit through the indwelling of Christ Jesus, with the “Jesus” of this Gospel not being the man that lived in the 1st-Century, but the personified spirit of Christ that gives life to those human persons the Father had drawn from this world.
The claim that the Jesus of Matthew’s Gospel is the indwelling Christ needs considerable support, but the claim can be seen in the glorified Jesus addressing the Eleven, with Matthew’s Jesus telling His disciples,
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matt 28:18–20 emphasis added)
All authority on earth cannot be given to the glorified Jesus until dominion is taken from the Adversary and his angels, this taking of authority thrice seen:
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short! (Rev 12:7–12)
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Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever." And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth." (Rev 11:15–18)
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As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool; His throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before Him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. (Dan 7:9–14 emphasis added)
In Scripture, a thing is established by the testimony of two or three witnesses … there are three testimonies in two texts testifying to the reality that the Adversary’s dominion over the kingdom of this world does not end until 1260 days into the endtime period of tribulation:
As I [Daniel] looked, this horn [the little horn] made war with the saints and prevailed over them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom.
Thus he said: “As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it to pieces. As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings. He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. But the court shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away, to be consumed and destroyed to the end. And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them.' (Dan 7:21–27)
Again, by the testimony of two or three a thing is established: there is no second witness to the end of any of the Synoptic Gospels, nor to the end of John’s Gospel … in John’s Gospel one woman goes to Jesus’ grave on the morning of the day after the Sabbath; in Matthew’s Gospel, two women; in Mark’s Gospel, three woman; in Luke’s Gospel, a troupe of woman.
When the Gospels do not agree with each other, but factually differ one from the other, wisdom is required, with human wisdom asserting that none are true, that all Gospels are of human origin, written decades after the phenomena described. And it is here where many scholars abandon Christ and become agnostics, throwing up their hands and simply saying, I don’t know what to believe, if anything.
If Matthew’s Gospel is a fabrication—Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus certainly is and as is Matthew’s account of Joseph and Mary taking Jesus to Egypt, both passages written for comprehendible theological reasons, but both being factually false—then Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, with no other witness for this Sermon but with two witnesses against it (Mark’s and John’s Gospel), has to be treated as theologically true but not literally true, or the Sermon on the Mount must be rejected out of hand. And if theologically true, then how should the Sermon on the Mount be read? Greater Christendom ignores this sermon, but then, greater Christendom in the 21st-Century Church doesn’t do much better than the 2nd-Century Church in reading and understanding Scripture …
The question of textual authority is central to what a person will believe about prayer and fasting.
Concerning textual authority, Matthew’s Gospel presents the Sermon on the Mount in a way that would have audiences believe the author was there when Jesus spoke:
Seeing the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. …” (Matt 5:1–4)
But Matthew was not then a disciple, at least not according to Matthew’s Gospel: “As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and He said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he rose and followed Him”(Matt 9:9).
There are textual problems here, for in Mark’s Gospel, the fellow sitting at the tax booth was Levi, son of Alphaeus: “And as He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and He said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed Him”(Mark 2:14).
There is no Sermon on the Mount in Mark’s Gospel … Bishop Papias, a hearer of John the Elder and companion of Polycarp, claimed that Mark’s Gospel was written by John Mark in his capacity as Peter’s interpreter, with Mark being careful not to omit anything Peter said in his teachings, nor falsifying anything. Mark does not claim to have heard Jesus speak nor to have accompanied Him, but Peter was there from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. And it would seem strange that Peter never said anything about the Sermon on the Mount if such a sermon actually occurred, the sermon coming right after Satan had—according to Matthew’s Gospel—taken Jesus to the top of a very tall mountain from which every kingdom of the earth and its glory could be seen, a physical impossibility that can only be symbolically true.
Consider the image described:
Again, the devil took Him [Jesus] to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'" (Matt 4:8–10)
You are standing on a globe, and from a single point above the globe (height doesn’t matter), Satan shows you all the kingdoms of the world … how can he do that? You know that the curvature of the globe creates a shadow in which kingdoms on the other side of the globe cannot be seen. Sight is blocked by the roundness of the earth. No matter how high above the surface you rise, you will not be able to see the other side of the world. So what the author of Matthew’s Gospel declares about the temptation of Jesus is provably false.
In other words, Matthew’s Gospel is not factually true in many places. Nor is Luke’s. But the author of Luke’s Gospel makes no claim of truth. Rather, his claim is that he has collected hearsay evidence from many sources: from early witnesses to earlier writings than his (Luke 1:1–4).
If there is no other witness to the Sermon on the Mount than Matthew’s Gospel, care must be undertaken in using Matthew’s Gospel to establish doctrine, especially in a matter taken from the Sermon on the Mount:
And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matt 6:5–18)
Most of what is taught within the Sabbatarian Churches of God about prayer and fasting comes from Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, and from the above cited passage. Without a literal reading of the Sermon on the Mount, Sabbatarian Christians would be as 1st-Century Christians were, having to “prove” Christ from the Old Testament, which then was all of Scripture.
In examining the so-called Lord’s Prayer, context must be established: all of the disciples present were newly come to Christ. None were born of spirit for the spirit had not yet been given. So those things that Matthew’s Jesus tells His disciples are those things that would be told to an endtime disciple prior to the disciple being born of spirit; prior to the indwelling Christ dying for His disciples while they were still sinners (Rom 5:8). And foremost in what Matthew’s Jesus says is that your Father knows what you need before you ask Him … if the Father knows the needs of disciples before the disciple asks anything of the Father, then asking for those things that are not really needed is pointless. Asking and thanking the Father for supplying daily food is the physical portion of the coupled thought that has as its spiritual portion, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Not a problem, not really one for the spiritually mature? As we consider what Matthew’s Jesus here says, the mature Christian should realize that for the Elect, trespasses are forgiven without the Elect asking for forgiveness. Actually, trespasses are not forgiven: they are not remembered. No record of them is kept just as no record of Abraham’s faults was kept. His faith/belief of God was counted to him as righteousness, and with his belief counted to him as righteousness, those things where he fell short of perfection—she is my sister—were not held against Abraham, who’s sins were not remembered by the Lord.
For loveless Christians, God will become a problem following the Second Passover liberation of Israel; for sin will not be counted against Christians … sin as John understood sin is the transgression of the Law (1 John 3:4). But Paul understood sin differently: “For whatever does not proceed from faith [pisteos—belief] is sin” (Rom 14:23). And it will be this latter definition that defines “sin” in the Affliction, and in the Endurance.
For the Elect today, sin is not the transgression of the Law, but a failure of belief/faith, something that will not happen because of the indwelling of Christ Jesus—the Christ of Matthew’s Gospel, the one who delivered the Sermon on the Mount to His disciples.
Philadelphians as members of the Elect should be thanking the Father and the Son for spiritual birth and for the person passing from death to life without coming under judgment. Philadelphians should be praising God for all He has done for the Elect without asking.
It is the concept expressed in John 5:24, that refutes what Matthew’s Jesus is quoted as saying in the Sermon on the Mount.
In John, Jesus said, “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.’”
If a human son of God does not come under judgment, then forgiveness of sins is not an issue. This son of God never enters into judgment because of having been foreknown and predestined, which caused this son to hear the words of Jesus and believe the One who sent the Logos into this world as the unique son of the Logos. Thus, this son of God has no sin counted against him, even if the son of God misses the mark from, say, the weakness of the flesh. This is NOT, however, a covering for willful transgression of the Commandments—but this is to say that willful transgression will not occur because of the indwelling of Christ Jesus in the person.
The above is what greater Christendom doesn’t understand, and has never understood although John Calvin was on the trail. Predestination is not an unjust concept that will have this Christian saved and that person condemned to hell. Rather, predestination is, figuratively, the Father purchasing human persons with the blood of Christ to be slaves of obedience that leads to righteousness. These human persons pass from death to life without coming under judgment for they are never free to do what they will. They go from being slaves of the Adversary, consigned to disobedience as sons of disobedience (cf. Rom 11:32; Eph 2:2–3), to becoming slaves of obedience. They are never free to choose whether they will or they won’t keep the Commandments. Oh, they will think they are free; they will think that they freely came to Christ, but John’s Jesus clearly states that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws this person from the world (John 6:44).
Again, the Elect are not free to transgress the Law. They are purchased with a price, the shed blood of Christ, and they are purchased to be slaves of obedience that leads to righteousness (Rom 6:16). They were not set free from the Law by Christ’s death, but rather, they were, because the Father used Christ’s blood as currency, set free from disobedience so that they could finally keep the Law.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Rom 6:1–11 emphasis added)
An important concept that Sabbatarian Christians overall simply don’t understand: where there is no Law, there is no sin (Rom 5:13). The reverse is also true: where there is no sin, there is no Law. So where sin is not counted against the person—before the Law came and again under the New Covenant, the Second Passover Covenant—there is no Law that can be transgressed. There is only belief of God or unbelief, disbelief, with the unbeliever never entering into heaven.
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. (Rom 7:7–14 emphasis added)
And,
For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. (Heb 3:16–19)
But not all of Christendom is the Elect. Not even most of Christendom. Only a statistically insignificant number of Christians are numbered among the Elect.
Note details of the New Covenant passage as given by Jeremiah:
Behold, the days are coming, declares [YHWH], when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah [with two peoples that are one people divided by the sin of Jeroboam], not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt [this covenant is the Passover covenant, see Ex 12:43–51, note v. 51], my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares [YHWH]. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel [one nation, not two] after those days, declares [YHWH]: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts [the Law will move from regulating hands and bodies to hearts and minds, this movement seen in Matt 5:21–22, 27–28]. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know [YHWH],' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares [YHWH]. For I will forgive their iniquity [one thing], and I will remember their sin no more [a second thing]." (Jer 31:31–34)
Under the New Covenant, people are still divided, not by circumcision and the Law, but by having sin forgiven versus not having sin remembered … it is customary to think of forgiveness of sin and not remembering sin as two aspects of the same attribute of godly mercy, and in most ways they are the same. But there is a difference, with the first being physical and the second spiritual.
The prophet Ezekiel named three people whose righteousness would cover them as a garment:
Son of [Adam], when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord [YHWH]. (Ezek 14:13–14)
Did Job keep the Sabbath? Did Noah? Daniel did, but Daniel could not have entered the temple if the temple had still stood because of Nebuchadnezzar’s practice of castrating all of the young men who served in his court.
Neither Noah, Job, nor Abraham kept the Sabbath. Israel as slaves in Egypt didn’t keep the Sabbath. So was Sabbath observance important to any of these men whose belief of God produced righteousness in each? No, it wasn’t important. Sabbath observance become important with the giving of manna, bread from heaven, with Christ Jesus being the true bread from heaven. Thus, the Sabbath serves as a type of entering into the presence of God, with the physical bread [manna] not given on the Sabbath but with spiritual bread being given on the Sabbath.
The author of Matthew’s Gospel understood late in the 1st-Century what endtime disciples are only now coming to appreciate. Same for John’s Gospel.
For the Elect, there is no “sin” for there is no judgment. Without judgment, the Elect are free from the Law, but again, the Elect are not free persons, but have been purchased for a price to be slaves of obedience that leads to righteousness.
In essence, the Elect have no choice about keeping the Commandments once they are born of spirit. The Elect will walk in this world as Jesus walked—and the indwelling Jesus will make sure that they walk as He walked.
Again, the dynamics of sin will change under the New Covenant, with this citation taken from Hebrews:
For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For He finds fault with them when He says: "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." (Heb 8:7–12 emphasis and double emphasis added)
In Jeremiah, the New Covenant has sins being forgiven as one model of God giving mercy to human persons, but the greater model (the spiritual counterpart to forgiving sins) is not remembering sins.
If God doesn’t remember sins, then what John’s Jesus declares in John 5:28–29 no longer pertains; for there has to be a remembrance of sin [of the deeds of the person] for those who are in tombs to hear Jesus’ voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to condemnation. Without a remembrance of sin, there would be no distinction between those who have done good and those who have done evil. So salvation is dependent upon forgiving sins versus not remembering sins, with the person whose sins are not remembered able to pass from death to life without coming under judgment.
Noah will pass from death to life without coming under judgment.
Job will pass from death to life without coming under judgment, as will Daniel.
Abraham will pass from death to life without coming under judgment.
Under the New Covenant, the Second Passover Covenant, it isn’t what the flesh does that matters, but what the inner self believes—unbelief is sin. As ancient Israel could not enter into the Promised Land because of unbelief, greater Christendom will not be able to enter into heaven because of its unbelief that will cause most Christians to blaspheme the spirit after every Christian is filled-with and empowered by the spirit of God [pneuma Theou].
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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.