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 spiritual
procreation.
Clickable hymns on this page require RealPlayer to be installed on your computer. The download is free.
Possible songs include the following hymns:
Guide Me, O Though Great Eternal
We Are God's People
Stand Up and Bless the Lord
I Sing the Might Power of God
For the Beauty of the Earth
Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of July 1, 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 3 John verses 9
& 10, followed by Matthew chapter 13, verses 24 through 30, and 36 through
43.
Commentary: Planted by the Adversary, the weed or false grain—often
translated into English as “tare”—grows faster than true grain. Tares shade and
thereby deprive genuine stalks of grain growing in the good soil of Christ of
the necessary nutrients needed for maximum growth; thus, the grain crop grows
under duress, becoming stronger, tougher rather than larger. So Satan isn’t somehow
getting ahead of God, thereby slipping one over on God, by sowing tares among
the grain. Rather, tares covering [as in shading] both the early barley harvest
and the later main crop wheat harvest are an essential aspect of the plan of
God.
It is easy to understand how tares in a field
reduce the grain harvest; it is harder to understand why tares are necessary. The
Apostle Paul wrote to the saints at Corinth that divisions or schisms were necessary to
determine who was genuine (1 Co 11:19), one reason for tares. But the Apostle, in the same epistle, wrote
that the saints at Corinth were not ready for “solid food,” but still required
spiritual milk (1 Co 3:1-2). The author of Hebrews wrote that disciples were
still in need of spiritual milk (Heb 5:12-14). And what endtime disciples find is that epistles of Paul are
spiritual milk, the foundation of the house of God (1 Co 3:10-14). The Apostle’s epistles are not the pillars or
porticos, but merely the groundwork that has for centuries been covered by the
charred debris of work that could not withstand the test of fire. Therefore,
recovering what the Apostle taught puts a person on the firm foundation of the
unfinished house of God, the pillars of which come from the endtime Church at Philadelphia (Rev 3:12). So Philadelphians need
not fear going beyond the spiritual milk that the Apostle wrote. If their work
is not of God, the work will be burned up but the worker saved. However, the
assurance of prophecy is that Philadelphia stands on the foundation of the house of God, and
supports the roof and capstone, the returned Christ Jesus.
Understanding the spiritual in addition to the
physical reason why tares are essential in the plan of God requires going
beyond what the Apostle wrote; thus, those disciples, especially Sabbatarian
disciples, who are not of Philadelphia will not be able to chew the tough meat that will
today be addressed, and will spit out the concept. But as when Jesus said that
He was the bread that came down from heaven, hard or difficult teachings exist
to form physical schisms that cause disciples to separate themselves into tag-alongs or those sent by the Son to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel.
Within the splintered Sabbatarian Churches of God,
false brethren, so-called tares, have usually been marked and disfellowshipped
to minimize the amount of physical dividing of the flock they can do within a
fellowship. But too often the fellowship doing the marking was itself lead by
tares; so by disfellowshipping dissidents, the splintered churches have
multiplied its schisms while dissipating its strength. Today, nearly every
fellowship within the shards of the churches of God is pastored
by someone who has been disfellowshipped from one or more organizations. Thus,
marking--disfellowshipping has become a mockery of itself: the question of
whether any disciple is genuine cannot, in this endtime era, be determined by
having been marked, but by the fruits of the disciple. Therefore, identifying tares is not the simple task of
determining whether the disciple laps up every drop of soured milk and swallows
every chunk of spoiled meat that headquarters
pitches out. Positive identification of tares
can only be done on a macro scale, with individual fellowships quietly including
and excluding disciples with whom the fellowship is or isn’t in unity. For example, in 2004 the Sabbatarian
fellowship at Port Austin, Michigan, marked and excluded Norman Scott Edwards
[named as John named Diotrephes], but Edwards in his
lethargic ministry that has produced no genuine fruit continues to be supported
by Sabbatarian disciples two years later. The authority of the fellowship at
Port Austin to mark was not, and is not recognized by disciples in Texas or Wisconsin or even in other areas of Michigan. Hence, the Sabbatarian church, collectively,
doesn’t recognize the authority of any fellowship, even in the same city, to
mark and exclude a so-called tare. And
the only test of whether a ministry is genuine remains the one Paul
established: if the “super apostle” will not work as Paul worked with his hands
to support himself, thus receiving no expectation of financial support from the
fellowship or ministry, the alleged super apostle is false, a deceitful workman
(2 Co 11:12-15). And by this standard, nearly every Sabbatarian fellowship is
today pastored by a false shepherd.
Therefore, swollen by the importance of weekly
entering God’s rest, the miniscule Sabbatarian Church stands on tiptoes and
declares that the majority of Christianity is not genuine, and should be marked
and avoided—and the greater Christian Church no more recognizes the authority
of the Sabbatarian Church than Sabbatarian Christians recognize the authority
of the fellowship at Port Austin to mark. The collective Sabbatarian Church receives what it delivers. Nevertheless, as a roaring mouse,
Sabbatarian Christianity, for a season, flooded first this nation’s, then the
world’s airwaves with the good news of
the soon coming Kingdom of God, but this good news rang false when 1975
became 1985, then 1995, then 2005. Those disciples the roaring mouse identified
as “nominal Christians” trapped the infant mice that clung to their parent’s
flank, and trained these mice to perform cheap tricks, the foremost of which
was to gnaw the Sabbatarian Churches of God into splinters.
Sabbatarian Christianity has never well explained
why the majority of Christianity should be marked and avoided by self-identified
genuine disciples.
It is amusing that a tiny minority of the Christian
Church should call the major organs of the Church false; yet, this is the task of
those disciples who are and will be sent to the lost sheep of the spiritual
house of Israel. This is the task of Philadelphia. Using typological exegesis as if it were a
periscope to peer into the heavenly realm, Philadelphians
build on the foundation that Paul laid, and in constructing the house of God, Philadelphians are now able to explain
why the major organs of Christianity are both necessary, and are to be marked
and shunned. But in doing so, Philadelphia
will make itself the object of sport and ridicule, for an island doesn’t lay
claim to a continent, or a flea to a dog—however, Philadelphia lays claim to constructing the superstructure of the
house of God.
Too often Sabbatarian Christianity claims to be the
entirety of the Christian Church—this is like the remnant of Israel that left Babylon to return to Judea claiming to be all of Israel. The claim is, simply, not true; for most of
Christianity [spiritual Israel] remains in spiritual Babylon, free to return to
observing God’s rest [i.e., Judea, from Ps 95:10-11] but content in the scarlet
love of Babylonia.
*
The
reader should now read Daniel chapter 3.
Commentary: How many Israelites obeyed Nebuchadnezzar’s decree
to worship his gold image? Besides, Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, were other satraps, prefects,
governors, counselors, treasures, justices, magistrates, provincial officials Israelites?
Nebuchadnezzar’s question to the three Hebrews
remains: who is that god that can deliver an Israelite out of the hand of the
king of Babylon? There is only one, the Most High. Every Israelite
will have to pass through the fire [the baptism by fire — Matt 3:11-12], and tares and the chaff will be burned. Two
categories, both having grown to maturity in the fields of God. Tares, gathered
before the grain is harvested, are condemned to the fiery furnace (Matt 13:41-42); and chaff, the dross after disciples have
been thrashed and refined, is burned after the grain has been brought into the
barn.
Here is where the building of the superstructure of
the house of God becomes difficult: tares are of the Adversary, even if they
have been born of Spirit. They are false grain, false apostles, false prophets,
false ministers, deceitful workers that have looked
better and grown taller and faster than the grain in the field of God. They
gained control of the early Church, determined what sound doctrine was, then they
put out of the Church genuine disciples, thereby transforming the visible
Christian Church into a field of self-seeding tares. These tares are, however,
a necessary aspect of the plan of God, for they are forever servants of Satan.
As such, they can stand in Satan’s place in the heavenly realm until Satan pays
with his life for the lawlessness of all humanity, consigned by God to
disobedience (Rom 11:32), to being bondservants to Satan (Eph 2:2-3). By claiming to be
disciples of Christ Jesus while being servants of the Adversary, the guilt of
tares remains with them (John 9:40-41) and is not covered by the righteousness of Christ.
“Being born of Spirit” and “being of the Adversary”
seem mutually exclusive clauses—and certainly, this will be the teaching of most
Christian theologians. The hardness of
[or difficulty in accepting] these being inclusive conditions, however, is
found in understanding potters’ clay.
No human being has life in the heavenly realm until
born of Spirit—and no human being was born of Spirit until the Logos came as the last Adam, the man Jesus of Nazareth. From a wound in the
side of this last Adam, the last Eve was created by the glorified Jesus
breathing on ten of His disciples (John 20:22-23). These ten had become 120 fifty days later when the divine Breath
of God [Pneuma ’Agion]
physically empowers the disciples on that day of Pentecost (Acts chap 2). Thus,
from this humble beginning—as all of humankind has descended from the first
Adam and the first Eve—the Son of God has grown large, becoming as the sand of
the sea, the coarse particles of broken stone that must still be ground to
powder and mixed with oil to become good potter’s clay that will be spun into
vessels created for honored usage and vessels created for dishonorable use (Rom
9:19-23).
But oil doesn’t have to be added to clay to make a
vessel. With more difficulty, raw clay can be spun into stoneware—from the same
lump of natural clay [humanity], vessels are made to fulfill all of Scripture,
including warnings about false prophets and deceitful workers. The flesh became
the vessel when God formed the first Adam from miry clay—and into each vessel
will be placed those things that God chooses to place there, including
lawlessness and/or the Holy Spirit. Thus, this is the analogy of Paul, for
natural Israel prior to the coming of the Son of Man never
received birth by Spirit. Natural clay was shaped into a vessel of obedience
through difficulty, and the “oil” of the Holy Spirit would be placed into the
vessel after firing, after demonstrated obedience with faith (Deu 30:1-6). Thus, few indeed were the vessels created for
special or honorable use, and none had as part of the clay the Holy Spirit.
Hence, the Holy Spirit was with
David rather than David having been born of Spirit.
Once the last Eve figuratively gives birth on that
day of Pentecost to three thousand infant sons of God, each with life in the
heavenly realm, oil [i.e., the Holy Spirit] is added to the lump of clay from
which God will shape additional vessels for honored or dishonorable usage. This
makes the clay much easier to work so many more vessels are created. And
vessels now created for dishonorable use have the Holy Spirit, even though they
are bondservants of the Adversary.
Yes, endtime tares have been born of Spirit, not a
previous understanding of even Philadelphia. They are not, however, brothers in Christ, and
when identified, they should not be treated as brothers but as what they are,
tares. They have been created by God as vessels that God intends for dishonorable
usage. He knows who they are, just as Jesus knew beforehand who would betray
Him. Disciples, though, do not know who they are until betrayed by them—and out
of love for one’s brethren, these tares need to be marked although that process
will not produce anything more than excluding the tare from a particular
fellowship. The tare will merely latch onto others and will betray others as he
or she grows taller than the grain from the tithes and offerings given by the
grain.
The Father and the Son are not surprised by the
fact that marking does little good, for disciples need the tares to have life
in the heavenly realm.
No sin was reckoned to, or counted against human
beings between Adam and when the Law was given at Sinai (Rom 5:12-14, especially v.
13). When Adam was driven from the garden of God,
all of humankind was consigned to disobedience, thereby making every human
being a bondservant of the Adversary. And because every human being was in
bondage to disobedience, the Adversary as consignee was responsible for the
disobedience of his servants. The person was not responsible or held
accountable for his or her sins—the Adversary was the person’s covering for
sin. Nevertheless, because of the disobedience that continued to dwell in the
flesh, the person would die—in fact, had to die as all of pre-Flood humankind
died. Without the commission of lawlessness, the person would physically live,
and live, and live, and live until sin was committed, the reason why Jesus had
to be made sin at Calvary. With humankind’s consignment to lawlessness, post-Flood humanity no
longer needed to live most of a millennium. Seventy years was enough to ensure
that disobedience worthy of the death of the flesh had occurred. Thus,
bondservants to Satan would die from so-called natural causes that result from
the law of sin and death dwelling in the flesh of every person (Rom 7:25)…prior
to the liberation of the flesh from the law of sin and death, this liberation
made necessary because of God consigning humankind to disobedience (because God
did the consigning, God will do the liberating), all flesh has or will die for
it lawlessness. The flesh cannot help but die to satisfy the righteous
requirement of the Law. There is not one set of standards for angels and
another for humankind: the commandments given at Sinai are the physical
expression of the transgressed law of God that condemns fallen angels.
The tares, in usurping control over the Church,
established false doctrines that are analogous to false grain. Their teaching of
“original sin” is such a doctrine. Whereas the foundation of Jesus Christ, laid
by the Apostle Paul, has in place humankind’s consignment to disobedience, a
truth whereby no sin is reckoned against humankind until the giving of the
Law—and then only against those to whom the Law has been given—the doctrine of
original sin additionally requires that humankind ate of the Tree of Life,
thereby acquiring immortal life, before being driven from the garden of God.
This is contrary to Scripture (Gen 3:22-24). No human being had any life but that which comes from physical
breath prior to the Logos coming from
heaven to become the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. Human beings do not have
immortal souls—this is the lie the last Eve swallowed that was foreshadowed by
the serpent telling the first Eve that she would not die (Gen 3:4). Thus, original sin comes from the best
thinkers of paganism [neo-Platonic philosophers] entering the Hellenistic
Church and converting the Church into a field of tares in the 2nd
and 3rd centuries CE.
When God brought physical Israel out of physical bondage to Pharaoh, God also
physically liberated Israel [a nation without life in the heavenly realm] from
sin through receiving the Law of God. Now, any lawlessness by an Israelite
brought immediate physical death so a physical covering for sin was needed, a
covering that looked forward to the coming of the Son of Man, the only
satisfactory offering for physical sin.
·
The flesh of
every Israelite remained consigned to disobedience even after the nation left Egypt, the geographical representation of sin.
·
Because the
flesh remained consigned to disobedience, Israelites would sin thereby
requiring a death to cover each sin even though the death of a substitute could
not remove, but only delay paying the penalty for the transgression of the law.
·
Therefore, as
all humankind died from Adam to Adam, every individual paid the price for his
or her physical transgression of the law even when no sin was reckoned against
the individual.
·
But the last
Adam had no sin; His flesh was never consigned to disobedience.
·
Because the
man Jesus came from heaven and not from the dust of the earth, He was not
subject to corruption and decay, but had to be made sin through taking on the
transgressions of others in order to taste death.
·
The death of
the flesh of the man Jesus of Nazareth became the reality of the deaths of
calves, bulls, and goats that had covered the lawlessness of Israel. Thus, from Calvary forward, no sin would be reckoned against the flesh of any Israelite
even though the flesh of every Israelite remained consigned to disobedience.
·
Jesus’ death
at Calvary covered—in the same way that calves, bulls, and goats had covered—the
lawlessness of flesh consigned to disobedience, with the death of that flesh
still ultimately required for transgressions of the law.
·
If the flesh’s
consignment to disobedience had ended at Calvary, then no Israelite will have died of so-called natural causes since Calvary.
·
But no
Israelite over, say, one hundred thirty years old remains alive.
·
Thus, the
death of Jesus’ flesh doesn’t grant to Israel unmerited pardon from sin (which would have the
death penalty for sin removed), but a delay in when the death of the transgressing
flesh occurs.
·
Until
liberated from its consignment to disobedience, the flesh of each Israelite will
ultimately die to pay for the Israelite’s lawlessness in this physical world—lawlessness
that is only covered, not erased by the death of Jesus’ flesh (this distinction
is subtle, but similar to the difference between Paul’s teaching about being
consigned to sin and the doctrine of original
sin).
·
But with Jesus
being the last Adam from whom the last Eve was created when He breathed on ten
of His disciples (John 20:22), Israelites now have life in the
supra-dimensional heavenly realm through being born from above, or born of
Spirit.
·
Israelites now
have life from receiving two breaths: psuche, the shallow breath that gives life to the flesh, and
pneuma, the
deep breath that gives life to the new creature born of Spirit.
·
In the
heavenly realm, Israelites are not consigned to disobedience: the new creature
born of Spirit has been liberated from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:2)
through being a bondservant to the glorified Christ Jesus from birth, whereas
the flesh remains consigned to disobedience.
·
The new
creature born of Spirit is to rule the tent of flesh into which this son of God
was born, but to rule, this new creature must overcome the flesh, a task that
requires this new creature to engage in war against the flesh, all the while
realizing that the tent of flesh remains needful as housing for the new
creature.
·
When the
crucified old man that remains alive for awhile and who had dwelt comfortably
in the tent of flesh fights against the infant son of God and prevails, the Israelite
again transgresses the laws of God—but Christ Jesus will not be crucified anew.
The flesh will die and will pay in this realm for the sin, but the new creature
now has uncovered sin in the heavenly realm, where a spiritual death is
required for the sin.
The
heavenly realm is timeless, an attribute that is difficult to comprehend by
human beings confined in time as fish are confined in water—time is a low
viscosity fluid that can be visualized by contemplating the characteristics of
the earth’s atmosphere, or of water.
·
A person
becomes an Israelite when the person has been redeemed from disobedience,
either physically, or physically and spiritually.
·
The life of a
bull or of a goat only covered as a substitute death the transgression of a
circumcised Israelite in the physical realm, and then only until the reality,
Christ Jesus, died at Calvary.
·
Satan will
ultimately pay with his life as a spirit being for all lawlessness in the
heavenly realm, but he will not be cast into the lake of fire until after the
thousand years that Christ reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords.
·
For a thousand
years plus a short while [three and a half more years]—from when saints are
glorified until Satan is cast into the lake of fire—sin in the heavenly realm
will need a covering akin to the sacrifice of bulls and goats in the physical
realm. Spiritual life will have to be sacrificed as bulls, goats, and lambs
were sacrificed by natural Israelites.
Here
is where difficulty enters, for God will have mercy on whom
He will, and compassion on whom He will (Rom 9:15-16). Human will [such as making a decision for Christ] or exertion [the works of the hands]
does not enter into whether a person is foreknown and predestined for glory
(Rom 8:29-30). Salvation doesn’t depend upon the person. No
person will ever be able to say to God that the person entered heaven because
of some attribute or work of the person, or because of some decision the person
made. Every son of God will be there because of what the Father and Son has
done, including limiting the choices of the person—the foreknown and
predestined son of God has no choice about being predestined. The question of
freewill is less of a question than it is a cop-out response to what Calvin
taught about predestination: the foundation that the Apostle Paul laid has some
of humankind being created as vessels for honored or special use, and some
being created as vessels for dishonorable use, with God determining what He
will do with every human being and especially with those He has drawn from the
world and given life in the heavenly realm.
·
Some human
beings have been drawn from the world by the Father for the express purpose of
being made into vessels for dishonorable use. These vessels will be used by the
Adversary, and will be planted as tares in the fields of God.
·
These tares
will appear as ministers of righteousness (2 Co 11:15), but will be servants of
Satan that have been drawn from the world and given life in the heavenly realm
to satisfy the righteous requirements of the law (Rom 8:4), which demands that
sin be covered by death.
·
Judgments of
the saints will be revealed when Christ Jesus returns (1 Co 4:5).
·
The glorified
Jesus presently bears—as the reality of the Azazel goat—the transgressions of
saints in the heavenly realm, but when judgments are revealed, Jesus will give
these transgressions, each requiring a spiritual death, to either the saint, or
to a substitute until Satan as the reality of all lawlessness pays with his
life for these sins.
·
Since Satan
will not be cast into the lake of fire until after the thousand years, and
since the firstfruits will be glorified at the beginning of the thousand years,
a substitute death in the heavenly realm will be required for every
transgression of the law in the heavenly realm in the same way that in this
physical realm lambs served as substitutes for the Son of Man.
Therefore,
to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law, God has drawn from this world human beings that He has predestined to be
vessels for dishonorable use, their dishonorable use being as spiritual and
physical bulls and goats. These born of Spirit disciples are the Adversary’s
servants and will die on earth [the death of the flesh, the first death] and in
the lake of fire [the death of the spirit, the second death] as substitutes for
their master, whom they have served with their lawlessness within the Body of
Christ.
This construction of the house of God on the
foundation the Apostle Paul laid will not be popular within or without
Sabbatarian Christianity, but it is solid work that will withstand being tested
by fire.
Every disciple knows someone in the lawless 8th-day
Church that is a solid, faithful “Christian,” and perhaps a disciple who prays
for the Sabbatarian disciple’s soul.
(My sister is such a person, HK.) But will this “Christian” keep the laws of
God, or even attempt to live as a Judean? No, correct? It is as if the
“Christian” has no choice about whether to obey God, and has been predestined
not to keep the commandments. No argument will convince the person to live as a
Judean. Instead, every argument or discussion will end with the “Christian”
telling the Sabbatarian disciple that the law has been abolished when Jesus
said not to think that He came to abolish the Law and the Prophets (Matt 5:17).
Reasoning with this “Christian” is as reasoning with an earthenware vessel:
this “Christian” will not hear anything that would have the “Christian” living
as Jesus lived. And what becomes quickly apparent is that this “Christian,”
regardless of his or her fruits [which are usually good, and often better than
any Sabbatarian’s fruits], will not under any
circumstances keep the commandments of God.
By their
fruits you shall know them—the
tares are of several species, some con-artists, swindlers, covetous snakes that
give serpents a bad name. Some seem genuinely seeking to do the will of God,
but are unwilling to obey God when it comes to keeping the commandments. Some
keep the Sabbath commandment, but will not obey civil laws that do not conflict
with the commandments of God. All will die in the lake of fire as substitutes
for their master, the lawless Adversary, that old serpent Satan the devil.
All lawlessness, all causes of sin, all
law-breakers will be cast into the furnace (Matt 13:41-42) upon Christ’s return. And the most insidious
source of lawlessness in this world today—and during the seven endtime years of
tribulation—will be Christian tares, each a servant of Satan that appears as a
servant of righteousness in order to be an acceptable sacrifice in the heavenly
realm.
(The chaff can be compared to the flesh of each
glorified disciple.)
·
Yes, the
Father has drawn from the world disciples that today’s Sabbatarian Church will hastily identify as false brethren, or as nominal Christians.
·
For the sake
of argument let us assume that every disciple who claims to have the Holy
Spirit has been born of Spirit.
·
Certainly
Sabbatarian Christians can now agree that “many have been called,” and just as
certainly Sabbatarian Christians can agree that “few will be chosen” (Matt 22:14),
that the many are tares shading the
true grain in the fields of God, robbing the true grain of needed sunlight.
Therefore,
instead of Sabbatarian Christians attacking each other, sending forth raiding
parties as if they were savages seeking scalps, each raiding party armed with a
box of books and booklets or a basketful of audio tapes, should not
Sabbath-keeping disciples rather seek to understand why the vast majority of
Christianity, on 24-7 satellite television, bellows and bleats like so many
bulls and goats? Great shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth of the many.
In explaining the parable of the tares to His
disciples, Jesus said, ‘“The harvest is the close of the age…just as weeds are
gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son
of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes
of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that
place [the fire] there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’” (Matt 13:39-42). Law-breaking is transgression of God’s law,
which, obviously, will not have been abolished.
Presently, Sabbatarian Christianity is no more
unified in beliefs than is the greater Church, and is, at best, a house divided
against itself, a house that suffers from lack of
love, lack of scholarship, lack of unity, and from too many false apostles,
false prophets, and deceitful workers. If Sabbatarian Christians tried hard to
be more ineffectual than they currently are, they would have to invent new
means of doing so, for the Sacred Names mantle raises ineffectiveness to a very
lofty height. Nevertheless, no Israelite, physical or spiritual, can enter
God’s rest (Ps 95:10-11) on the following day (Num 14:40-41 & Heb
3:19–4:10). Therefore, while false ministers abound in Sabbatarian fellowships,
the great crop of tares that will cover, in their resurrection, genuine grain
today grows to maturity in 8th-day fellowships, where law-breaking
is the defining characteristic of the fellowships.
Yes, times have changed as one noted theologian
observed a week ago; and yes, the majority of Christians live and eat
differently than did Jesus and His disciples; and yes, society is more open to
homosexual lifestyles, labeling aberrant behavior as merely another lifestyle
decision; and yes, Christians seek a kinder and gentler God than the one Moses
knew; but no, God has not changed. His law has not been abolished. Sin is still
sin, and great will be the weeping by those Christians who purify themselves
while eating swine and every abominable creature that crawls or slithers on
land and in the sea (Isa 66:17). They simply will not
believe Jesus, or the One who sent Him.
Christians who attempt to cover their lawlessness
by taking the sacraments whenever and however they determine—because
Christianity, along with the times, has changed since the 1st-Century—are
as spiritually naked as Galatians were that circumcised themselves after
baptism. These Christians profess great love for Jesus, but they absolutely
refuse to believe that He and the Father are one. For if they believed that YHWH, Israel’s Elohim, are the Father and the
Son, then why would they not believe that the Father and the Son will doubly
punish Israel (Jer 16:18) for how this spiritually holy nation has polluted the temple of
God with its idols and idolatry, thereby transforming the Son of God into a
lifeless Baal.
To doubly punish is to take life in the spiritual
as well as the physical realm for transgressions of the law.
The god of the tares would not, according to the
tares, do to them what the angels of the Lord will do when casting them into
the lake of fire—no, he wouldn’t, for they well serve the disobedience they
never left. Their god will not be resurrected from death, for his death will be
for all lawlessness in the heavenly realm (Ezek 28:18-19). And they will die in
this heavenly realm as bulls and goats died between when Israel entered into God’s rest (Ps 95-10-11 & Jos 4:19) and Calvary.
*
The person conducting the Sabbath service should
close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s
dismissal.
* * * * *
"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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