The Philadelphia Church

The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and commentary for this week are more in line with what has become usual; for the following will most likely be familiar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath’s selection is spiritual procreation.

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The person conducting the Sabbath service should open services with two or three hymns, or psalms, followed by an opening prayer acknowledging that two or three (or more) are gathered together in Christ Jesus’ name, and inviting the Lord to be with them.

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.

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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 2^nd and 3^rd 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 8^th-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 8^th-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 1^st-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.

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The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal.

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"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

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