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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 “in the Spirit”. Clickable hymns on this page require RealPlayer to be installed on your computer. The download is free. Possible songs include the following hymns: Weekly
For the Sabbath of July 21, 2007
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 now read or assign to be read Revelation
chapter 1, followed by chapter 4. Commentary: John the Revelator wrote,
¦(,<`:0< ¦< B<,b:"J4 ¦< J± 6LD4"6± º:XD‘ [“I was in spirit in the Lord’s Day” – Rev 1:10). When was John in spirit [¦< B<,b:"J4]? Was he in spirit on a particular day of the
week, or in spirit in the vision, or in spirit at the end of the age, when
the prophets of old used the expression “day of the Lord” [and
“that day”] as a euphemism for the coming of the Messiah? Was John in the flesh and
only dreaming when he saw the events he describes? Or was he, as he claims, in spirit, as in being a spiritual
creature? The Apostle Paul did not
know whether he was in the flesh or out of the flesh [i.e., in spirit] when he
visited the third heaven (2 Co 12:2-3)—he repeats the qualifier,
“whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows”
because of its apparent importance to what he experienced. Flesh and blood
cannot enter heaven; so what Paul experiences is either a dream experience
related to other dream experiences, or he saw himself as a spirit being [post
resurrection] in heaven, which would mean that his salvation was certain. Now,
this is a distinction that relates back to Jesus’ transfiguration and to
the quality of timelessness that defines the heavenly realm. Thus, the
importance to Paul of ascertaining whether he was “dreaming” while
still in the flesh or whether he was actually seeing himself post resurrection,
when the things he heard truly cannot be told for those things haven’t
yet happened, enters into the discussion of John being in spirit. John was in spirit in the
same third heaven that the Apostle Paul entered. There aren’t
“many” third heavens as some denominations teach, with layering
through which one ascends before finally beholding the face of God.
Scripturally, there is one third heaven, that supra-dimensional realm in which
all other dimensions remain furled, and there is the bottomless pit. Hence, the
quality of timelessness allows the Logos
to see Satan fall before He enters His creation as His only Son (John 3:16),
and to have His feet washed by Abraham both years after and years before He came
as His Son … if timelessness is perceived as a point around which time
flows as a river, from that one point a person can enter the river at any
moment, then step back to that point and enter the river elsewhere. From that
one point, all that occurs anywhere within “time” is knowable and
observable. Thus, God knows the beginning from the end, for both are
simultaneously seen. Therefore, the use of the past tense is appropriate when
speaking of fire coming from the belly of the fallen anointed cherub (Ezek
28:18-19), and when discussing predestination (Rom 8:29-30); for both of these
futuristic events have already occurred from the perspective of God. For John to say that he
was in spirit and not in the flesh dreaming
introduces a level of complexity that has not been well explored. Revelation begins,
“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his
servants the things that must soon
take place” (1:1 emphasis added) … if the events described in
John’s vision must “soon” take place, then the time setting
for the vision was not the 1st-Century CE. No assignment of meaning
to soon allows for the passage of two
millennia to transpire between when John transcribed his vision and when the
events described within the vision take place. The vision closes with,
“‘These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of
the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place’” (22:6);
plus, “‘And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the
prophesy of this book, for the time is near’”
(v. 10); and, “‘Behold, I
am coming soon’” (v. 12); and, “He who testifies to
these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon’” (v. 20
– emphasis has been added to each of the bolded words). From the perspective of
timelessness, all events (if they have not already happened) will
“soon” occur, for the events are certain to occur—and without
the passage of time, an event will occur as soon as the context for the event
develops. In other words, because of the limitations of a paradox [no two
things can occupy the same time and space], in heaven all change must co-exist
with what is for the “moment” is unchanging. Without the decay that
comes from one moment becoming the next moment, what enters heaven must coexist
(as in unity that produces oneness) with what is already there. There can never
be anyplace in heaven for dissention [all dissention remains in the bottomless
pit]. Thus, the new creature which is born of Spirit that came from heaven can
return to heaven if this new creature remains “one” with the Father
and the Son. This new creature began as one with God through being constructed
of the divine Breath of the Father [Pneuma
’Agion], but this new creature was placed in a tent of flesh
consigned to disobedience. The writer of Hebrew
said, “For he who sanctifies [Christ Jesus] and those who are sanctified
all have one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers”
(2:11) … what is translated as all
have one origin could be better rendered as from one all. Thus, the one who sanctifies and the sanctified are
one and are from one, a reason used by neo-Arians to make Christ a created
being, originating initially in the womb of Mary or earlier as the created
brother of Lucifer and Michael. But this same writer of Hebrews said that the
one who sanctifies is not ashamed to call disciples brothers; so either the
Father calls disciples brothers or
the firstborn Son calls disciples brothers.
Regardless, the one who calls disciples brothers is from one with those who are called brothers. And it is the one who
sanctifies “for whom and by whom all things exist” (v. 10). Therefore, those who are
sanctified are spirit; i.e., composed of spirit. All that exists, now, has been
created for them, the brothers that
“share in flesh and blood” (v.
14). Because Christendom
accepted the lie of the old serpent, Satan the devil, that human beings would
not die—this is the lie the serpent told the first Eve (Gen 3:4)—Christians
have, for nearly two millennia, had problems of one sort or another with the
concept that the new creature born of Spirit is like the “stars” of
heaven. Considerable cultural junk is attached to this concept; for Egyptian
pharaohs built funeral pyramids to conduct them upward until they would become stars in heaven. The Lord [YHWH] asked Job where he was
“‘when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God
shouted for joy’” (Jon 38:7). The Lord [YHWH] told Abraham [then still Abram]
that Eliezar of Damascus would not be his heir. The Lord then brought Abram
outside and said, “‘Look toward the heaven, and number the stars,
if you are able to number them. … So shall your offspring be’”
(Gen 15:5). Abraham’s offspring shall be as many as the stars and shall
be like the stars. Plus, Jesus told the Sadducees who doubted the resurrection
that when resurrected, the saints would “‘neither marry nor are
given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven’” (Matt 22:30)
… Israel will not marry in heaven, for to get into heaven Israel will
have married the Bridegroom and will have become “one in spirit”
with the Bridegroom. This is an
important concept to understand: no person can enter heaven unless one with
God. The means through which glorified human beings are able to enter is
through “marriage” to the Son, who is one [as in unity as opposed
to singleness] with His Father. And when glorified disciples marry the Son,
they will not marry again for this union shall not be set aside. Marriage and
divorce cannot simultaneously exist, and timelessness dictates that “all
that is” presently in heaven co-exist with “all that will
be.” Therefore, once married—as with once living—means
“always married,” as that which has life has everlasting life. Only
by Theos entering His creation as His
Son was His conjoined relationship [as disclosed in the Tetragrammaton YHWH] with Theon severed. And to sever this relationship, Theos had to first create the universe [i.e., all that is]. The use of figurative
language, made necessary because human words serve as mimetic representations
of the things of this world and are unable to directly serve as representations
of heavenly things, makes distant suns in the second heaven the metaphor for
spiritual beings in the third heaven; makes human marriage the metaphor for the
conjoined relationship by which the Son and His glorified disciples are one in
unity and purpose. And because of the use of figurative language, an
extraordinary means becomes necessary for assigning meaning to the words
comprising Scripture. The more complex the
concept represented by the figurative language, the more difficult it is for
those who have not truly been born of Spirit to grasp the subject under
discussion, let alone the nuances of the subject. For much of the past five
years, those who are of Philadelphia
have been figuratively swinging machetes to clear away the vegetative growth of
error and disbelief that had overgrown the charred debris concealing the
foundation of the house of God that the Apostle Paul laid (1 Co
3:10-11)—and when swinging a machete, subtle distinctions are severed or
missed as the larger errors are dragged away. But once the saplings and false
vines are dragged away, the real work of theological anthropology begins. In a manner inversely
analogous to angels being subjected to the concealed iniquity of an anointed
cherub in heaven, the new creature is domiciled in flesh imprisoned in sin. ·
Angels are “stars.” ·
Both angels and new creatures born of spirit are
“sons of God.” ·
The glorified new creature will be like an angel, will be
a “star.” ·
But angels are ministering spirits sent to serve those who
are to inherit salvation. The writer of Hebrews
said, “Although he [Jesus] was a son, he learned obedience through what
he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation
to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of
Melchizedek. About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since
you have become dull of hearing” (5:8-11). … There is much that is
difficult to explain to those who have lost their hearing, but the problem is
an old one. From the single anointed
cherub in whom iniquity was found came the spread of iniquity to a third of the
“stars.” Like a retrovirus infection, iniquity hid in the obedience
of the stars until one “son[1]”
disagreed with something God did[2].
Then iniquity burst forth, causing God to cast those in whom lawlessness was
found into outer darkness and the bottomless pit (2 Pet 2:4)—as the earth
opened under Korah and those who rebelled with him (Num chap 16), the fabric of
heaven opened into a bottomless pit characterized by darkness, which is the
absence of life. In this pit, the creation came into existence as a glorious
death chamber. And in this creation, change is mandated through decay that
produces the passage of time. Therefore, the presence of life in the present
moment can become the absence of life in the next moment, and will with
certainty become the absence of life at some future moment for the creation is
passing away (1 John 2:17). Rebellion against God
was, in the heavenly realm, concealed until it broke out. How long it was
concealed cannot be known, for the moment is unchanging. All that can be said
is that this infection of iniquity was concealed until it was found. And this
infection of iniquity produced death and darkness and the natural world: in the
bottomless pit, it is from death that life comes, from darkness that light
comes, and from the natural world that the spiritual sons of God come. It
isn’t that life follows death or that light follows darkness, but that
those things which are done in death and in darkness and in this natural
world—namely, rebellion against death and the darkness and the things of
the flesh—0produce life and light. Thus, death is not merely the benign
state of sleep, but includes the dreams and visions which occur during sleep.
For these dreams and visions are analogous to the spiritual life dwelling in
tents of flesh, this spiritual life having come from God by receipt of His
Spirit. These things are hard to
understand even for those who hear the voice of Christ … the inverse
relationship between iniquity being found in the angelic sons of God and what
the Apostle Paul wrote—“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal
bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as
instruments for unrighteousness” (Rom 6:12-13)—has the bodily
members of a person consigned to sin inversely equating to angels
“imprisoned” in obedience. The new creature born of Spirit and born
free to keep the laws of God [born free to obey God] becomes the inverse of the
anointed cherub in whom iniquity was found. So as a rebellion of disobedience
was spread to angels imprisoned in obedience, the new creature born of spirit
should spread a rebellion of obedience through the fleshly members of the
mortal body that has been imprisoned in sin. And as the anointed cherub dragged
down a third of the angels formerly concluded in obedience in heaven, the new
creatures born of spirit should drag upwards a third of humankind consigned to disobedience. The new creature born of
spirit is “spirit.” He is composed of the Spirit of Christ (Rom
8:9) and the Spirit of the Father (v.
11). He is not physical in any sense, so the mind set on physical things (or
the things of the flesh) is not set on this new creature, or on God, this new
creature’s Father. The mind set on the flesh remains focused on death and
darkness. Back now to what John
wrote: John was “projected” forward to the Lord’s day where
he watched a panorama of events unfold, with this panorama culminating in the
arrival of New Jerusalem, when the physical earth and all that is in it has
passed away (1 John 2:17). He was in the third heaven when he saw these events
occur; so from the moment he stepped out of time and entered the third heaven (where
he would have seen the resurrection of the firstfruits, among whom he would
have been numbered), a scenario occurs of being doubly “in spirit.” The “when” of
when he is doubly “in spirit” occurs in Revelation 4:1 —
“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 [¦< B<,b:"J4 – in spirit],
and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne” (vv. 1-2). That first trumpet like voice
was the voice of the glorified Christ (cf.
1:10; 41:1). If John were dreaming
while in the body, it could not truthfully be said that he was “in
spirit” on the Lord’s day. His vision could well be an “in
the body experience” as nightmares are that awakens a person from sleep
when the body needs to relieve itself. So by saying that he was “in
spirit” on the Lord’s day, John makes a declaration of fact that
his vision’s perspective was from that of the new creature within him,
and the location of the vision was on the Lord’s day when the kingdoms of
this world would be given to the Son of Man. Therefore, when within the vision,
John says that he is then transformed
and was, “‘At once I was in the Spirit’” (Rev 4:2), then
John fulfills what Jesus said to Peter: “‘If it is my will that he
remain until I come, what is that to you’” (John 21:22). What John
experiences while on the Isle of Patmos is seeing the new creature, born of
Spirit as a son of God, glorified when Jesus comes. Yes, John lives to see
himself glorified, but to do this, the new creature that is the son of God
dwelling within the fleshly tabernacle that was visibly the son of Zebedee must
be transported forward to the Lord’s Day. John has a true “out of
the body” experience. Therefore, the following
are true: 1. The Lord’s day is the day
of the Lord, then John’s vision occurs at the end of the age, when
dominion is taken from the four demonic kings (Dan 7:9-14) and the kingdom of
this world is given to Christ Jesus (Rev 11:15). At that time, all of the
events described within the vision will “soon” occur. The vision
is, now, true and trustworthy, but not for the 1st-Century, or even
the 20th-Century. 2. On a specific day,
dominion over humankind will be taken by force from the prince of this world
and his angels (Rev 12:7-10), and the single kingdom of this world will be
given to one like a son of man. This
is a one time occurrence. It doesn’t happen earlier than the time of the end, and it hasn’t
happened yet. Thus, humankind has not yet arrived at that moment in time when
the seals on the scroll (Rev chap 6) are removed. 3. In the vision, the angel
tells John not to seal the vision … the vision doesn’t occur in the
1st-Century but in the 21st-Century [or later], and the
letters that John is told to deliver to the seven churches were not to be
delivered in the 1st-Century, but are to be delivered in the 21st,
meaning that God has again used shadows to seal and keep secret a vision He
openly placed before the saints. For at the close of the 1st-Century
the seven named churches co-existed on a Roman mail route. And their existence
(plus the fact that the letters accurately reflect the strengths and weakness
of each of these churches) has caused theologians for nearly two millennia to
wrestle with the imagery and symbolism of John’s vision. 4. In Revelation, appearance
functions as attributes. For example, Jesus functions as the Lamb of God. He
doesn’t appear as a lamb in chapter 1, verses 12 through 20; however,
once past the seven letters, He appears as a Lamb, slain[3],
with seven horns and seven eyes, which are seven spirits. These seven spirits
function as eyes as Jesus functions as the Lamb of God. The seven churches will
now function as seven horns. So the seven churches are not 1st-Century
fellowships, but spiritual fellowships in the same way that the seven eyes are
seven spirits. 5. The change that occurs
within the vision marks when John lives to see Christ’s return by consciously
entering the heavenly realm. This opportunity was not given to Peter, but it
was apparently also given to Paul even though Paul was prevented from telling
what he saw. Thus, John’s vision has credibility even though it
hasn’t been understandable. * 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." [ Home ] [ Sabbath Readings ] [1] Angels are sons of God because they have no parent but God, who created them. [2]
This son was the great horn, the first horn of the king of [3] To skin and process, a slain lamb is held by its head upright, so the image given is that of a lamb standing upright on its hind feet. |