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 raised from death to newness of life as Christ.
Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of July 27, 2013
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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Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. (Eph 1:1–6 double emphasis added)
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The structure of heaven precludes the existence of time: heaven is timeless for the passage of time can be written as a mathematical function of gravity, meaning that time and its passage was created when the creation, the cosmos, and all that is in it was created. Time and its passage doesn’t exist outside of the creation; for time and its passage needs the mass (that which produces gravity) of the creation in order to be expressed. Heaven is outside of the creation. By extension, heaven is timeless. Although heaven in the form of its Abyss incorporates the creation with the Abyss functioning somewhat as a physical black hole with the edges of the creation being analogous to the event horizon of a black hole, heaven itself apparently functions as a single living entity, with the Abyss serving as a wound in its side that will close and heal; thus, the creation will roll up as a scroll and pass away when the wound closes.
If the model of heaven represented in the preceding paragraph is correct—and it is—then in a human person is seen a shadow and type of heaven itself, with the spirit [pneuma] of the person (from 1 Cor 2:11) functioning as Moses on Mount Sinai (representative of the heavenly mountain of God) and with the spirit of God [pneuma Theou] in [én] the spirit of Christ [pneuma Christou] being analogous to the Lord [YHWH] speaking to Moses from the cloud. The camp of Israel around the base of Mount Sinai will be analogous to angels, and as Israel was prohibited from stepping foot on Mount Sinai, angels are prevented from ascending the holy mountain of God.
In timelessness, the absence of life cannot coexist with the presence of life: an entity either is alive or isn’t alive and will always remain so for as long as the entity remains in a timeless dimension. Therefore, for God to create angels in heaven—in a timeless dimension—distinct tiers or layers or locations must exist in heaven, locations represented by the physicality of height at Mount Sinai … the Lord told Moses to set boundaries around Mount Sinai:
And [YHWH] said to Moses, "Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever." When Moses told the words of the people to [YHWH], [YHWH] said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third- day. For on the third day [YHWH] will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, 'Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.' When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain." …
[YHWH] came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And [YHWH] called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. And [YHWH] said to Moses, "Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to [YHWH] to look and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near to [YHWH] consecrate themselves, lest [YHWH] break out against them." And Moses said to [YHWH], "The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, 'Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.'" And [YHWH] said to him, "Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to [YHWH] lest he break out against them." So Moses went down to the people and told them. (Ex 19:9–13, 20–25)
In heaven (that is, in the timeless dimension where nothing with mass exists), angels created by God cannot enter the location or heavenly tier where God has life although He can enter the tier where angels have life. By extension, a human person cannot physically enter the supra-dimensional realm of heaven—the physicality of the person prevents such entry so there will never be a bodily rapture of the visible person to heaven. It is the non-physical inner self of the person that when receiving life from God in the form of the breath of God [pneuma Theou] in the indwelling breath of Christ [pneuma Theou] that will enter heaven, and will enter into the tier from which the inner self of the person received life, that it will be like Moses in that the inner self of the person can ascend to the summit of the holy mountain of God and see the God. The inner self of the person, in a glorious body, can see Christ Jesus as He is; for this glorified inner self will have received heavenly life from God the Father but will have received this heavenly life outside of heaven. Thus, when this glorified son of God enters heaven, he enters the tier where God dwells atop the holy mountain. He enters above the angels that are again analogous to Israel camped around the base of Mount Sinai, with all of Israel having been separated from Egypt by the nation’s journey across the Sea of Reeds and into the wilderness.
The Passover liberation of Israel from physical slavery to a physical king in a physical land forms the shadow and copy of the Second Passover liberation of circumcised-of-heart Israel, with this spiritual Israel’s liberation from indwelling sin and death, and bondage to a spiritual king (the Adversary) occurring in the Abyss where the creation is. For at the conclusion of the circumcised-of-heart Israel’s journey through the wilderness of Sin, Israel—the nation of inner selves that forms the Body of Christ—following Christ Jesus [in Greek, ´Iesou — Joshua, the spelling different because Greeks, like other Indo-European language speakers, cannot pronounce the Hebrew icon <‘Ayin> and shortened the sound to a simple <s> that can be pronounced] will enter into heaven and be where God the Father presently is.
(As a side note, the tribe of Ephraim could not pronounce the linguistic icon <‘Ayin> when it occurred at the beginning of words; hence the men of Gilead used Ephraimites’ inability to utter <Shibboleth> rather than <Sibboleth> to slaughter 42,000 Ephraimites at the fords of the Jordan River — Judges 12:5–6.)
The disciple genuinely born of spirit knows with certainty that he has been so born, especially as this son of God grows in grace and knowledge past infancy and obtains the spiritual maturity of an adolescent son of God … again, if the disciple has truly been born of spirit, the disciples knows that the disciple has been so born, and those Sabbatarian disciples who insist that they are not yet born of spirit, that they are merely begotten, really have not yet been born of spirit. They remain carnally minded, their minds set on the physical things of this world such as possessions and/or preserving human liberty when in reality, every person humanly born is born as a slave of the Adversary; is born as a son of disobedience (Eph 2:2–3) consigned to disobedience (Rom 11:32). And concerning possessions, John wrote,
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15–17)
If anyone is obsessed with the things of this world, the love of the Father is not in the person. If anyone uses possession of the things of this world as a criterion in determining spirituality, the person judges wrongly for the person lacks the love of the Father. If anyone seeks to preserve any aspect of human governance, in particular, the U.S. Constitution, the love of the Father is not in that person. And if the love of the Father is not in a person, the person has not been born of God. The person is a spiritual meathead.
The person not yet born of God cannot understand the things of God, regardless of how hard the person tries to do so.
Paul wrote,
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to spirit [pneuma] set their minds on the things of the spirit [tou pneumatos]. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Rom 8:5–8)
The person whose focus is aspects of this world—regardless of whether that focus is the possession of things, spouse, children, grandchildren, liberty, hunting, fishing, cooking, scenery—is not yet born of God, and is by extension, carnally minded. However, at the same time, the person whose sole physical focus is God is unbalanced and a spiritual infant at best. The person whose sole focus is God inevitably lacks spiritual understanding … consider the relationship of the inner self, born of spirit, and the outer self, humanly born, as this relationship is represented in human marriage, with the inner self being to the person as the husband is to his wife: does a wife not have interests that differ from her husband’s? In marriages where the husband rules his wife as Christ rules the Church, the husband rules his wife with a very light hand, giving to his wife the opportunity for her to express her individuality. And it is this light handed rule that the inner self should exercise over the person’s outer self, thereby permitting the outer self to develop interests apart from God, apart from Scripture, while simultaneously believing God and keeping the commandments. So parents should be interested in children and grandchildren, but neither should be the focus of the parents’ life. A disciple can fish or hunt or pursue exotic cooking cuisines, but such pursuits should not be the focus of the disciple.
In a marriage, the wife bears children that her husband has fathered. Both parents have invested interests in the children born, but their investments differ. Their perspectives differ. Their involvements differ. And so should it be between the living inner self that is a son of God and the outer self whose life must be sustained by the things of this world. It isn’t the inner self that is sustained by food, warmed by fire, clothed by garments of cloth or leather. It is the outer self that has these needs; for the outer self serves to shelter the inner self that has life having come from heaven, life sustained by the bright fire of God in the indwelling Christ Jesus.
Disciples truly born of God have within each heavenly life that precedes the foundation of the cosmos; for this life comes from God the Father, whose life, whose breath [pneuma], existed before that anointed guardian angel that became the Adversary was created as the sum of perfection, and thereafter placed in Eden, the Garden of God that is on (but not atop) the holy mountain of God (from Ezek 28:12–14).
Again, apparently location on or at the base of the holy mountain of God in heaven functions as indicators of authority; for the very nature of timelessness precludes the simultaneous presence and absence of life. What has life on top of the holy mountain of God will always have life in this heavenly location. What is without life on top of this holy mountain can never have life in this holy location. Thus, no angel created by God can ascend to the top of the holy mountain where the angel did not previously have life without killing or destroying heaven itself …
The prophet Isaiah records the Lord declaring,
How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: “Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?” All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb; but you are cast out, away from your grave, like a loathed branch, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a dead body trampled underfoot. You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people. (Isa 14:12–20)
The Adversary and his angels apparently sought to ascend to the top of the holy mountain of God and to enter into the cloud, this analogy used to illustrate physically what has no physical equivalency other than in the Passover liberation of Israel from physical slavery to a physical king [Pharaoh] in a physical land [Egypt] representing sin and by extension, death).
Now, to the double emphasis of, “To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus” (Eph 1:1), the words <in Ephesus> are not found in the earliest copies of this epistle … the epistle was written to “the holy [ones]” faithful in Christ Jesus and was apparently intended to be read in all fellowships, with the holy ones at Ephesus personalizing the epistle by adding their name to its greeting, a reasonable thing to do for what is written pertains to every disciple: all who are genuinely born of God have been, in love, predestined for adoption as sons of God through Christ Jesus—and as sons of God in whom Christ Jesus dwells, all holy ones will walk as Jesus walked in this world, meaning that the inner self of the disciple will live and walk in this world as a Judean. It matters not a whit whether the outer self is circumcised or uncircumcised prior to when God draws the person from this world and gives to that person indwelling heavenly life. The person will be a sinner, a son of disobedience prior to when God draws the person and Christ enters into the person where He is crucified and dies for the person. And this is what has not been well understood before: the foreknown and predestined disciple receives the indwelling of Christ—receives the holy spirit in the form of the spirit of God [pneuma Theou] in the spirit of Christ [pneuma Christou]—when the person is still a sinner, not after the person repents and cleans him or herself up. This foreknown person, while still a sinner, has the indwelling Christ Jesus die for the person, not two millennia ago but while the person lives physically, meaning that Christ Jesus, having been crucified in the 1st-Century CE, was crucified for me in the 1970s, such is the reality of timelessness where only the present exists and where all activity erases previous activity so that I am like Moses in that through spiritual birth and maturation (i.e., receipt of a imperishable body) I am able to enter into the presence of God atop the heavenly mountain of God.
Moses [the Son], however, didn’t become Moses overnight, but through a long maturation process that included Hebrew birth and circumcision, adoption by Pharaoh’s daughter, early life as an Egyptian, conscious identification as a Hebrew when a mature man, flight as a fugitive, and humbling as a shepherd, tending his father-in-law’s sheep for another lifetime. Only then was Moses called by God and commanded to return to Egypt to lead Israel into the Promised Land that represented Sabbath observance and heaven.
God doesn’t ask spiritual infants to do a work for Him. He doesn’t ask novices that outwardly declare they are not born of spirit but are only begotten to do a work for Him. Why would He send an infant, still in need of spiritual milk, to do the work of a son of God? Why would He send a willing but also willingly ignorant Sabbatarian disciple forth to do any work for Him other than what was necessary to end the last Elijah’s second attempt to breathe life into the Corpse of Christ? That is not His M.O., which is seen in the story of Moses, beginning to end.
While every genuine son of God was still a sinner, Christ Jesus in the form of His spirit [pneuma Christou] entered into the spirit [pneuma] of the person and there was crucified for the person so that the inner self of the person might experience a resurrection to life like that which the man Jesus experienced a long time ago in this world, with this passage of time being confined to inside the creation only. In heaven, every genuine son of God receives life that existed from before the foundations of the cosmos were lain—and this is difficult for human minds to grasp, impossible for carnal minds to conceive.
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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."