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 The Rock.

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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.

Earlier this month (July 10, 2007), the Vatican issued a paper titled, “Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church,” written by William Cardinal Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a committee that began with the Inquisition. In the form of five questions and answers, the surprisingly honest paper was intended to clarify controversial doctrinal points, such as whether there is only one true Church. And the paper’s conclusion was that the Roman Catholic Church is the only Church, that all other denominations are merely “communities” of believers that must eventually become Catholic in order to receive salvation; for only the Catholic Church has apostolic succession [i.e., the ability to trace its ordinations and sacraments back to the Apostle Peter]. Thus, the paper is an extension of Dominus Iesus, issued September 5, 2000, which asserted that there is no salvation except through the Catholic Church, and of Unam Sanctum, the papal bull issued by Boniface VIII in 1302 CE, which said that there was neither salvation nor remission of sin outside the Roman Church.

The doctrine of apostolic succession has been used by the Roman Church to leverage its curious construction of Greek paganism and Roman organization into continued existence in a mostly disbelieving world—and not merely existence, but continued respectability and political importance. Thus, the many Protestant fellowships have had to attack (or have borrowed) the doctrine through rereading its source text, Matt 16:18.

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The person conducting the service should now read or assign to be read Matthew chapter 16.

Commentary: Translations into English conceal word play that the understanding of which is necessary to grasp what Jesus told Peter:

·  In his culture, Peter was named, “Simon, son of John” [Iōannou] (John 1:42).

·  Jesus would give only one sign, that of Jonah [Iōna] (Matt 12:39-40; 16:4).

·  When Peter tells Jesus that He, Jesus, is the Son of the Living God, Jesus uses Peter’s given name, Simon Bar-Jonah [Bariōna] (Matt 16:17), which would translate as Simon, son of Jonah.

·  The difference between /John/ and /Jonah/ is where the aspiration or rough breathing occurs.

In the name John, the aspiration occurs before the consonant /n/, whereas in the name Jonah the aspiration occurs following the consonant: [n].

Aspiration is the presence of “breath” (or in Greek, pneuma) … for those who are not familiar with how words are formed, a vowel stream is generated by the person’s vocal cords when breath is forced past them. The particular vowel sound formed comes from the shape of the mouth when this breath leaves the mouth. Consonants, now, come from the interruption of this vowel stream—and consonants tend toward silence through their cutting off of the vowel stream. A particular consonant is produced by how and where the vowel stream is interrupted (e.g., the middle of the mouth, the front, or the lips). And a person should be able to hear the difference between “rough breathing” occurring before the consonant /n/ versus occurring after the consonant and should not mistake the two locations, one for the other, with /n/ being a troublesome consonant because it is a “nasal,” meaning breath comes through the nose when the consonant is uttered. The consonant /n/ is the consonant most associated with breathing.

Therefore, because Jesus did not place the rough breathing before the consonant as John records in his gospel but after, thereby making Peter the son of the prophet Jonah who was just referenced and not the son of Peter’s natural father, the importance of possessing the Holy Spirit [pneuma hagion – or Breath Holy] is subtly introduced: for Peter to know that Jesus is the Son of the Living God does not come from earthly knowledge (“For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you” – Matt 16:17), but from knowledge given Peter directly by God.

When he answers Jesus, Peter has not yet been born of Spirit, but he possesses knowledge that is spiritual in nature and knowledge that can only come from God. Thus, when Jesus moves the location of the rough breathing on the nasal, Jesus discloses that Peter has use of the Holy Spirit without actually being then born of Spirit—use in the same way that “Abram” received use of the Holy Spirit when the radical for aspirated breath /ah/ is added to his name, transforming his name into Abraham, and Sari’s name into Sarah. Jesus, still speaking only in figurative language (John 16:25-26), now tells Simon, son of Jonah, that he, Simon, is Peter [Petros], and upon this little rock [petra] He would build of Himself [– or “I-will-build of-me”] the church … the Greek idiom for personal possession is “of me,” which is usually translated into English by the possessive pronoun /my/, but this idiomatic expression properly allows for the church [ekklēsia – or “the assembly”] to be built of Christ Himself, with Christ being the building material, which is what Paul tells disciples (Rom 8:9, 11). Thus, to synthesize the above, what Jesus tells Peter is that He, Jesus, will build of Himself, the church on the “rock” that is the son of Jonah, the only sign that He will give. Hence, the church will be built on Jesus being three days and three nights in the grave as Jonah was three days and three nights in the great fish. And there is no other “rock” upon which Jesus will build other than Peter, son of Jonah, not even Simon, son of John, Peter’s fleshly name.

Following Jesus telling Peter that he was the little rock upon which the church would be built, He began to tell the disciples that He must go to Jerusalem to die and then be resurrected on the third day, the sign of Jonah—and Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked Jesus, saying that Jesus should not be killed. Jesus then turned to Peter and said, “‘Get behind me Satan!’” (Matt 16:23) … those who think of the things of man are of Satan and are a stumbling block to Christ and to those called by Christ.

Peter was not exempt from being a stumbling block to disciples, which is the reason why Paul rebuked him at Antioch where, as a hypocrite, he separated himself from Gentile converts when other Jews came from James and expected Peter to outwardly act as a Jew. The Jerusalem Conference (Acts chap 15) was about placing stumbling blocks before converts, especially the stumbling block of physical circumcision before Gentiles. Thus, immediately following this conference, Paul had Timothy circumcised (Acts 16:3) because Timothy’s uncircumcision would have been a stumbling block to Jewish converts. So when Jesus rebuked Peter, saying that Peter’s protestation was of Satan, Jesus told Peter that he was a hindrance or stumbling block [skandalon – or “a stumbling block you are to me”] (Matt 16:23) … thinking the thoughts of man, expressing the concerns of humankind, focusing on physical needs and on possession of physical things, placing physical family ahead of the church—all are stumbling blocks to Christ Jesus. All are as problematic to discipleship as physical circumcision was to Gentile converts, or as lack of circumcision was to Jewish converts. All are of Satan. So any so-called church that focuses on the things of this world (e.g. world peace, or human governance, or human relationships) creates of itself a stumbling block that hinders “Christians” from coming to God.

The above is perhaps the most difficult concept any person seeking God will ever encounter: it has become socially acceptable to define “Christianity” in terms of moral activism for family values and societal improvement, but such activism distracts a person from God. Christians protest at abortion clinics while murdering newly born sons of God by teaching these spiritual infants to break the commandments. Christians claim that they will marry the Bridegroom in heaven, but here on earth, their divorce rate is identical to the society in which they live. Christian ministries feed the poor, run orphanages, man neighborhood watch patrols, operate youth camps—all of these things are admirable, but all of these things distract the activist from those things that are of God. They are all stumbling blocks that divert attention away from God and to this world and its problems. And Christians cannot fix the problems of this world, problems that begin with humankind being consigned to disobedience (Rom 11:32), problems that come from the prince of this world’s broadcast of lawlessness. The most any Christian can do to fix the problems of this world is to figuratively kill his or her old self (nature) that was focused on the flesh and the things that were created from nothing and will return to nothing.

Some “enlightened” theologians today express the gospel of God in terms of the “Infinite” descending to the “Finite,” a process which requires of the Finite time to grow so that it can absorb more and more of Infinite, with the Finite never being fully able to absorb the Infinite until the Finite becomes Infinite; thus, the creation is long lasting (13.5 billions years old) and will last for a long while to come as the Finite actually seems to be vomiting out the Infinite rather than absorbing it. The focus of these theologians is the Finite, or this world and its potential and problems. Thus, continued disobedience is tolerated, for such lawlessness is merely the Finite growing to accept more of the Infinite, quality doublespeak truly worthy of the endtime synagogue of Satan.

The nature of genuine Christian ministry is disclosed in the acts of Peter, John, and Paul, with Paul writing to the saints at Philippi, “Brother, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us” (3:17) … what is this example? To follow Christ is to walk as He walked (1 John 2:6); so to imitate Paul (Phil 3:17) is to walk as Paul walked, and Paul argued in his defense before Festus, “‘Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense’” (Acts 25:8). In the many accusations brought against Paul, he is never accused of breaking any commandment.

Paul never protested the abuses of Caesar or his representatives. He never protested the “rightness” or “wrongness” of Roman authorities evicting Jews and Christians from Rome; of Aquila and Priscilla being expelled from Italy (Acts 18:2).  His only protest when he and Silas were beaten and jailed at Philippi was to not sneak out of town, but to demand that the magistrates come themselves and take him and Silas from jail (Acts 16:37-39). And after getting an apology, Paul and Silas left prison and visited Lydia. They did not behave in the manner of 21^st-Century Christians, who would have made an issue of being wrongly jailed.

Peter and John had no coinage to give the lame beggar, but they gave what they had: the ability in the name of Jesus to heal the man’s feet and ankles … Christian ministry is not about the possession of things or the things of this world, but about the renewing power of the Breath of God. Physically remembering the poor comes from the distribution of what is given, but comes as an also-do (Gal 2:10), not as the priority of the ministry. The “poor” that must be remembered is those human beings whose knowledge of God is in such short supply and of such depleted quality as to cause them to swallow their god, touch their god in their statuary, and prostrate themselves before another human being.

Christian ministry is to do as the early Church did—

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The reader should now read Acts chapter 4, verses 1 through 31.

Commentary: When the rulers saw the confidence or boldness with which Peter and John spoke, and realizing that Peter and John were uneducated men, that they were not scholars or teachers by training, the temple authorities were amazed. They could not deny that the lame beggar had been healed. All the authorities could do to quell the “Jesus movement” was to forbid Peter and John to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name.

With confidence, Peter had said, “‘This one [Jesus] is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved’” (vv. 11-12). Then after being released by the authorities, Peter and John went to their friends and reported all. Together, then, they prayed to God, acknowledging that Roman authority, Gentiles, and the peoples of Israel were gathered against Christ to do whatever was predestined to take place (v. 28), and they asked God for power to continue to speak His words “‘with all boldness, while you [God] stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus’” (vv. 29-30).

But the miracles stopped. The boldness disappeared.

Because what was “predestined” was for the Body of Christ, crucified with Christ, to die as Christ Jesus had, and to be resurrected after the third day; for as the gates of Hades could not prevail over Jesus’ physical body, the gates of Hades would not prevail over His spiritual Body.

A simple question must be asked and answered: if the Body of Christ is alive today, with the physical poverty Peter and John had, but the spiritual wealth they possessed so that their shadow falling upon the infirm would heal, where is this Body? Where are the miracles, the signs and wonders, even the boldness of proclamation that Peter possessed? They are not evident anywhere—and no wonder, the Body is dead.

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The reader should now read John chapter 21, verses 15 through 19.

Commentary: Inclusion of a passage into Scripture signifies to the “informed” reader that what has been included is a type of an invisible spiritual thing or phenomenon; so when Jesus asks Peter three times if he, Peter, is “fond of Jesus” the redundancy with which the question is asked points to three types or earthly copies, not repetition for the sake of emphasis. Since the three questions and commands to feed and shepherd disciples followed by the command to follow Christ appear sequentially, the typological “reality” of these three questions and commands will also be sequential in occurrence.

Jesus does not address Simon Peter as Cephas or Peter, but as Simon, son of John, and not even as “Simon Bar-Jonah.” It is Simon, son of John, who is first commanded to (1) feed Jesus’ lambs [boske mou ta amia]; then (2) tend or shepherd His sheep [poimaine mou ta probata]; followed by (3) feed His sheep [boska mou ta probata]; and finally (4) follow me. Peter is not free to go in any directions but where Christ led; he is not free to establish belief paradigms that are not of Christ. And this becomes important since it is Paul who laid the foundation of the spiritual house of God, with this foundation being Christ Jesus (1 Co 3:10-11). Hence, Peter is to follow Paul, a reversal of what is usually taught; for Jesus is the stone or rock that was rejected by the builders, the cornerstone of the foundation laid. It is Paul who uses this cornerstone to build the foundation, not Peter.

Lambs [amia] are not called “sheep” [probata]. Lambs are babies, or the young. So Jesus saying to Peter when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted first pertains to when Peter was a young fisherman following in his father’s vocation; then pertains to when Peter choose to follow Jesus; and finally pertains to Peter returning to fishing after Calvary (John 21:2-3) — Peter was still young in the faith, only recently born of Spirit, a lamb himself, when he and other disciples went fishing. Thus, Peter returning to fishing after Calvary becomes a second type of Peter when young and able to walk where he wanted. Peter would have dressed himself with his own obedience when he was a young fisherman; he would have dressed himself with the garment of Christ’s righteousness as a newly born son of God. But Christ “dressed” Peter with the visible baptism of Spirit and fire on the Pentecost following Calvary. From that day, Peter was not free to go where he wished, but would go where he was sent by Christ. He would feed the lambs as Christ told him how.

Therefore, when Jesus asked Peter if he, Peter, loved Him, Peter did not realize that when he was old (i.e., mature in the faith) he would have no choice about what he would do or where he would go; that it would be others that dressed him and carried him to where he did not want to go. Certainly what Jesus told Peter pertained to how he, Peter, would die (v. 19), but it is also idiomatic of how the Body of Christ, built upon Peter, would die in the 1^st-Century when the mystery of lawlessness, at work while both Paul and Peter still lived (2 Thess 2:7), was no longer restrained. And it reveals how Peter would feed lambs, and shepherd and feed the sheep.

Most of what any Christian raised in the faith has heard about Peter being the rock [petra] upon which Jesus would build the church is false; for Jesus is the Rock about whom Moses wrote (Deut 32:4), the Rock who is “‘a God of faithfulness and without iniquity.’” Jesus said to Pharisees, concerning Moses, “‘If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words’” (John 5:46-47). And Moses wrote of Jesus in the song that ratified the Moab covenant. This song was a warning to Israel to be careful to do all the words of the law: Moses said, “‘For it is no empty word for you, but your very life’” (Deut 32:47). So the Rock upon which the Church is built is Christ Jesus, who used word play to say that this Rock is His resurrection after the third day, and that His disciples would be resurrected as he was (i.e., after the third day, with this third day being that of the spiritual creation week).

The Apostle Paul wrote that he, not Peter or James or John or any of the other first disciples, laid the foundation for the house of God, and this foundation was Christ Jesus. Thus, for Peter to follow Jesus he must build on the foundation that Paul laid—and Peter wrote of Paul,

And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scripture. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away by the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. (2 Pet 3:15-17 emphasis added)

“Lawless people” are those who are ignorant and who twist Paul’s epistles into instruments of destruction. Lawlessness is sin (1 John 3:4). Those who teach lawlessness will be denied by Christ in their resurrection (Matt 7:21-23). So Peter, in following Jesus, endorses the wisdom found in Paul’s epistles and warns disciples not to be deceived by the error of lawless teachers.

Moses, in writing about the Rock, warned Israel to keep the law. Paul wrote that the uncircumcised person who keeps the precepts of the law will have his [or her] uncircumcision counted as circumcision (Rom 2:26). James who seemed to be a pillar in the Church (Gal 2:9) wrote that whoever breaks the law in one point breaks the law (2:10). John who also seemed to be a pillar wrote that “we know that we have come to know him [Jesus], if we keep his commandments. Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3-4).

Jesus said the person who would be “great” in the kingdom of heaven will keep the commandments and will teach others to do likewise, whereas the person who will be called “least” will relax, the least of the commandments and teach others to do likewise (Matt 5:19).

The testimony of Moses, Jesus, Paul, James, Peter, and John is consistent: to follow Jesus, the person will keep the commandments, thereby making of Moses, the descendant of Abraham through Isaac, Jacob and Levi, a great nation. And those Gentile converts in the 1^st and 2^nd Centuries who despised Moses also despised Jesus and will not be in the kingdom of heaven.

Every disciple will be in one of three categories:

1.  The “great” in the kingdom of heaven will keep the commandments and will teach others to do likewise.

2. The “least” in the kingdom of heaven will relax the least of the commandments and teach others to do likewise—for most disciples, the least important commandment is the Sabbath.

3. Those who will be denied entrance into the kingdom of heaven teach others that since Jesus fulfilled the Law, disciples do not have to keep the law.

According to Peter, Christ Jesus is the living stone rejected by men (1 Pet 2:4). He is the cornerstone chosen and precious to God, but rejected by Pharisees and Sadducees (vv. 6-8). Israel stumbled because this nation disobeyed the word of God “as they were destined to do,” meaning that physically circumcised Israel was not free to keep the commandments but remained consigned to disobedience (Rom 11:32) although—and here is the catch—Israel had a law that would have led to life if it had been pursued by faith (cf. Rom 9:30-33; Deut 30:1-18). So faith is the element that natural Israel lacked; faith is the element necessary for “life”; faith and belief will have a person hearing the words of Jesus and believing the One who sent Him, thereby causing the person to pass from death to life (John 5:24). And to hear Jesus’ words is to hear what Jesus said in His sermon on the mount (Matt chaps 5-7).

Peter is told to feed the lambs of Jesus, and Peter does: in his first epistle, addressed to “those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (1 Pet 1:1-2 emphasis added) Peter begins his feeding with explanation of being born anew to a living hope.

In Paul’s discussion of predestination, the first step is “those whom [God] foreknew” (Rom 8:29). Being foreknown by God precedes being predestined, called, justified, and glorified. So those to whom Peter addresses his first epistle are lambs, “newborn infants” (1 Pet 2:2); they are those whom God foreknew. Thus, they are beginning the journey that will end with them being glorified.

The subject matter of Peter’s first epistle is spiritual milk (again, 1 Pet 2:2), appropriate food for lambs, disciples new in the faith. Hence, Peter’s first epistle, chapter 1 through the end of chapter 4, was written to fulfill that which Jesus commanded Peter to do in John chapter 21, verse 15.

Why does Peter have to write an epistle containing the spiritual milk with which he is commanded to feed the lambs of Christ if “apostolic succession” were a reality rather than a fiction? Why doesn’t Peter trust those who succeed him to feed future lambs? And it is here where the argument for the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church first breaks down: Peter was not a writer, and the epistles of Peter reveal that he did not want to write. When he was old, he was being led where he did not want to go. If Peter could have passed on his “authority” to feed the lambs, he would not have needed to write his epistles. But he could not pass on his responsibility with which he was clothed, for the Body of Christ was dead and dying (a redundant expression that makes no sense to the person who doesn’t realize that the Jesus movement then consisted of those who had never been born of Spirit, and those who were losing their divine Breath).

Peter begins chapter 5 of his first epistle as follows:

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. (5:1-4)

Jesus’ second command to Peter is to tend or shepherd [poimaine] the sheep—and in chapter 5 of his first epistle, Peter give instructions on how to “shepherd” and “be shepherded.” So in his first epistle, Peter leaves a written record that satisfies the first two commands given him by the glorified Jesus; for he would leave no successors with his authority to feed and shepherd Israel.

The third and fourth commands remain: (3) feed the sheep, and (4) follow Christ. And in his second epistle, Peter addresses the sheep: “To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing to ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 1:1). The person who has a faith equal to the faith of the apostles is a person mature in the faith. This person can no longer be called a lamb.

Feeding the sheep requires warning the sheep to make their calling and election certain; requires warning the sheep about false prophets and teachers; requires assuring the sheep that the day of the Lord will come; requires reminding the sheep that this visible world will be set on fire and dissolve, that only those who lived lives of holiness and godliness will remain (the Infinite burns up the Finite). Peter doesn’t waste feed. His words are few, but their place in Scripture comes from Jesus commanding their production. Therefore, these few words are of utmost importance.

In his final words (2 Pet 3:14-18), Peter tells the sheep how to follow Christ as he is following Christ; for the foundation that Paul laid in heavenly Jerusalem is Christ Jesus. To follow Christ, disciples are not to twist Paul’s epistles to their own destruction as lawless people do, meaning that the person who uses Paul’s epistle to support lawlessness has condemned him or herself to the lake of fire.

Peter was the little rock upon which Israel stood in the 1^st-Century; he is the little rock upon which Israel stands today.

Once a person has, by faith, begun to keep the precepts of the law, the person’s heart is circumcised and this person is of Israel (Rom 2:29). By agreement, Paul was entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised while Peter was entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (Gal 2:7-8). And after Peter goes to Cornelius, Scripture does not record Peter again being sent to the uncircumcised—only now, the circumcision that matters is of the heart.

Until a person from the nations or from natural Israel journeys by faith from the mental landscape of his or her nativity and arrives on the figurative plains of Moab where the person will spiritually choose life or death (cf. Deut 29:1, 30:1-18; Rom 10:6-13), the person is not an Israelite circumcised of heart, but spiritually remains a person of the nations to whom the Apostle Paul was sent. Only when the person turns to God by faith and begins to keep the commandments from love for God, acknowledging that Jesus is Lord and that the Father raised Jesus from the dead (requiring that the person accept both the Father and Jesus as God), will the person enter into the Moab covenant and figuratively cross the Jordan to enter into God’s rest (cf. Ps 95:10-11; Heb 3:16-4:11; Num chap 14). And only when the person has entered into God’s rest as an infant spiritual Israelite is Peter to feed this “lamb.” Therefore, until a person by faith begins to inwardly live as a Judean, the person is not part of the Church Jesus would build of Himself.

Until a person begins to live as a spiritual Judean, Peter doesn’t either feed or tend this person. Paul does. And while still being fed spiritual milk by Paul (1 Co 3:1-4; Heb 5:11-14), the person is not a part of the flock of Christ, a harsh claim supported by what Jesus told Peter after Peter had temporarily returned to fishing.

The evidence of Scripture is that Peter continues to feed the lambs, shepherd the sheep, and feed the sheep through his two epistles. He did not turn his responsibilities over to others, especially to a “woman” whom Paul commands to remain quiet (1 Tim 2:12-15) … the Church is the second or last Eve as Jesus is the second or last Adam. And it is the Church that has been deceived by that old serpent, Satan the devil, not the last Adam.

Jesus sent the twelve to the “‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’” (Matt 10:6). They were not to go to the Gentiles, or to the Samaritans (v. 5). Peter was not sent to the nations or to false Israelites. He was, instead, the little rock upon which Israel stood amidst the rushing waters of lawlessness that eventually drowned the 1^st-Century Church. These waters were no longer restrained when Peter was out of the way (2 The 2:7).

The Vatican’s July 10, 2007 document, an amplification of Dominus Iesus and a return to Unam Sanctum, would have neither salvation nor remission of sin available to humankind apart from that offered by the Roman Catholic Church. This doctrinal position is a plank central to the Trojan horse constructed by Greek philosophers to win an empire from Rome, whose legions Greece couldn’t defeat in the field and whose navy Greece couldn’t defeat at sea. If those Greeks philosophers could defeat Roman emperor worship, they would dissolve the glue that held together that great Western empire; these Greeks were successful beyond their imagination.

To follow Jesus is to imitate Paul which will have the person living as a spiritual Judean and spurning the idolatry and lawlessness of the Roman Church and her errant daughters, all truly synagogues of Satan that claim to have the spirit of God but lie; for these communities remain in bondage to disobedience as evidenced by when they take the Passover sacraments. Peter condemns lawless communities when he writes, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction” (2 Pet 2:1). These destructive heresies are firmly imbedded in denying that Jesus was three days and three nights [72 hours] in the grave; in denying that Jesus fulfilled the only sign He gave, that of Jonah. It is upon this sign, this rock that He built the church.

If Peter had left the keys of the kingdom of heaven to his physical successors, he would not have had to write two epistles, the writing of which was difficult for him. The doctrine of Petrine apostolic succession is a fiction. Unfortunately, it is a lie that has harmed many for a very long time—and apparently a lie that will be used to harm many more when the seven endtime years begin.

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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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