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 journey of faith.
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Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of August 21, 2010
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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I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit [pneumatos] in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit [pneuma]—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says,
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”
(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that He had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (Eph 4:1–14 emphasis added)
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One body, one spirit, one faith, one hope, one baptism: this is not the Christendom of today. This might be the Christianity the radio and television commentator Glenn Beck seeks, the Christianity of big principles such as belief in one God who created all things and from whom the individual right to life and liberty come, the God that greater Christianity shares with Judaism and Islam, the God of America’s founders. But this is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Theos who is the God of the living (Matt 22:32); for the Theos whose feet Abraham washed (Gen 18:2–5) and who wrestled with Jacob (Gen 32:28–30) and who was seen by Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders (Ex 24:9–11) was the Logos [o logos] who was God [theos] and who was with the God [ton Theon] in the beginning (John 1:1). It was this Logos who created all things (v. 3), and this Logos who was Theos entered His creation as His only Son, the Unique One (John 3:16), to be born of Mary as the man Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:14). It was this Logos whom greater Christianity, Judaism, and Islam worship as God, and this Logos is no longer the Helpmate, the Spokesman, for the God [ton Theon], but is the First o the firstborn sons of the God [ton Theon], the Father to Jesus and of every truly born again Christian.
Judaism never knew the Father, whom Jesus came to reveal to His disciples. Today, greater Christianity and Islam do not know the Father, with the evidence for this claim found in Christianity’s triune deity and in Unitarian/Arian Christendom’s understanding of who created all that has been made and in Islam’s name for God, Allah, the singular noun that is the equivalent of Eloah whereas Judaism assigns singularity to the regular plural noun Elohim.
So, what has happened? Why isn’t Christendom one body, born of one spirit, holding one faith, one hope that is confirmed by one baptism? Did the one Body of Christ die as the fleshly body of the man Jesus died; i.e., die from loss of its life-sustaining breath?
Paul claims disciples are individually and collectively the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27). Individually, the inner self of the disciple is crucified with Christ and dies with Christ (Rom 6:3–6) and is resurrected in newness of life, free from sin (vv. 7–11). Collectively, the Church [the collective of disciples] is crucified with Christ and dies with Christ—the death of the Church doesn’t mean that the gates of Hades has prevailed over the Church; for with resurrection from death at the Second Passover, the Church will live again, without corruption, being then (not before) one Body born of one spirit, holding one faith, one belief, one hope.
As Jesus’ earthly body died on the cross at Calvary, His spiritual Body died physically with the death of the Apostle John at the end of the 1st-Century—and this spiritual Body will resurrected after the third day as Jesus was resurrected after the third day, with this "third day" being the third day of the Genesis chapter one creation account. This spiritual Body, the collective of all Christians, will be resurrected free from sin at the Second Passover liberation of Israel; for every Christian will then be empowered-by and filled with spirit, thereby having no indwelling sin and death, the reason martyrdom returns in the seven endtime years of tribulation.
The Church was dead, except for John, before Polycarp was born; the Church was dead about when Justin Martyr was born. So the entire corpus of so-called Christian fathers was of pious Greek philosophers not born of God, not circumcised of heart, with none having understanding of spiritual matters.
Consider Polycarp, who, along Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch, is regarded as one of the chief Apostolic fathers … there is some dispute as to when Polycarp was martyred: an early date February 23 of either 155 or 156 CE would seem to have Polycarp born about 70 CE, when the Jerusalem temple was razed. Eusebius dates Polycarp’s martyrdom to the reign of Marcus Aurelius and Polycarp’s martyrdom to 166 or 167 CE, with the decade difference making a considerable difference for the physical precedes and reveals the spiritual (Rom 1:20; 1 Cor 15:46)—and the physical destruction of the physical second temple precedes and reveals the death of the spiritual temple (see 1 Cor 3:16–17), the Church, the collective of all Christians.
Sometime mid 1st-Century, the Father ceased raising the dead by giving Christian converts a second breath of life. Those disciples who were born of spirit continued to have indwelling eternal life in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:23) for as long as they bore fruit, or until old age or another cause of physical death killed their fleshly bodies. The Apostles Peter and Paul were such individuals, with both of them dying by 70 CE. But John had a work to do after the bodies of the other disciples rested in the dust of this earth.
Irenaeus states that Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, was a companion of Papias, bishop of Hierapolis [14 miles from Laodicea and near Colassae] and another disciple of John’s: Papias was perhaps as much as a decade older than Polycarp, but both of them would have been children when Jerusalem was razed, children too young to be baptized in a Believers’ baptism, too young to be called by God—neither infant nor adolescent baptism is ever a legitimate baptism. The Father doesn’t make infant sons of God from human infants, but from human adults; for spiritual birth and maturation follows and does not precede human birth and maturation.
The dates of birth and death for Polycarp and Papias are not known with certainty, but are approximately 69 to 155 CE (or 80 to 166 CE) for Polycarp and 60 to 155 CE for Papias—and why Papias is here introduced is because Polycarp’s sole surviving writings is his Letter to the Philippians whereas more of Papias’ writing have survived, including a description of why he believed what he did: (from his Sayings)
I will not hesitate to add also for you to my interpretations what I formerly learned with care from the Presbyters and have carefully stored in memory, giving assurance of its truth. For I did not take pleasure as the many do in those who speak much, but in those who teach what is true, nor in those who relate foreign precepts, but in those who relate the precepts which were given by the Lord to the faith and came down from the Truth itself. And also if any follower of the Presbyters happened to come, I would inquire for the sayings of the Presbyters, what Andrew said, or what Peter said, or what Philip or what Thomas or James or what John or Matthew or any other of the Lord's disciples, and for the things which other of the Lord's disciples, and for the things which Aristion and the Presbyter John, the disciples of the Lord, were saying. For I considered that I should not get so much advantage from matter in books as from the voice which yet lives and remains. (by an unknown translator, with emphasis added)
Papias didn’t look to the writings of Paul or to the writings of any of the first apostles, with Mark relating what Peter told him according to Papias, but to the actual words of the first apostles, in particular John. And this has importance if Papias—and likewise Polycarp—took those things that he believed from John while he was still young as apparently he did; for what journey of faith would he have made if he had grown up in a household of faith? To believe what the person has known from his or her youth requires no journey of faith … faith would have been required to hold to those things that the person believes when martyred.
The person who is sanctified or made holy as ancient Israel was sanctified—sanctified by believing parents or spouse (1 Cor 7:14)—is NOT automatically born of God, but must still make a spiritual journey of faith equivalent to Abraham’s physical journey of faith from Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran [Assyria] with his father Terah then on to Canaan without the old man before the sanctified person’s heart is cleansed so that it can be circumcised by the soft breath of God. The sanctified person is as the children of Israel were when on the plains of Moab and faced with choosing life or death (Deut 30:15–20). The Israelite who, when in a far land, by faith chooses to obey God will be brought close to God and have his or her heart circumcised (vv. 1–6). For Polycarp, this would have happened when martyred, not before. And the same can apparently be said for Papias, meaning that both Polycarp and Papias will, most likely, be raised from the dead in the resurrection of firstfruits as the righteous men of old (e.g., Daniel, Noah, Job — from Ezek chap 14) will be included among the glorified firstfruits.
The above in an important concept: for far too long, Christians in all sects and denominations have casually referred to so-&-so as a born again Christian, filled with the spirit whereas this simply has not been the case. The person who has been truly born of God in this present era has been foreknown by God, predestined to be glorified in the resurrection of firstfruits, called and justified. This person will not be lost, but will be as those first disciples were whom the Father gave to Jesus to keep (John 17:6).
When Jesus’ hour had come when He would be taken and crucified, He prayed,
Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. (John 17:1–5 emphasis added)
Eternal life is, according to Jesus, to know the only true God … greater Christendom, Judaism, and Islam do not know the Father, and do not have indwelling eternal life. To be genuinely born of God causes the person to know the Father, and to know that—as John wrote—the creator of all that has been made is not the Father, but was the Logos who entered His creation as His only Son.
No one who identifies the Father as the creator of all that has been made has indwelling eternal life; for this person simply doesn’t know the one true God. To be born of God is to have indwelling eternal life in Christ Jesus. Therefore, the Christian who identifies the Father as the creator is not born of God and by extension, does not have the spirit [breath] of God. This person has not been raised from the dead through receipt of a second breath of life, even though the person is sanctified or made holy by being of natural Israel or by having a believing parent or spouse.
A truly born of God Christian can quickly and accurately identify other sons of God with one question: Who created all that has been made? If the one who is asked answers, the Father, or the Ancient of Days, or the Most High God, the genuine son of God need not ask another question, nor say more … to say more would be to cast pearls before swine; would be as ancient King Hezekiah showing the envoys from Babylon his treasure house and armory, hiding nothing from the king of Babylon (Isa chap 39). The Christian or non-Christian who has not been called by God cannot understand spiritual matters, but can feign understanding that he or she can see the hidden things of God, those things that do not belong to this world and its prince, the spiritual king of Babylon.
And what is it that has been hidden from the pious of this world? Is it not that every Christian must make a second journey of faith, a journey that can be likened to Abraham’s journey to the land of Moriah—
When did Polycarp take a journey of faith that cleansed his heart so that it could be circumcised? He grew up in a "Christian" house and he continued the practices of what he learned when he grew up; thus, he made no journey of faith. His heart was not cleansed; he was not spiritually circumcised; hence, what he practiced and preached did not come from a circumcised heart, but from what he heard from John: he could know no more than what John told him, with the evidence of this seen in Polycarp going to Rome where he celebrated communion on Sunday with the bishop of Rome when he was trying to unify the Church. Polycarp lacked spiritual understanding; for, according to Irenaeus, when Anicetus was bishop of Rome, Polycarp visited Rome to iron-out differences that existed between the churches in Asia and Rome about when to commemorate the Passover. Irenaeus said that on certain things the two men quickly agreed with one another, but when to keep the Passover was not one of those things. However, instead of breaking off communion, Anicetus condemned Polycarp before God by allowing Polycarp to celebrate the Eucharist in a church in Rome.
Now compare what Polycarp did with how John allegedly responded to Cerinthus, who taught a message closer to the truth than the bishop of Rome taught … John would not even remain in the same house as Cerinthus, let alone eat with him. And that is how Polycarp would have reacted to the lawless bishop of Rome if Polycarp had spiritual understanding.
In going to Rome, Polycarp mingled the sacred with the profane, with Christmas observance being today the best example of mingling the sacred with the profane.
It is not enough to be a disciple of John, or a disciple of Paul, or a disciple of Herbert Armstrong or any other human being: a person must make a journey of faith that cleanses the heart (Acts 15:9) before the person will be circumcised of heart by the spirit and hence receive the spirit. What is now rather easily seen is that most disciples within the Sabbatarian churches of God were not and are not born of God [i.e., did not have the spirit of God]; for if they were born of God they would have known the Father and thereby have indwelling eternal life.
None of the Christian martyrs in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries, or from the years 303-313 CE were saints genuinely born of God. But some of these martyrs were of sanctified saints, who, by dying for what they believed, made in their deaths a journey of faith that cleansed their hearts so that they could be circumcised before they expired in this world—
It is Philadelphia that today hears the words of Jesus; for the linguistic objects for the linguistic icons that the prophets of old delivered to ancient Israel are readily available to Philadelphians … ever since the Tower of Babel, the Lord has separated icons from objects [signifiers from signifieds]; for the bricks didn't change when the Lord confused the languages. It was what the bricks were called that changed. The bricks were the linguistic objects; what the bricks were called were the linguistic icons.
Every Christian who has come to the Sabbath must still make a second journey of faith, a journey like that Abraham made when he was commanded to sacrifice Isaac. … Two journeys of faith, with the first taking the person from Babylon to the Promised Land, mentally represented by Sabbath observance, as Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans and journeyed to Canaan, with a detour through Haran [Assyria, the representation of death]. The second journey of faith occurs years later as a test of the person's faith as God tested Abraham (Gen 22:1). This second journey will be bitter in the person’s stomach.
Consider what Abraham tells the young men that went with him and Isaac: "'Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you'" (v. 5). Abraham knew that Isaac would return with him; he had faith that was proved by his works. But how bitter in Abraham's stomach must the command to sacrifice Isaac have been?
Because Abraham truly believed God that his offspring would be as the stars of heaven, he trusted God and made a second journey of faith within the confines of Canaan. As such, he is the father of the faithful. And about this second journey of faith, Paul writes nothing but James the Just does:
But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. (2:18–26 emphasis added)
The body apart from the spirit is dead … before the Father raises the dead (John 5:21) through giving to the dead inner self “life” through the body receiving a second breath of life, the body is numbered among the dead about whom Jesus said to allow the dead to bury the dead of themselves (Matt 8:22). With God, “life” isn’t the physical life of the flesh that will end all too quickly, but is the indwelling of His breath that gives to the person eternal life; that makes alive the inner self so that this inner self will heal itself as the flesh heals itself, with those things that must be healed including damage done by sexual abuse and damage to sexual identity. The wounding of the dead inner self done by prostitution or by sodomy will scab over and heal from within when the inner self is made alive through receipt of a second breath of life.
The dead inner self is analogous to the first Adam prior to when Elohim breathed into this man of mud’s nostrils and the man became a nephesh, a breathing creature. Thus, in the fleshly body of the person, from birth through maturation, is seen the inner self from receipt of the Holy Spirit to glorification. Bleeding wounds and broken bones in the fleshly body reveal the damage done to the inner self by those things that are hidden by the person from others for the person’s self-protection.
Faith, now, can be likened to the inner self of the person: it can be damaged as the person’s inner self is damaged by sexual exploitation. Faith is damaged by Christian pastors and teachers telling disciples that because they are not under the law but under grace, they do not have to strive to keep the law by faith. Such teachings are justifiably likened spiritually to infant molestation in the flesh: the damage done, even after the inner self is made alive, scars and even disfigures the inner self. But because a second journey of faith is required of every son of God, scarring and disfiguring of the inner self can produce in the son of God a hardness, a toughness that precludes the person from compromising with the truth.
Abraham twice compromised with the truth, the first time in Egypt, the second time to Abimelech. Each time, Sarah was taken to be the wife of another. Both times occurred after Abraham had his belief of God counted to him as righteousness. … The two times that Abraham compromised with the truth are framed [book-ended] by Abraham’s two journeys of faith.
Polycarp doesn’t make two journeys of faith, but continues in the ways he learned as a youth until faced with his martyrdom: if he would have said that Caesar is Lord and offered the smallest of pinches of incense to Caesar, he would have lived for the Romans really weren’t interested in killing a gentle old man. But because Polycarp would not compromise with the truth when even his own life was at stake, he was burned at the stake, facing a death that could not kill him. Only when he was pierced with a spear did he die … while the flames rose around him, Polycarp made his first true journey of faith so that his heart could be cleansed. And so will it be for faithful Christians in the Affliction.
Eusebius thought little of Papias, probably because of what he taught about a millennial reign of Christ that didn’t have the Roman Emperor representing Christ here on earth. Eusebius claimed that Papias had so little intellect that he couldn’t understand the metaphoric language of apostolic traditions. And if Polycarp held a similar understanding of the Millennium as Papias had, then he, too, would have been, to Eusebius, a mental lightweight. However, according to Anastasius of Sinai and Clement of Alexandria, Papias understood the six day of the Genesis chapter one creation account to refer mystically to Christ and the Church as it does. Thus, Papias—and by assumption, Polycarp—took from hearing John knowledge that was lost until the end of the age, when Philadelphia again understood the Hexaemeron to describe in metaphorical language the creation of the Church, from the birth of Jesus as the Light of Day One to the great White Throne Judgment of the sixth day.
How can knowledge as crucial to understanding Scripture as the Hexaemeron describing the spiritual creation be lost for so long?
How can the Church die?
In the case of the spiritual Body of Christ, the breath of life that gives to the collective Church its life would be the breath or spirit of God [pneuma Theon]. If the Father chose not to call anyone for 1200 years, or for 1900 years, the Church, though allegedly visible in this world, would be spiritually dead.
Did Paul grasp that the Body of Christ could or would die as Jesus’ earthly body died, and that this Body of Christ would be resurrected to life at the Second Passover so that it would again be one body of one spirit, one faith, one hope, one baptism?
No, the Lord did not reveal to Paul that his work—all he sacrificed to make disciples—would seemingly come to nothing, unless that knowledge was part of things he heard that cannot be told (2 Cor 12:4). However, Paul should have realized that the Body of Christ was condemned to die as Jesus was crucified when he wrote that all in Asia had left him (2 Tim 1:15), that those whom he had used as examples of faith walked as enemies of the cross of Christ (Phil 3:18)
One body, one spirit, one faith, one hope, one baptism: this will be the Christendom of the Affliction, but a short-lived Christendom for every disciple who is today born of God will have to make a second journey of faith, and every Christian who will be born of God at the second Passover will be tested as Polycarp was tested. But more will be coming about making a second journey of faith.
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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."