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 being able to love God.
Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of August 27, 2011
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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But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.
You [Timothy], however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2 Tim 3:1–17)
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If these are the last days, then according to Paul’s second pastoral letter to Timothy, people will be lovers of self rather than lovers of God; that people will seek what makes them feel good rather than persecution for committing no offense against the law of the Moses [Moses’ writings] or against the temple [now the Church of God] or against Caesar [civil authority] (see Acts 25:8). And Paul assures Timothy that all who follow his teaching, his conduct, the goals/aims of his life, his faith, his patience, his love will be persecuted in this present Christian and non-Christian world, meaning simply that the Christianity of the time of the end shall have an appearance of godliness, but deny the power of God; meaning that the Christianity of this endtime era shall be to Christ Jesus as Jannes and Jambres were to Moses.
What does it mean to have the appearance of godliness but deny its power? Is there power inherent in godliness? Is there power inherent in hearing and believing the words of Christ Jesus? Is there power inherent in believing the writings of Moses, about which the man Jesus told Pharisees, “‘But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words’” (John 5:47)? Or is, say, keeping the Sabbath at planting time and at harvest time merely one of ten suggestions?
Following the man found gathering sticks on the Sabbath [this on a day when no manna would be found] and being stoned for breaking the Sabbath (see Num 15:32–36), the Lord told Moses to speak to the people and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner so that the people of Israel would “‘remember all the commandments of the Lord’” (v. 39) to do them and not to follow after the desires of their own hearts and eyes … but if the Law of God is written on the Israelite’s heart so that he or she is circumcised of heart, regardless of whether circumcised in the flesh [a biological female can be circumcised of heart whereas she cannot be circumcised in the flesh — Muslim female circumcision is not truly circumcision because the woman is not the head of the man, but is, rather, merely unjustifiable mutilation of female genitalia], is not the purpose of tassels on garments fulfilled? It is! But if the Law of God is written on the heart of an Israelite, this Israelite will keep the commandments by faith because he or she is convicted within the person’s heart to keep them.
The Israelite truly circumcised of heart will not seek a bastardized form of godliness, such as Sunday worship or adultery committed with the eyes and in the person’s mind—it is never all right to look lustfully at another person regardless of whether there is follow-up action or not—but not with the person’s body. Rather, the person who has been drawn from this world by the Father and given the earnest of His divine breath [pneuma Theon] will, until the Second Passover liberation of Israel, inwardly engage in a war against the residing fleshly desires that formerly ruled the person’s fleshly body. This inner new person will need no reminder that this son of God intends to keep the commandments of God as spoken at Sinai. What this inner son of God needs is the strength to defeat the sinfulness that remains in the fleshly tabernacle (biologically male or female) in which this son of God temporarily dwells as a result of the old person, the old self having been born as a slave [bondservant] of the Adversary.
People—Christians—will be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God when the old self that is spiritually lifeless no longer strives against the sinfulness in which the old self was born … human slavery is always wrong, but is common enough that it serves as a viable analogy for what it means to be humanly born consigned to disobedience (Rom 11:32). The person that is humanly born as the property of another person can accept his or her fate, or can seek freedom, liberty, control of his or her own destiny. Even when a slave’s master treats the slave well, the slave is not free to come and go as the wind comes and goes, the essence of what it means to be born again or born as a son of God: a human person is not free to leave space-time and the confines of the creation; flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor 15:50). Thus, the fleshly body in which the spiritually lifeless inner self is born and confined from human conception is subject to the spirit prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the Adversary.
But not all peoples who have been humanly born as slaves of the Adversary willing accept slave status: some strive to escape the sinfulness of the flesh, but strive without having been born of God … the righteous men of old—Enoch, Noah, Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets, Daniel, others, including John the Baptist, the greatest of all who were not born of God but merely born of woman—were not content to dwell in this world as slaves of the Adversary but sought to escape sinfulness by wrestling with their flesh and subduing it. But they fought the sinfulness in which they were humanly born without having been born from above. They loved God more than they loved their own bodies, but their inner selves remained spiritually dead. Their inner selves conformed themselves to righteousness, and because this was the case, they will be resurrected as part of the harvest of firstfruits even though they were disadvantaged by not having received the earnest of eternal life while they humanly lived.
But since the spirit was given when Jesus breathed on ten of His first disciples the afternoon of the day He was resurrected from death (see John 20:22), it is possible for the person who has been drawn from this world by the Father (John 6:44) to truly be circumcised of heart through undertaking a spiritual journey of faith analogous to Abraham’s physical journey of faith from Ur of the Chaldeans [spiritual Babylon] to Haran when Terah died [where the old man or old nature is crucified] then on to Canaan, the Promised Land, the representation of entering into God’s presence. For the Christian, entering into Sabbath observance (actually, keeping all of the Commandments) represents the spiritually living inner self entering into the Promised Land. As long as the Christian refuses to keep the Sabbath, the Christian is as the ancient Israelite would have been who refused to cross the Jordan. Even the two and a half tribes that settled east of the Jordan sent their men of war across the Jordan to fight with the armies of Joshua in liberating the Promised Land from its inhabitants that had an appearance of godliness but denied the power of the Lord.
That is the present state of greater Christendom: it has the appearance of godliness, but denies the power of God. Hence, allegedly Christian nations rely on their technological advances to protect themselves and to maintain the illusion of peace at home. But there is no peace in a nation that murders its most vulnerable citizens, unborn infants, who are analogous to Christians dwelling within greater Christendom.
· Until the Father draws a person from this world by giving to the person indwelling eternal life in the form of His breath [pneuma Theon] in the breath of Christ [pneuma Christos], a Christian—a person who professes that Jesus is Lord and believes in his or her heart that God raised Jesus from death—is analogous to a human infant that has not yet been humanly born;
· Until the Christian who has received the earnest of the spirit (i.e., indwelling eternal life) cleanses his or her heart by undertaking a spiritual journey of faith comparable to Abraham’s physical journey of faith, the Christian is as a male Hebrew infant of less than eight days of age.
Scripturally, circumcision of foreskins occurs on the eighth day after human birth, not on the day of birth but on the first day of the following week of life. Therefore, a Hebrew male infant lives for seven days, one week, without being circumcised and made part of the congregation of Israel. For one week, the newly born Hebrew male is as a stranger in Israel, a symbolic length of time that represents the period prior to when the Lord made a covenant with Abraham when he was 99 years old (see Gen 17:1–2), a symbolic period that represents Abram’s first century of life, with Abram’s life beginning with his conception, not with his physical birth.
The spiritual lives of the first apostles didn’t begin when they received the divine breath of God, but began when they were chosen by the Father. However, this is not to say that these first apostles were born of spirit prior to when the spirit was directly given to them when Jesus breathed on ten of them: they were not born again or born from above until the glorified Jesus breathed on them. Yet they were chosen by the Father before Jesus’ ministry began, for they were with Him from the beginning (see John 2:2, 4).
With very few exceptions, the spiritual lives of Christians don’t begin when these Christians receive a second breath of life, the breath of God, but begins when they as carnal [spiritual lifeless] people profess that Jesus is Lord … many more people profess that Jesus is Lord than have been called by God and given, as people born out of season, a second breath of life. Yet, professing that Jesus is Lord and believing that the Father raised Jesus from death is no more an act of vanity than an ancient Hebrew husband impregnating his wife would have been done in vain. In both cases, a child will be born, with birth occurring when the fetus breathes on its own, with the human infant beginning to breathe on its own following human birth and with the spiritual son of God beginning to breathe on its own following the Second Passover liberation of Israel, with all Christians then being liberated from indwelling sin and death.
An ancient Levite did not serve in the ministry until he was thirty years of age. The length of human life has traditionally been seventy years. And a unifying length of time has been a century [30 years + 70 years]. Hence, Jesus, when crucified, bodily died in 31 CE, and the Christian Church as the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27) died seventy years later in 101 CE with the death of the Apostle John. Jesus’ earthly ministry coupled with the ministry of the 1st-Century Church form an approximate reversed image of Abram’s journey of faith that represented his first 99 years of human life after his birth.
A Christian—as opposed to a Muslim or a Jew—will receive indwelling eternal life and liberation from presently indwelling sin and death at a specific moment in time: the Second Passover liberation of Israel. All of the life the Christian has lived prior to this specific moment can be likened to Abram’s first 99 years, or to the three and a half years the first disciples were with Jesus prior to His crucifixion, or to the nation of Israel dwelling as slaves in Egypt prior to the Exodus. The Christian prays to God but doesn’t really believe the Lord. Rather, the Christian wants relief from the trials and torments of this present evil age as ancient Hebrews sought relief from Pharaoh’s oppression. The Christian has, as the Hebrews in Egypt had, an appearance of godliness. But about those Hebrews in Egypt, the Lord tells Ezekiel, “‘And I said to them, Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt …. But they rebelled against me and were not willing to listen to me’” (Ezek 20:7–8).
While the Hebrews remained slaves to Pharaoh prior to their Passover liberation, the Hebrews rebelled against the Lord—and so it is with greater Christendom. While still slaves of the Adversary, Christians will not hear the words of Jesus, let alone believe the writings of Moses. Hence, they will spiritually perish during the Affliction [the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years of tribulation] as the physical nation of Israel that left Egypt physically perished in the wilderness because of that nation’s unbelief.
Can anything be done to prevent greater Christendom from rebelling against God during the Affliction? No, not really. While an individual here and one there will repent and turn away from sin when liberated from indwelling sin and death, most will not, but will rather return with vigor to the lawless ways of previous generations of Christians. They are today the people who are always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth (2 Tim 3:7).
The person who studies nothing but Scripture is unbalanced and easily overtaken by the Adversary: he or she is as a weak woman, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions. This person has, by diligence of study, actually corrupted his or her mind and disqualified him or herself regarding the faith—for what has the person been studying? Not truth. For if this person had been studying the truth, this person would not continue to study to the exclusion of other activities.
It is the person who is well rounded, having knowledge of many subjects so that the person can be all things to all people, that finds truth in the confusion of knowledge that has overtaken this present endtime age.
A spiritually responsible Christian will study to show him or herself approved in the knowledge of the mysteries of God, but this study will lead to having the teaching of the Apostle Paul, to his conduct, his faith, his patience, his love, his steadfastness—one teaching, not many, with the core of Paul’s teaching being the movement of Israel being a physically circumcised people to Israel being a spiritually circumcised nation composed of living inner selves that were previously dead despite the fact that the fleshly tabernacles in which they dwell was physically alive through the biology of human birth.
· A person is humanly born with a dead inner self, inherited from the first Adam who died on the day when he ate forbidden fruit as he was promised by the Lord God (see Gen 2:16–17);
· Adam was not created with an immortal soul, but with the opportunity to eat from the Tree of Life which would have given him indwelling immortality—
· Adam would have physically lived for however long he dwelt in the Garden of God without having indwelling immortality; for to dwell in the Garden represented dwelling in the presence of God, the reality of spiritual immortality.
When life is represented by dwelling in the presence of God, death is represented by the indwelling absence of God. But death is more than simple separation from God: death is the absence of life, not life in another location (e.g., Hades). And when there is no indwelling heavenly life, no indwelling immortality, there is no ability for the person to enter into the presence of God. Therefore, the person who has not received a second breath of life is inwardly dead, and is as Adam was when he was driven from the Garden of Eden before he ate the fruit of the Tree of Life. This person cannot sin in the heavenly realm as the Adversary sinned in this realm for the person has no life in that realm, no presence in that realm.
Because Adam was created outside of the Garden of God and then placed in the Garden (Gen 2:7–9, 15), the brief period when Adam was outside the Garden is analogous to the one week that transpires before a Hebrew male infant was/is circumcised … when Adam was placed in the Garden, Adam only had physical life. If he would have eaten of the Tree of Life, he would have received indwelling eternal life in the Garden, not outside of the Garden, with dwelling in the Garden of Eden symbolically representing dwelling in the presence of the Lord God. Hence death reigned from Adam—when expelled from the Garden—to Moses (Rom 5:12), who entered into the presence of God (Ex 33:14–23), but only to see the backside of the Lord God.
· It is entering into God’s rest, into the presence of the Lord that defeats Death;
· But when Adam was physically placed into the presence of the Lord God by being placed inside of the Garden of Eden, he had neither indwelling life or death, but was physically as angels were spiritually prior to when iniquity was found in an anointed cherub (Ezek 28:12–16).
Angels have indwelling eternal life because they dwell in the heavenly realm (i.e., in the presence of God), but “eternal life” isn’t as eternal as the word suggests … time and the passage of time can be mathematically written as functions of gravity, making time and the passage of time part of the creation. The heavenly realm predates the creation and as such is timeless or without time: there is no decay so one moment doesn’t decay into the next moment, but remains unchanged. Therefore, in an unchanging moment, the presence of life cannot co-exist with the absence of life. As such, an angel who has life in this unchanging moment has eternal life for the moment remains; the moment is eternal. Likewise, the human person who has no life in this unchanging moment cannot receive life.
For a human person, entrance as a fleshly body into the heavenly realm is physically impossible: the mass of a person precludes the person entering a realm without mass, with mass forming the essence of the creation. But the inner self of a human person is without mass and is not a part of the creation—it is this inner self that Christians, Muslims, and Jews identify as the soul of the person. And this soul is without life in the heavenly realm when the person is humanly born.
Because the inner self of a human person is without life in the heavenly realm when the person is humanly born, this inner self can never have life in the unchanging moment that represents the heavenly realm: because what is dead (without life) must remain dead (without life), the inner self of a human person that is born as a slave of the Adversary (i.e., consigned to disobedience — Rom 11:32) cannot truly escape from sin and the Adversary. The pious human person can seek righteousness, can rebel against disobedience by striving to obey God, but this person cannot receive indwelling eternal life (that is, life outside of space-time), the reality represented by Moses commanding Israel not to kindle a fire on the Sabbath (Ex 35:3):
· Life is represented by fire, physical life by the dark fire of cellular oxidation, and spiritual life by the bright fire that is the glory of God (see Ezek 1:26–28);
· The Sabbath represents entering into God’s presence, the same thing that the Garden of Eden represented and that the Promised Land of Canaan represented (cf. Heb 3:16–4:11; Ps 95:10–11; Num chap 14);
· Therefore, the prohibition against kindling a fire on the Sabbath serves as an indirect address telling Israel that the nation can never receive indwelling eternal life on its own.
No slave can escape from the Adversary—
Only an entity that has life in the heavenly realm can give to a human person indwelling eternal life; hence, there is salvation in no person other than the glorified man Jesus the Nazarene (Acts 4:12), who came from heaven as the only Son of the Logos, who was God and who was with the God in the beginning (John 1:1, 14; 3:16), and who dwells in His disciples in the form of the breath of Christ [pneuma Christos].
Only the person in whom Christ dwells can have life in the unchanging moment that is the heavenly realm; for again, the presence of life and the absence of life cannot coexist in the same moment. Because heaven is not part of the creation, heaven is timeless. Heaven is one unchanging moment. And because the human person is humanly born without indwelling eternal life (i.e., without life in the heavenly realm), the human person can never on his or her own secure indwelling eternal life, but must receive indwelling eternal life through the indwelling of Christ Jesus’ life [breath], the vessel that is able to hold the breath of God that gives to heavenly entities the bright fire of eternal life.
The person who teaches Christians, Jews, Muslims that they are humanly born with immortal souls is a liar—and is an agent of the Adversary. May all who teach this lie perish in the lake of fire! They cannot imagine the harm they have done to now spiritually dead Christians, Jews, Muslims that will receive indwelling eternal life at either the beginning of the seven endtime years of tribulation (as in the case of Christians) or halfway through these seven endtime years when the single kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man. They have set many up to rebel against God, and really nothing can be done to prevent this rebellion.
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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."