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 living in the moment.
Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of September 10, 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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So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit [de ei pneumati — if~but spirit] you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God [pneumati theon] are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery [pneuma douleias] to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption [pneuma huiothesias — spirit of sonship] as sons, by whom [en ho — in which rather than by whom] we cry, "Abba! Father!"
The Spirit [to pneuma — the spirit, with “spirit” derived from the Latin word spīritus, meaning “breath” of man or god] himself [auto — it or itself … to translate the Greek icon auto as a masculine pronoun is intellectually dishonest; the icon has a is neuter case ending] bears witness with our spirit [the spirit of us] that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit [ten arpachen tou pneumatos - the firstfruits of the spirit], groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit [to pneuma] helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit [to pneuma auto - it the spirit] himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he [this is the article for the breath of God and here functions as a pronoun] who searches hearts knows what is the mind [de ho eraunon tas kardias oiden ti to phronema tou pneumatos], because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God [hoti entynchanei hyper hagion kata theon — because according God intervenes on behalf of holy ones]. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Rom 8:12–30)
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To deny that the Logos [o logos] was God [theos] and was with the God [ton Theon] in the beginning, and that the Logos as God created all that has been made (John 1:1, 3) is to deny Christ Jesus, the only Son of the Logos who was known to ancient Israel as Yah, the front or observable half of the deconstructed Tetragrammaton YHWH [YH + WH] that represented the conjoined deities of the Logos and “the God” that existed in the beginning. The breath [] of both the Logos (Yah) and of “the God” in the beginning is represented in the Tetragrammaton YHWH by linguistic icon representing breath or aspiration [H], with a separate breath [in Latin, spīritus] possessed by Yah from the breath possessed by “the God” as Paul revealed in Romans chapter 8, verses 9 and 11:
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit [en pneumati — in spirit], if in fact the Spirit of God [pneuma theon — no article] dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ [pneuma Christos — no article] does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit [to pneuma — with article] is life because of righteousness. [Whose righteousness?] If the Spirit [to pneuma] of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit [autou pneumatos tou enoikountos en hymin his spirit in you]. (Rom 8:9–11)
The spirit—breath—of God that raised Jesus from the dead is not the spirit—breath—of Christ Jesus, who was raised from death. Two breaths are seen in the Tetragrammaton YHWH. And as the breath of one person [Latin: spīritus] is similar to but not the breath [spirit] of another person, so it is with the Father and the Son, both God, but each with Their own scripturally distinguished breaths/spirits.
It is here where the Adversary traps the people of the Book: Christians. Jews, Muslims. Christians are, with very few exceptions, Trinitarians or Unitarians. Jews and Muslims are Unitarians: God is one, which is true, but God is one house, one deity that consists of the Father and the Son—and will include glorified sons of God, younger brothers [siblings] of the Son, joined with the Son and made one with the Son at the Wedding Supper when the temple is dedicated in the heavenly realm, this temple growing large to become New Jerusalem (see Rev 21:2, 9–11 … New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ, has the glory of God, verse 11).
Christendom, again with few exceptions, contends that anyone who teaches that humanly born sons of God will be glorified to be God teaches as an agent of the Adversary who said in his heart that he would ascend to heaven, above the stars of God, and set his throne on the mount of assembly, thereby making himself like the Most High (Isa 14:13–14); that it is the Adversary who wants to be God but cannot be. And the Adversary did lead a rebellion against the Most High, and was cast from heaven for doing so. But the Adversary was in heaven when he rebelled against the Most High; so what does the Lord mean when, through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord tells Lucifer that “‘You said in your heart, / “I will ascend to heaven; / above the stars of God”’” (v. 13)? If Lucifer as an angel was already in heaven, why would Lucifer desire to ascend to heaven? And this passage has been used to support the physical creation occurring prior to when the Adversary rebelled against the Most High. However, the assumption that the Adversary was seeking to escape the physical creation and reach heaven is not compatible with belief that humankind is born with indwelling immortal souls that go “home” to heaven upon human death.
Once again, time and the passage of time can be written as mathematical functions of gravity, making time and its passage part of the physical creation. What is outside of the creation is non-physical by definition; hence, heaven is timeless, is without the passage of time. One moment doesn’t decay into the next moment, but remains as the only moment that has been or will ever be. Therefore, all that has life in heaven cannot lose that life as long as the entity remains in heaven; for life and the absence of life cannot coexist in the same moment … angels are created beings, meaning that they have a beginning: there was a moment when they did not exist. Either angels were created after the physical creation occurred, which contradicts Scripture for the angelic sons of God shouted [sang] for joy when the physical creation occurred: angels predate the physical creation.
If angels predate the physical creation, and if life is an absolute—something is either alive, or it is not—then the heaven to which Lucifer aspired is within heaven, meaning that a second tier of heaven must exist, not a radical concept to Muslims or Mormons, but not a concept that has been developed within so-called Christian orthodoxy. And it is this concept that The Philadelphia Church has been reluctant to develop or explore: evidence for it is slim, but does exist in Scripture. But this concept has been hinted-at or suggested in the writings of Philadelphia for seven-plus years. Perhaps it is time to make an assertion: the reason why angels are servants and can never enter the mount of assembly and be like the Most High is because they are created beings that at one time did not exist. Their absence of life in the mount of assembly prevents them from entering this moment in heaven, with the moment functioning as geography does here in the physical creation, where human beings must take their atmosphere/geography with them as they attempt to travel in space.
The Logos who was God and who was with “the God” in the beginning and who functioned as the Helpmate for “the God” as Eve was created from Adam to be his helpmate, thereby having the same life (the same breath of life) as Adam received when Elohim [singular in usage] breathed into the nostrils of the man of mud, thereby causing Adam to become a breathing creature, a nephesh—this Logos, who was God, had life in the same moment as “the God” had life.
Paul writes,
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:5–11)
The foremost difference between the Adversary and Christ Jesus is that the Adversary never had life in the moment where the Logos and “the God” dwelt in the beginning; hence Jesus’ prayer to have the glory He had with the Father before the world existed (John 17:5) was a request to have the life He had as the Logos returned to Him, not to again be the Logos, the Helpmate of “the God,” but to be in that moment in which the mount of the assembly exists. And that prayer was granted.
Human sons of God, by receiving the breath of the Father in the vessel that is the breath of Christ, have indwelling eternal life that has come from the moment in which the mount of assembly exists: glorified human sons of God will have heavenly life in the moment that no angel can enter. Hence glorified human sons of God will be higher, a relative term, than the angels are—not physically higher, but organizationally higher, for they will have life in the heavenly moment that preexisted the creation of angels.
Glorified human beings will be God for as sons of God they will have life that has come from the heavenly moment where the mount of assembly exists. Their life outside of the creation doesn’t come from angels, and certainly not from biological parents, but comes from the Most High through Christ Jesus. Therefore, there is no other name/authority by which men can be saved except that of Christ Jesus, the only Son of the Logos and the Firstborn Son of “the God,” the First of many sons, all of whom will have life that comes from preexisting life in the heavenly moment where the mount of assembly exists.
Christians without spiritual understanding—this means almost all of Christianity and certainly all of Christian orthodoxy—sincerely believe that any Christian teacher who says that glorified sons of God will be God teaches the error of the Adversary, but they argue from a position of rebellion against the Most High: they will not believe the writings of Moses nor will they hear the voice of Jesus. They simply do not believe the words of Jesus. Yet they will preach the cross, and preach Jesus crucified—
Rabbinical Judaism and Islam refuses to consider the possibility that Yah or Allah as the creator of all that has been made died when He entered His creation as His only Son (John 3:16), the man Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:14). And greater Christendom, in trying to maintain deity singularity so as to refute the claim of 1st though 4th-Century Jews to being the entirety of Lord’s chosen people, welded the Father and the Son into one deity, using as their welding rod the assignment of personhood to the breath of God. In doing so, early and late translators have had to mistranslate Paul’s treatise to the holy ones at Rome.
A Greek noun that is definite [that is a singularity] will have with the noun a definite article. The sharing of a single article as is seen in John chapter 1, verse 1, where o logos and theos share one article, welds the two nouns together into a single entity, meaning that one of the nouns functions as an adjective would function to convey additional information to the reader about the definite noun; hence the auditor (reader) understands that the Logos [o logos],is God [theos] but is not the God [ton Theon], who has His own definite article and does not share the article that belongs to the icon logos. And because of this linguistic structure of Greek, the article for a noun takes its case and gender from the noun, and can be used as the pronoun for the noun. But the noun will take its case and gender from the noun it modifies; thus, because God [theos] is masculine singular noun in Greek, the breath of God [pneuma Theon] will also be a masculine noun when it is closely linked to God, but will be a neuter noun when used in isolation.
The Greek borrowing of linguistic gender by close proximity permits a translator who wants to assign personhood to the breath of God to have a weak basis for his or her errant assignment … a human person is represented by his or her breath when the person, as an employee’s boss, shouts out instructions to the employee from another room or from some distance away. The employee doesn’t see his or her boss, but audibly recognizes his or her boss’ voice and as such the words conveyed by the modulations of the boss’ voice represents the will and instructions of the boss. In short, the person’s boss is represented by the breath—the spoken words—of the person’s boss, but this breath lacks personhood.
What is the inclination or purpose of the breath of God? What is the purpose of receipt of indwelling eternal life [received in the form of pneuma Theon] in the breath of Christ [pneuma Christos]? Is that purpose not addressed in verses 29 & 30:
For those whom He [God] foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified. (Rom 8:29–30)
Glorified, past tense? Yes, from the perspective of the Most High, the firstfruits of the harvest of the creation have already been glorified even though humankind has not yet reached that point in time. So the purpose of receiving a second breath of life—indwelling eternal life—has been fulfilled in the firstfruits that are predestined to be glorified, but that doesn’t make much sense: how can that which is not yet glorified be glorified? And in this world, to not be glorified and to be glorified is a paradox that cannot exist.
In human reasoning, two things cannot occupy the same space and time; hence, to be born from above or born of spirit or born as a son of God while still humanly alive introduces a logical paradox that will be resolved by denial of spiritual birth as was done by Herbert W. Armstrong and the former Worldwide Church of God, or by assigning to human beings an indwelling immortal soul received through human conception, regardless of whether that conception was via the marriage bed or the result of fornication, incest, rape, or any other form of unlawful male penetration of a female. For if a human being receives an immortal soul at human conception, the act of being born again isn’t an act of receiving a second breath of life—what the phrase truly means—but the renewal or regeneration of an already existing immortal life in the person.
The Christian, Jew, or Muslim who sincerely believes that he or she has been humanly born with an immortal soul has been deceived by the Adversary and actually denies Christ Jesus, who, if the person had indwelling heavenly life, would deny the living inner self of the person before the Father, thereby condemning the living inner self to the lake of fire … when a person denies Christ, the person denies his or her own indwelling life in the moment within the mount of the assembly.
But because human beings are not humanly born with indwelling eternal life, the person’s absence of heavenly life somewhat protects the idiocy of the person, who claims to be of God without having any understanding of God. Somewhat protects! For the Christian who professes that Jesus is Lord and believes in his or her heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead claims spiritual understanding and is as the Pharisees were who asked if they too were blind:
Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind."
Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, "Are we also blind?"
Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains.” (John 9:39–41)
That those who see may become blind—Christians claim to “see,” claim understanding of the mysteries of God, but they do not believe the writings of Moses, nor do they hear the voice, the words of the glorified Jesus. They do not see, but are truly blind; yet because they deny their spiritual blindness, their guilt remains, whereas Jews and Muslims (because they deny that Jesus is Lord) are spiritually blind and unintentionally acknowledge their blindness.
The first shall be last: natural Israel (i.e., the biological descendants of the patriarch Jacob) was the first to receive the writings of Moses and the first to hear the voice of the Logos … natural Israel shall be the last to receive indwelling eternal life. But it wasn’t natural Israel that was the first to be born of God as sons: it was the Christian Church, not angels or Jews, that was the first to receive life in the heavenly moment where the mount of assembly exists. Yet it was also the Christian Church that was first to deny Christ Jesus in this heavenly moment. As a result, the greater Christian Church has made itself the last to enter this unchanging moment: with very few exceptions, Christians shall never enter the mount of assembly—its teachers actively instruct Christians not to strive to walk as Jesus walked and thereby go where Jesus went.
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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."