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 believing Christ’s voice when heard.
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Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of September 11, 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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Thus says the Lord, “Go, buy a potter's earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests, and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. You shall say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind— therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.’” (Jer 19:1–9)
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Scripture has within it narrative breaks or divides that presents the same shadow of a spiritual event in greater detail or from a differing perspective … one spiritual event casts one shadow that doesn’t appear as one shadow but as many shadows as one beam of light passing through a rain drop doesn’t exit the drop at one point [thereby splitting and casting one rainbow] but exists at many points, with each exit being weaker than the preceding exit because of the diminished amount of light within the drop; thus light from a single source passing through rain drops casts two or three or more visible rainbows, with the number of rainbows determined by how many times light ricochets around the inside of the drops before exiting. The more ricochets, the more rainbows seen, with the rainbows descending in strength until they are no longer visible to human eyes. And so it is with the shadow of spiritual things or events that contain within them an element of unbelief/sin: successive shadows have less detail as they appear farther from the event, with Genesis account of the creation of Adam, his placement in the Garden of God, and his naming the animals being the shadowy condensation of Jesus’ ministry as recorded in the gospels.
It is convenient for Christians to read the prophecies of Jeremiah, lament about how awful the house of Judah behaved, sort of pat themselves on the back because they are not like the ancient house of Judah, and not realize Judah’s and Jerusalem’s behavior is the earthly shadow of their spiritual behavior … Judah’s and Jerusalem’s physical rebellion against the Lord—their idolatry, their burning their firstborn, their slaying of innocents—is the lively shadow and earthly representation of Christendom’s unseen [by human eyes] rebellion against the Lord. And Sabbatarian Christendom (the nation that cleansed hearts by faith so that their hearts could be circumcised by the soft breath of God) represents the pot or vessel that will be broken because of its near-absolute refusal to make a second journey of faith that is analogous to Abraham’s journey to the land of Moriah; thus, Sabbatarians will be compelled by the Lord to journey into martyrdom if they will be saved.
Most Sabbatarian Christians’ initial journey of faith can be likened to Abraham’s physical journey of faith from Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran where his father remained and died, then down to Canaan [Judea], the Promised Land, that is represented by Sabbath observance (see Heb 3:16–4:11; Ps 95:10–11; Num chap 14). This is the faith about which Paul writes. Spiritually, this journey from Babylon [the kingdom of this world] to keeping the commandments by faith cleanses hearts so that they can be circumcised as Abraham was physically circumcised before the son of promise [Isaac] was born to him through Sarah, his wife who was one with him … in the model or pattern seen in Abraham, the old self is not resurrected as a new man, a new creature, a son of God born of spirit [the breath of God pneuma Theon] until after the heart has been cleansed by faith and circumcised. However, after that Pentecost following Calvary for natural Israel (Acts chap 2), and after the baptism of Cornelius for Gentiles (Acts chap 10), a new thing was done: the Father drew disciples from this world and gave them a second breath of life [pneuma Theon] prior to when these disciples undertook a journey of faith that they were expected to make and complete. These disciples were given time to make this initial journey of faith, which if not made resulted in a spiritual stillbirth, but after hearts were circumcised, disciples were then [in the 1st-Century CE] and are now expected to make a second journey of faith as a “testing” of their belief as Abraham’s belief/faith was tested when he was commanded to journey to the land of Moriah and there sacrifice Isaac (Gen 22:2). In the 1st-Century, this second journey of faith was usually into martyrdom as it will be in the 21st-Century for those genuine Christians who do not hold the testimony of Christ Jesus, which is the spirit of prophecy (cf. Rev 12:17; 19:10).
Sabbatarian Christendom will either believe the word of Christ or these Sabbatarian Christians will be slain as their brothers were slain in the 1st-Century (see Rev 6:9–11); for Christ Jesus will not permit the multitude of dogmas and doctrines that presently exist within Sabbatarian Christendom to continue into the Endurance, the last 1260 days of the seven endtime years of tribulation. Christ Jesus will not permit the third part of humanity (from Zech 13:9) when born of God (when the world is “baptized” in the breath of God — Josh 2:28) to be misled and falsely taught by the majority of today’s Sabbatarians. Either today’s Sabbatarian Christians will make—within Sabbath observance—a second journey of faith and begin to believe the words of Jesus that they have never heard, or heard and rejected, or they will physically perish during the Affliction, the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years. They will have no other choice. Their existing arrogance and self-righteousness will condemn them if they persist in their present beliefs, especially those of the Sacred Names heresy and those who identify themselves as Adventists. And they will persist: depending upon whether they are faithful to their end, they will die as martyrs or as heretics.
But Sabbatarian Christendom has made an initial journey of faith that the greater Christian Church refuses to make; thus, when the greater Church is liberated from indwelling sin and death against its will, the greater Church will rebel against the Lord as outwardly circumcised Israel in the wilderness rebelled against the Lord. So it is the rebellion of the Christian Church in the Affliction, again the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years, that forms the reality casting as its shadow Israel’s rebellion in the wilderness just as the Passover upon which the firstborn of Egypt, from Pharaoh to the beasts of the field, were suddenly slain at midnight is the shadow and type of the Second Passover, when the circumcised-of-heart nation of Israel is filled-with and empowered by the divine breath of God and thereby liberated from indwelling sin and death. However, the rebellion of the greater Church in the Affliction also casts as its shadow Eve’s unbelief that caused her to eat from the tree of mingled fruit; for greater Christendom’s rebellion on day 220 of the Affliction comes from its insistence upon celebrating Christmas, the holiday mingling the sacred [Christ] and the profane [the day of the invincible sun].
If the Second Passover liberation of Israel were to occur in 2011 [a near example year and a probable year], the rebellion of day 220 would occur on Christmas day, a Sunday, with Christmas falling on a Sunday serving as rebel confirmation of their “righteousness” in observing both Sunday and Christmas rather than the Sabbaths of the Lord … Christians need to understand that the visible Christian Church is not of God but of the Adversary, just as democracy is of the Adversary. Consider Korah’s challenge of Moses’ seemingly autocratic rule over the assembly of Israel: what does Korah say that is wrong? Were not all in the congregation holy (see Ex 19:5–6)? Was not the Lord among them? What basis did Moses and Aaron have for exalting themselves above the assembly of the Lord? Was not Korah correct in what he said (Num 16:3)? And was not the Lord unjust in destroying Korah and his followers—this is certainly what the congregation of the people thought the next day when the people grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, saying “‘You have killed the people of the Lord’” (v. 41) —
And when the congregation had assembled against Moses and against Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting. And behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared. And Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Get away from the midst of this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.” And they fell on their faces. And Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, and put fire on it from off the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun.” So Aaron took it as Moses said and ran into the midst of the assembly. And behold, the plague had already begun among the people. And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. Now those who died in the plague were 14,700, besides those who died in the affair of Korah. And Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting, when the plague was stopped. (Num 14:42–50 emphasis added)
The Lord is a jealous God (Ex 34:14) … when the Lord told Moses that Aaron should speak for him, Moses, and he, Moses, shall be God to Aaron (Ex 4:16), the Lord gave to Moses His authority and His name: Moses was the earthly representation of the Lord so rebellion against Moses was rebellion against the Lord. A challenge to Moses’ authority was a challenge of the Lord. And the Lord, being a jealous God, was not about to share His authority with the congregation of Israel; therefore, when Korah challenged Moses and Aaron, the Lord intervened just as was done in heaven when iniquity was found in an anointed cherub.
The two witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth (Rev 11:4). Where they are during the Affliction, the glorified Christ Jesus is; for they “‘are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth’” (Zech 4:14). And they are as Moses and Aaron were, with the glorified Jesus being invisibly present with them [the two witnesses] as the Lord was visibly present in the cloud by day and in the pillar of fire by night with Moses and Aaron. Hence, rebellion against the two witnesses during the Affliction will be met with spiritual condemnation of a type represented by the physical condemnation of Korah, of his friends, and on the following day, of the assembly when only Aaron’s quick response stood between the dead and the living.
The man of perdition will not appear as a sinister individual, but will appear as a minister of righteousness representing an angel of light. He will advocate a return to God—and a return to the values of the American Constitution. He will be a zealot for righteousness, integrity, personal responsibility, personal charity, hope. And what he says will sound right and good. But he will not keep the Sabbath. He will mingle the sacred and the profane in his advocacy for self-government and individual freedom. And when Satan enters him on day 220 of the Affliction as Satan entered Judas Iscariot on the night of the 14th of Abib, he will believe that the angel inside him is Christ Jesus. Thus, in good conscience he will declare himself God as he leads greater Christendom in its rebellion against the Lord (2 Thess 2:3–4) — the temple of God is the greater Church (1 Cor 3:16–17; 2 Cor 6:16).
Most of Sabbatarian Christendom will not be deceived by this lawless one: keeping the Sabbath will, however, get Sabbatarian disciples killed if they are not divinely protected by the Lord—and the Lord will protect only those Sabbatarians who hear His voice and hold fast to His testimony; for it is these disciples who keep the commandments and have the spirit of prophecy, received when they took a second journey of faith while the promise of entering His rest and hearing His voice still stood.
Most Christians who keep the commandments and have the spirit of prophecy will make their initial journey of faith before the Second Passover liberation of Israel and their second journey of faith during the first 220 days of the Affliction. If a Christian waits until after the Law is written on his or her heart before beginning to keep the commandments, with Sabbath observance being the visible indicator of the Christian’s obedience, no journey of faith is made; hence, martyrdom as an initial journey of faith becomes virtually inescapable. Likewise, the Sabbatarian who does not hear and heed the words of the glorified Jesus as delivered by the two witnesses in the first 220 days of the Affliction—the period before the man of perdition (the lawless one) is revealed—will make no journey of faith when seeing the unveiling of prophesied events as they reveal themselves. This Sabbatarian will, therefore, make his or her second journey of faith in martyrdom, with most martyrdom occurring between day 220 and day 580 of the Affliction. For on or about day 580, the wrath of the Lamb will begin, with this opening of the sixth seal occurring on or about the December solstice of 2012 if the Second Passover liberation of Israel occurs on the second Passover of 2011.
But today, the greater Christian Church refuses to believe that any Second Passover liberation of Israel will occur: even Sabbatarian Christendom wants to deny the Second Passover of the circumcised-of-heart nation of Israel. Actually, what Sabbatarians want to deny is the reality that God will again give the lives of men as ransom for the Church as He gave Egypt as Israel’s ransom (Isa 43:3–4). However, because circumcised-of-heart Israel is precious in His sight, the Holy One of Israel will give the lives of people in exchange for the life of Israel, and Israel’s endtime exodus from sin and death will cause Israel’s exodus from Egypt to no longer be remembered (Jer 16:14–15; 23:7–8): “In that day the Lord will extend His hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of His people … . And the Lord will utterly destroy / the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, / and will wave His hand over the River / with His scorching breath [wind], / and strike it into seven channels, / and He will lead people across in sandals. / And there will be a highway from Assyria / for the remnant that remains of His people, / as there was for Israel, / when they came up from the land of Egypt” (Isa 11:11, 15–16).
Christians—Sabbatarians included—want God to fill them with spirit so that there is no indwelling sin and death in their fleshly members, but they don’t want to acknowledge that “liberation” from indwelling sin and death comes with a price that has not yet been paid.
Jesus’ death at Calvary paid the price so that the inner self—the formerly dead inner self—can be raised from death through receipt of a second breath of life … Paul admitted that he didn’t understand why sin continued to dwell in his fleshly members after he had been raised in newness of life through a death like Christ Jesus’ (Rom chaps 6–7). The reality that was and has always been is that Paul hadn’t been crucified as Jesus was crucified when he wrote his treatise to the saints at Rome. Baptism (submission in water) isn’t unto the death of the flesh; i.e., drowning. Resurrection following baptism doesn’t cause the flesh to put on immortality. All of those things about which Paul writes in Romans chapter 6 pertain to the inner self that hears Jesus’ word and believes the Father and thereby passes from death to life without coming under judgment (John 5:24), and has eternal life through receipt of a second breath of life, the breath of the Father [pneuma Theon].
Liberation of the fleshly bodies of Christians from indwelling sin and death comes at the Second Passover liberation of Israel, again the nation circumcised-of-heart. The shadow of this spiritual liberation of Israel is seen in the physical liberation of physically circumcised Israel from physical bondage to a physical king [Pharaoh]. And as the physical nation of Israel in Egypt sacrificed physical [bleating] lambs on the 14th day of Abib at even, Israel of the Second Temple sacrificed the Lamb of God [Christ Jesus] on the 14th day of Abib at even as Pharisees of the Second Temple reckoned when lambs were to be slain. But physical Israel’s liberation from slavery didn’t come when the nation shed blood in sacrificing bleating lambs of the first year, but came when the Lord shed the blood of Egypt at the midnight hour by having the death angel pass over all of Egypt, slaying every firstborn of man and beast not covered by the blood of a Passover lamb. Likewise, the liberation from indwelling sin and death of the circumcised-of-heart nation of Israel didn’t come when Israel of the Second Temple sacrificed the Passover Lamb of God, but will come when the Lord passes over all the earth, slaying every firstborn, human and angelic, not covered by the blood of Christ Jesus.
Again, the Lord told Jeremiah, “‘You shall say, “Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known”’” (19:3–4) … because the greater Christian Church; because even Sabbatarian Christendom has forsaken the Lord, worshiping angels [fallen angels] rather than the Lord, God will bring disaster upon heavenly Jerusalem to such an extent that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. But He will not leave circumcised-of-heart Israel without a way to escape that disaster; for He will fill every disciple with His divine breath so that no sin [unbelief] and no death will dwell in the fleshly members of any Christian. The Christian who desires to obey God (i.e., keep the commandments) can do so when the Lord delivers all of the Christian Church into the hand of Satan for the destruction of the flesh.
Until the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man (Dan 7:9–14; Rev 11:15–18), except for the Remnant (from Rev 12:17) and their journey, the only acceptable Christian journey of faith will be unto martyrdom, the reason the two witnesses wear mourning garb for they know what will happen and when.
The Remnant that remains of the people of God—again a Remnant that keeps the commandments and holds the testimony of Jesus (Rev 12:17), with the testimony of Jesus being the spirit of prophecy (Rev 19:10)—shall journey from the north country, Assyria, the geographical representation of Death, to the Promised Land of God’s rest as ancient Israel journeyed from Egypt, the geographical representation of Sin, to the Promised Land in the days of Moses. And this Remnant is represented in Scripture by Caleb, who had a different spirit from the spirit of rebellion present in the assembly of the Lord (Num 14:24).
Of the nation that left Egypt and that was numbered in the census of the second year, only Joshua and Caleb entered into God’s rest. Every other Israelite perished along the way, with Moses also not being able to cross the Jordan although he did enter into God’s rest (Ex 33:14) when he entered into the presence of the Lord, seeing the backside of the Lord.
Certain correspondences hold:
· Moses corresponds to the elder of the two witnesses in the Affliction,
· Aaron, Moses’ older brother, corresponds to the younger of the two witnesses —
Moses and Aaron form the mirror image [the left hand enantiomer] of the two witnesses, who will also be brothers, with the younger being of the world (i.e., far better known in the world than the older) as Aaron was with Israel during the forty years when Moses was a fugitive tending the sheep of his father-in-law in the land of Midian.
· Moses corresponds to the Lamb of God [Christ Jesus] in the Endurance, the last 1260 days of the seven endtime years;
· Aaron corresponds to the Remnant in the Endurance —
All of then-living humankind (two parts has been killed — Zech 13:8) that crosses from the Affliction representing the fall of the spiritual kingdom of Babylon, into the Endurance that represents the formation of the kingdom of the Son of Man, will cross from one world [age] into the next world as Noah crossed from one age into the next age:
· Noah and the seven with him correspond to Christ Jesus and the angels to the seven churches;
· The seven pair of clean animals on the Ark correspond to the seven named Churches in the Endurance;
In the Endurance, Christ Jesus as the glorified Lamb of God will be with the 144,000, all natural Israelites who have professed that Jesus is Lord and believe that the Father raised Jesus from the dead, but He will not be with the seven named churches over which there is an angel that serves as the eyes of the Lord. Rather, the Remnant in the Endurance, having the same power as the two witnesses had in the Affliction, will serve as the voice of Christ Jesus to the third part of humankind (from Zech 13:9). Thus, in the Endurance Christ Jesus is to the 144,000 as Moses was to Aaron, and the angels of the seven churches will also be to the Remnant as Moses was to Aaron, with the Remnant being to the third part of humankind as the two witnesses were to Israel in the Affliction—
· The Remnant in the Endurance correspond to the seven named churches in the Endurance
When the single kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man, Joshua corresponds to the seven named churches and the Caleb corresponds to the third part of humankind, a theological refinement of what has previously been presented by The Philadelphia Church, which had Joshua corresponding to Christ and Caleb corresponding to the Remnant … Caleb was of Esau: he voluntarily associated himself with Israel and accepted servitude as an Israelite in Egypt. Therefore, he had about him a different spirit prior to when he, as one of the Twelve, went to spy out the land of Canaan—and that different spirit became apparent when he advocated for going immediately into Canaan and taking the land.
The third part of humankind in the Endurance has a different spirit about them [because they have been baptized in the divine breath of God] than they had in the Affliction.
The Valley of the Son of Hinnom is Gehenna, the representation of the lake of fire where the refuse of spiritual Jerusalem is burned up and utterly no more—and it was in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom where the people of Jerusalem and of the house of Judah built high places to Baal and offered their firstborns to Molech. The Lord through Jeremiah says that He will cause the people of Jerusalem and of Judah to fall by the sword; that He will make these peoples eat the flesh of their sons and daughters. And these peoples of Jerusalem and of Judah form the left hand enantiomer of Christians in the Affliction.
The pottery flask Jeremiah purchased was to be broken as the Lord would break the people of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. These broken people would be buried in the Valley of the Son of Hinnon, the representation of the lake of fire for the circumcised-of-heart nation of Israel.
Christians in the Affliction will surrender to the spiritual king of Babylon and return to being his ideological serfs, or they will be broken as if they were pottery by this spiritual king of Babylon. If Christians return to sin as serfs of Babylon, they will be slain by the Lord when He returns at the end of Endurance, the last 1260 days of the seven endtime years. But if they are broken by the spiritual king of Babylon and die physically in faith, they will live spiritually when Christ returns. Except for the Remnant, they will either die spiritually or physically [or both] in the Affliction when they are delivered into the hand of the Adversary, the little horn of Daniel chapters 7 and 8.
The above isn’t what Christians will believe about themselves: they want to hear the words of their Pashhur (Jer 20:1), a son of the chief officer in the house of the Lord. They will believe their Hananiah (Jer 28:1), a son of a prophet who speaks in the house of the Lord. But they would not then believe the Lord for they will not now believe the Father or the Son or Moses or the first disciples or even Paul. They believe the lies of the Adversary who is bent on destroying sons of God whenever and wherever he can—and the Adversary has near total ownership of all Christians today as evidenced by their willing lawlessness.
As Pharaoh came after the liberated nation of Israel that seemed to have trapped itself against the waters of the Sea of Reeds, the spiritual king of Babylon will come after his newly liberated ideological serfs following the Second Passover liberation of Israel. And unless the Sabbatarian disciple takes a second journey of faith prior to day 220 of the Affliction, the faithful Christian will walk (or be carried) to his or her martyrdom in the year between Christmas and the following December solstice—and there isn’t anything that can be said to cause most Sabbatarian disciples to make a second journey of faith prior to the Apostasy of day 220.
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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."