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 Korah’s rebellion.
Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of September 16, 2006
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.
The person conducting the service should read or assign to be read Numbers chapter 16.
Commentary: One of the Hebrew words [Strong’s # 5769] translated into English as world is /olam/, which pertains to “concealing through time”—and what emerges from this concept of concealing through the use of time relates directly to special and general relativity. Time and its passage can be written as mathematical functions of gravity; hence “time” has been created. It is kin to physical matter that can be observed, measured, weighed, its mass computed. Time is a thing, an extremely low viscosity fluid similar to water. And since time is a fluid, time needs a container, and this container is a rupture in the timeless supra-dimensional heavenly realm that, for the sake of discussion, is like a black hole within the container—is like the vent sprues on a metal casting, the relief cavities into which the air in the mold was forced as the mold filled with molten metal. This bowl-shaped rupture is a bottomless void, or bottomless pit, shaped on its sides by the parabolic rupture and expanding in depth through the ongoing decay of dark matter. And this rupture will close at a specific moment revealed in Scripture.
Although the above can be dismissed as speculative, before doing so understand that disobedience in the heavenly realm is as polluted water is in this physical realm. A human body is mostly water; yet, it is unlike water in that it has apparent solidity. It has edges, limits, defined shapes. It isn’t a container to hold water as such, but it certainly does incorporate water to plump it up. And if this water somehow changes (say, the characteristic structure of the hydrogen bond mutates and the hydrogen atom begins to bond as most other atoms do), the body will die instantly. Life as we know it would cease to exist. We would no longer be.
When lawlessness was discovered in an anointed cherub (Ezek 28:14-16), this lawlessness being disobedience to God, it was as if arsenic were found in the drinking water of Fairbanks, Alaska, a concern of residents living on the gold-rich domes outside the city limits. This disobedience caused the “spirit” (a linguistic grotesque that functions as a metaphor for what cannot otherwise be described by human language) composing the majority element in the bodies of a third of the angels to become polluted, thereby killing these angels that cannot die in a timeless dimension where life and death cannot coexist in the same moment … so how can these angels be killed if they cannot die in the timeless heavenly realm? And it is here where a rupture opens in heaven to swallow these angels as the earth opened to swallow alive Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Num 16:25-33).
The defining characteristic of the supra-dimensional heavenly realm is timelessness, for time and its passage require the presence of mass; requires the existence of the creation. The deployment of any concept of time in an explanation or in an apologetic argument keeps the apology within the creation, for the Hebraic concept of creation is ex nihilo [out of nothing]. Scientifically, the creation begins abruptly. Examining position more closely than a Planck length is not possible; nor is measuring duration to an accuracy greater than the length of time it takes for a photon to travel a Planck length. Therefore, most pagan concepts of creation that have mass [the material universe] coming from pre-existing mass, regardless of how silly they seem, have stronger scientific support than any ex nihilo concept even though the existence of matter is “proof” of an ex nihilo creation. So the modern Arian Christian concept of “spirit” being very finely ground mass that requires “purer” eyes to see, while a negation of an ex nihilo creation and as such a negation of Scripture, is more scientifically sustainable than is an out of nothing creation. But all explanations for creation that do not step beyond time are of men and are not of God, for by assertion, it is here stated that heaven is timeless; mass does not exist in the heavenly realm; and that which human beings perceive as energy exists in a purer form, or more elemental form. Thus, those things that are of heaven do not exist in this material world, and cannot materially exist. They are of another dimension other than our four unfurled dimensions.
If what cannot materially be is invisible, then anything can be said about what cannot be, for no absolute means of rebuttal exists.
True, what cannot materially be cannot be measured or seen or perceived by human senses—what cannot be is completely concealed by what is, even to the nature and number of the Godhead. Anything can be claimed about what is invisible, and nearly everything has been. The marketing of invisibility became a mainstay of monarchs and their justification for conquest, but competitors emerged, many with no state [geographical] affiliation. Capitalism flourished: invisibility was an easy commodity to sell. Nearly everyone wanted to buy. And as with other commodities that have been over-merchandised, the marketers demanded protection from competition. Some means was necessary to restrict the free-flow of invisibility, and after long discussions, the preferred means was grammatico-historical exegesis, using the Council of Nicea (ca 325 CE) as the benchmark for inclusion or exclusion of an attribute of invisibility … what was concealed by the physical creation remained concealed through historical exegesis. Nothing could be revealed that wasn’t forged on the anvil of historicity, a dead lump of cast iron.
But as the defining characteristic of heaven is timelessness, the defining characteristic of the creation is decay, or change through the passing of time. Dead iron rusts away. History is subject to revision: what once happened is “revised” as it is reread through Marxist, or Feminist, or Philadelphian eyes. And it is here, where a co-existing dimension is completely concealed by what physically exists, that apostolic Christianity enters philosophy. Allusions take form, analogies materialize. Typology discloses that which the creation concealed. And time-tested invisibility, when landing on the runaway called the end of the age, lost the baggage it had accumulated over millennia.
Disobedience is not perceived as a “thing” with “thinginess” in this world, yet disobedience can be perceived by everyone. Therefore, to make the lawlessness found in an anointed cherub (Ezek 28:14-16) perceivable to human beings, law had to be given to human beings … when Adam was driven from garden of God (Gen 33:22-24), God consigned all of humankind to disobedience (Rom 11:32), but humankind’s disobedience was not counted or reckoned against any person until the Law of God was uttered as ten living words from atop Mount Sinai (Rom 5:13). But hearing the Law made those who heard responsible to the Law—literally, hearing the Law caused a person to be responsible for living by the Law, for keeping the Law in each of its precepts. Hearing the Law placed the person, a living clay vessel, under the Law just as if the Law were king and lord over the person.
For the ancient nation of Israel, the Law replaced Pharaoh as its temporal lord and master—and no person can serve two masters. Israel could either serve sin, which Pharaoh represented, or the Law. Pharaoh and Egypt became the material representation of sin; thus, Pharaoh made sin visible. In his bodily presence, Pharaoh disclosed attributes of invisibility [i.e., disobedience] that could never be seen with human eyes; whereas Egypt, a portion of the physical creation, gave geographical positioning to disobedience, thereby transforming what has no substance into a thing and a physical landscape.
As the creation concealed the heavenly realm, the creation also gave visibility to what could not be discerned through observation (Rom 1:20).
The Decalogue represented obedience to God in a way analogous to how Pharaoh represented sin, with Pharaoh being a type of the spiritual king of Babylon … until Israel rebelled against the Law by demanding a human king, sin was as faceless and as nameless as was the Pharaoh to whom Moses said, ‘“As you say! I will not see your face again’” (Exod 10:29). Moses would not again look upon the face of sin. However, after Israel rebelled, sin acquired a face, that of the Adversary, Satan the devil, the spiritual reality for whom Nebuchadnezzar served as his lively shadow. But the appearance of the face of Satan remains as mysterious today as it was millennia ago.
Even though the serpent is seen in the garden of God, the serpent is not again seen until after Israel rebels against the faceless Law. After being spotted in the garden, he disappears from the remainder of the Law; other than in Job, he is scarcely hinted at in the Writings. It is in the Prophets where he emerges as an anointed cherub (Ezek 28), and as the Day Star (Isa 14). Thus, there are theologians who argue that the Devil was an evolving concept throughout the Old Testament rather than a living but fallen cherub, whose presence was concealed by the creation.
Except for in the garden [the first Adam] and when tempting Jesus [the last Adam], the Adversary hasn’t been seen in this world even though he is its prince; he shouldn’t be sighted in this world for he rules through exercising dominion of the power of the air. He rules a spiritual kingdom, Babylon, from the heavenly realm—from the lips of the rupture into which he will be cast (Rev 12:7-10) when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ (Rev 11:15; Dan 7:9-14). As such, his reign as the prince of this world has been concealed by human kingdoms, instituted by God.
Understand that Satan reigns as the prince of this world not through force or might, but at the pleasure of God, who sets in place all governing authorities. Therefore, Satan reigns over humanity from the heavenly realm as Caesar reigned over the Roman Empire in this physical realm—and as Caesar was God’s instrument for the good of God’s servants, who seldom perceived persecution as being for their good, Satan is God’s instrument [albeit, an instrument not created evil by God] for the perfecting of His spirit-born sons.
When the lawlessness of the Church seemed fully manifest in the 2nd, 3rd, and early 4th centuries CE, Caesar seized many disciples and martyred those who would likely have otherwise spiritually perished because of disbelief that had already become disobedience. The hard and sudden trial of faith that comes with martyrdom caused disciples to mentally journey from the geography of their nativity to a Promised Land, a journey of faith of sufficient length to cleanse hearts. Sadly, for this reason martyrdom will return on a grand scale at the end of the age (Rev 6:11); for most Christians live as voluntarily bondservants to sin. Thus, the terror to good works that Caesar seemed to be to Sunday-observing disciples at the beginning of the 4th-Century, and which endtime civil and military governments will seem to be to, especially, Sabbatarian disciples should not frighten those who fear God and love neighbors—the terror is confirmation that these governing authorities exist as instruments of God; for today, virtually the entirety of Sabbatarian Christianity has become a holy, spiritual priesthood of many democratically-minded Korahs. Sabbatarian fellowships, particularly ones with a single head, will be rooted out and overturned by the man of perdition. These Sabbatarian fellowships have borrowed from, but have not repaid civil governments.
Iniquity or lawlessness was not counted against humankind prior to the giving of the Law because all of humankind were bondservants to the Adversary, who had full responsibility for humanity’s sins and sinfulness, and who was fully responsible to God for all lawlessness. But with the giving of Law, a portion of humankind [Israel] was physically liberated from disobedience through knowledge of sin, but liberated without the power to overcome sin. Therefore, added to the Law were sacrifices that temporarily “covered” transgressions in a way similar to how a king would pardon a subject … the Promised Land of Judea represented God’s rest (Ps 95:10-11) from sin or disobedience. Entrance into the Promised Land equated with entrance into obedience, with the Sabbath commandment literally represented by the geography of Judea; for it is through Sabbath observance that other men, other nations perceived Israel’s obedience to God. When the nation kept the Sabbath, other nations, which could not observe the hearts and minds of Israel, could see that Israel was having no other Gods before YHWH Israel’s Elohim. Without Israel visibly entering into Sabbath observance, the secret things of the nation’s heart would remain hidden; for these secret desires and thoughts were the territory over which the Adversary reigned.
A person can appear to serve God while conscientiously serving Satan—no one would know if some test were not to exist.
Every disciple’s righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees if the disciple is to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:20). Again, no person can serve two masters. No person can serve sin (disobedience) and the Law at the same time. No person can serve sin and God. The person who serves sin through transgressing the Law does not, indeed cannot, serve God. This includes every Christian. The teacher of holy Israel who proudly announces that disciples are not to be under the Law lies by telling the truth, but with a twist. The disciple who does not present him or herself to sin as its bondservant is not under the Law; for the laws of God written on the disciple’s heart and mind reign throughout the fleshly members of this disciple. However, the disciple who willfully sins—by spurning the Sabbath and attempting to enter God’s rest on the following day, a disciple willingly remains a bondservant to sin—remains under the dominion of sin; thus, this disciple remains under the Law. Yes! That is correct! The disciple who attempts to enter God’s rest on the 8th day remains under the Law if for no other reason than his or her transgression of the Sabbath commandment. So many are those disciples who have been called, but few are those who will enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt 22:14).
Disciples should not be under the Law for sin should have no dominion over God’s instruments for righteousness (Rom 6:13-14). The expectation God has of every disciple born of Spirit is that the disciple will keep the precepts of the Law (Rom 2:26) by faith, which doesn’t overthrow the law but upholds it (Rom 4:31). Understand well, it is not the hearers of the Law who are justified before God; it is not the hearers of faith who are justified before God. For the person who does by nature what the law requires, shows that the Law is written on their hearts, and their conflicting thoughts will accuse and excuse them in the day of their judgment (Rom 2:14-16). The person will be justified, whereas the disciple born of Spirit who presents him or herself to sin to be its servant will be utterly condemned.
If sin should have no dominion over a disciple, why do most Christians present themselves to sin as bondservants of disobedience? Why do most Christians encourage sin to reign in their mortal members? Why does this majority present its members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness as evidenced by the day upon which this majority attempts to enter God’s rest? And why don’t the many teachers of spiritually circumcised Israel rightfully divide God’s word, condemning sin and preaching repentance? Is it because they are conscientiously serving Satan, appearing as ministers of righteousness while being servants of Satan (2 Co 11:15)? That, unfortunately, is the case. Yes, it is. That seemingly good man or woman who gets cats down from trees and who volunteers to build homes for the needy, who serves on the local school board and who conducts antismoking clinics, but who also teachers disciples that they do not need to live by the laws of God written on hearts and minds, that attempting to do so is legalism is a servant of Satan, who appears as an angel of light (v. 14).
In this period that is now painted with a broad brush as the time of the end the Sabbath is the entry test to determine who is of God. Once safely through the gates and into the Jerusalem above, genuine disciples will have love for one another, something now woefully lacking in this heavenly city. Thus, civil terror in the form of widespread martyrdom will again be necessary to save those who would otherwise be lost—martyrdom on a now unimagined scale will forever distinguish the first three years of the Tribulation.
The Law was king and lord of the circumcised remnant that left Babylon to rebuild the house of God in physical Jerusalem; it remains king and lord over those disciples who have presented themselves as servants to sin (i.e., those disciples who continue to dwell in spiritual Babylon). Yes, disciples should be under Grace, and are under Grace if they keep the precepts of the Law; for Grace isn’t unmerited pardon for continuing sinfulness but the garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness, a covering inversely analogous to all of humankind being consigned to disobedience through being bondservants to the Adversary. Disciples are bondservants to the righteousness that comes by faith if they present themselves to obedience to be its servant, this obedience being to every word that has proceeded from the mouth of God. And if disciples present themselves to obedience, then by their actions they demonstrate that the laws of God have been written on their hearts and placed in their minds … the old written code serves to both conceal and reveal the invisible laws of God.
Now to Korah: was Korah guilty of lawlessness, or transgressing the Decalogue? The man found gathering sticks on the Sabbath day (Num 15:32) was certainly guilty of transgressing the Sabbath commandment.
After the congregation took that man found gathering sticks on the Sabbath outside the camp and stoned him to death, the Lord told Moses to have the people make tassels on the corners of their garments so as to remember to do all the commandments and to be holy to God—being holy can be forgotten, neglected, and is more than once saved, always saved. Being holy is an ongoing action by Israel, physical and spiritual. It is keeping the commandments; it is living by the precepts of the Law that have been written on hearts and minds. And because one person forgot or neglected to keep the Sabbath commandment, the Lord told the entire congregation to make tassels so that no one else would again forget the commandments, so that no one would again forget to be holy; for the laws of God were not then written on the hearts of the physically circumcised nation.
Korah said [paraphrased], Enough is enough. You’ve taken too much to yourself, Moses. You went too far when you had the fellow stoned who was just gathering sticks. He wasn’t hurting anything. You should have just warned him. After all, how important do you think the Sabbath really is? And the entire nation is holy. We don’t need tassels to remind us that God has made us holy, a condition, not an action. The Lord is among every one of us. So why are you setting yourself up to teach us?
Exactly how much Korah said beyond what has been recorded cannot be known, nor need not be known. Korah presumed to say what most Christians, within and without the Sabbatarian church, say today.
How long did Korah live after being swallowed alive?
Understand that the relationship between what Korah said and democracy, the principle ideal of the great horn of the spiritual king of Greece: everyone is holy, and anyone can speak for God. Anyone can sign his or her letter, In Christ’s name, when the person doesn’t come in Christ’s name, nor even comes as a true servant of God. Virtually the entirety of Christendom takes God’s name in vain, bearing false witness about the Father and the Son, believing and teaching a lie. Yet, Christendom presumes that it will be saved: again, many are called, but few are chosen (Matt 22:14).
The “called” are not those human beings that want nothing to do with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the called are those individuals who have been baptized and upon whom judgment has now come. The called are disciples, spiritually circumcised Israelites. And of the called, few will be chosen. Most will go into the lake of fire; they will wash out, for being holy is an action. It is something each disciple has to do, and to keep doing.
Korah is swallowed alive by the sudden fissure in the earth’s surface as rebelling angels are swallowed alive by a sudden fissure or rupture in the fabric of timelessness. Korah is not seen again; he will not be seen again until his judgment. Likewise, rebelling angels disappear from the heavenly realm when they are cast into outer darkness, imprisoned there alive (2 Pet 2:4). They will not be seen again in that heavenly realm until they appear in judgment. Thus, this place of outer darkness [Tartarus] is to heaven like the heart of the earth is to the four unfurled dimensions. And this comparison visibly invites disciples to perceive heaven to have a floor (like a sea of glass) that is analogous to the firmness of the earth on which human beings stand. The accuracy of this visualization must now be suspended by seeing earth as a very small object in the vastness of the universe.
If the fissure into which Korah and his rebelling friends and families disappeared reveals what has been concealed by the physical creation itself, then at least a partial understanding of the suddenness and of the nature of creation can be grasped by disciples. And this suddenness of creation agrees with concepts of a Big Bang. Therefore, as the rebelling angels cling to life for the short while that they have, a time as limited to them as Korah’s time was limited to him once the earth swallowed him, God has made use of this time to bring into existence sons that He can either leave in the rupture until it closes or remove from the rupture, inviting them to sit on His throne as younger siblings to Christ Jesus. This should not be minimized in importance: the Tzimtzum [to borrow a Kabbalist concept] or rupture in heaven, like the fissure that swallowed Korah, will close, thereby sealing in death that which could not otherwise die in the heavenly realm, including sons of God. The world and all that is in it—fashion shows and fly fishing, the so-called good things of life—is passing away, for the Tzimtzum is now closing even though it will remain, from human perspective, open for more than a thousand years. It will remain until the coming of a new heaven and new earth.
For emphasis, the rupture into which rebelling angels fell when imprisoned in outer darkness is temporary in nature, and will close to be no more once it closes. This rupture is presently a bottomless pit in a way analogous to the fissure that opened to swallow the Levite Korah, his friends, and their families. And in Korah’s rebellion, disciples can see the nature of, and logic used to support Satan’s rebellion.
Again, Korah’s statement, uttered against Moses and Aaron, ‘“You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and [YHWH] is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of [YHWH]?’” (Num 16:3) expresses the democratic values of the great horn or first king of the spiritual king of Greece. This great horn, located as an erect penis on the humanoid image Nebuchadnezzar saw in vision, will be the first fallen angel to die in the rupture when he is broken at the beginning of the seven endtime years of tribulation. The bronze belly and loins of Nebuchadnezzar’s image are represented by the king or kingdom of Greece, and it is this kingdom of insatiable appetites that presently rules over all the world (Dan 2:39).
The Most High gives life to the dead, but He does not determine which of His many sons, born of Spirit, are the few (Matt 22:14) that are to be taken out of the rupture before the rupture ceases to be. All judgment has been given to the firstborn Son (John 5:21-22), who ironically, allows the disciple to tell Him whether to make the disciple into a vessel of wrath, or a vessel of honor. Yes, we tell Christ Jesus what to make of us when we perceive being holy as an action, or as a condition.
Korah said that all of the congregation was holy, his determination made by what is recorded in Exodus chapter 19, verses 5 and 6. In Korah’s democratic world, once holy was always being holy … may the person who says to spiritual Israel once saved, always saved perish as quickly as Korah perished, for this false teacher of Israel spiritually slays newly born sons of God.
Korah doubly missed the point: (1) being holy is an ongoing activity, the way Israel was to live, and (2) Moses and Aaron were chosen by God for the positions they were in, with the two of them together representing YHWH Israel’s Elohim, Aaron the spokesman [the Logos] and Moses like God [Theon] to Aaron (those disciples who today worship Yah, worship the One who was like Aaron). Therefore, because Korah was presumptuous, endtime disciples can better understand what happened in heaven when lawlessness was found in an anointed cherub.
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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."