The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and commentary are offered as openings into dialogue about the subject or concept. And the concept behind the readings for Atonement or Yom Kipporim is the covering of righteousness.
Possible songs include the following hymns:
The King Shall Come
Hail the Day That Sees Him Rist
Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us
We Are God's People
Come, Come Ye Saints
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 services should read or
assign to be read Leviticus chapter 23, verses 26 through 32, followed by
Leviticus chapter 16, and Numbers chapter 29, verses 7 through 11
Commentary: The greater Christian Church, in its rejection of
the high Sabbaths as “Jewish” days that New Testament Christians do not observe
because Jesus fulfilled them, has never understood spiritual birth or Grace, a
bold statement supported by every funeral service performed by ministers
employed by the denominations, sects, and fellowships comprising Christianity.
The new creature born of Spirit as a son of God dwelling in a tent of flesh is
not of this world; is not male or female, Jew or Greek, bond or free (Gal
3:28). This new creature is not physical, and does not have physical
attributes, nor does it commit physical transgressions of the laws of God. And
it is this new creature that is garmented by the righteousness of Christ Jesus;
it is this new creature that is covered by Grace if this new creature has
presented its members to God as instruments of righteousness (Rom 6:13-14). But
when this new creature, alive in the heavenly realm, presents its members to
sin in this world, thereby transforming its members into instruments of
unrighteousness, sin reigns in the mortal body and no sacrifice remains for
this sin.
By the visible Church, Grace is usually defined as
unmerited pardon for sin, but this understanding is always accompanied with the
acceptance of the old serpent’s lie that the last Eve will not die (Gen 3:4)
because disciples have a regenerated immortal soul. Nothing could be farther
from what Jesus taught, from what Paul taught, from what John or Peter or James
taught. No human being had any life but that which came from the breath the
first Adam received when Elohim
[singular in usage] breathed into the man of mud’s nostrils (Gen 2:7) until the
divine Breath of the Father [Pneuma
'Agion — in Roman characters, Pneuma ’Agion] descended as a dove on
the baptized man Jesus of Nazareth to fulfill all righteousness (Matt 3:15-17),
thus making Jesus the last Adam (cf.
Rom 5:14; 1 Co 15:46). To teach Israel that human beings are born with immortal
souls is blasphemy—and today, every person, no exceptions, who teaches the
spiritually circumcised nation of Israel that disciples have regenerated
immortal souls is a minister of the Adversary disguised as a minister of
righteousness (2 Co 11:13-15).
Atonement is the day [Yom] of coverings [Kipporim
— note the plural “im,” which is
proper]. Two coverings are needed, the first for sin in this world: the goat
sacrificed on the altar. The second covering is needed for sin in that portion
of the heavenly realm within the void created when lawlessness was found in an
anointed cherub. This second covering is represented by the Azazel goat, the scapegoat, led into the
wilderness by the hand of a fit man, and this second covering is Grace, the
righteousness of Christ Jesus that disciples put on daily as a garment.
Disciples as sons of God have life in two realms,
not one as ancient Israel had. Thus, the creation that concealed the things of
God from ancient Israel [the Kabbalist concept of Tzimtzum] reveals the things of God to disciples (Rom 1:20).
Therefore, the spiritual nature of Yom
Kipporim was so concealed from the natural nation of Israel that the plural
coverings have been reduced to the singular Kippur,
and before the Jerusalem temple was destroyed, the nation was killing the
Azazel goat by throwing it over a precipice (the nation could not have Azazel
goats wandering back into town as Jesus did).
When born of the water of the womb, a person
consists of soma [soma or
flesh] and psuche [psuche
or shallow breath] (Matt 10:28 — read the passage in its original Greek). Every
person who has ever lived has been born of water, so every person possesses the
commonality of being flesh and breath, or flesh and blood [that which carries
physical breath to every cell]. This is what can be scientifically observed;
this is what is true regardless of what a person has accepted by faith or by
what has been traditionally passed down from pagan antiquity. Any other
teaching is not true and is not of the Father and the Son. And if a person
teaches any version of human beings having immortal souls, received from the
first Adam, the person is false and teaches the things of this world, not the
things of God. The person is spiritually blind.
When the Father draws a person from this world
(John 6:44, 65), thereby giving life to that which was dead (John 5:21), the
person is born a second time; the person is born from above; the person is born
of Spirit (John 3:3-8), with life in the heavenly realm that invisibly goes
where it will, with this spiritual life domiciled in a tent of flesh that
remains perishable (2 Cor chap 5).
The natural nation of Israel, long in physical
bondage to Pharaoh, experienced the separation God made through the plagues
between Israelite and Egyptian … although Israel in Egypt prayed to the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Israel worshiped the idols of Egypt. Yes, this is
true: Israel prayed to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for relief while at
the same time making offerings to the idols of Egypt. God made Himself known to
Israel, but the nation rebelled against God and was not willing to listen to
God before being liberated from bondage (Ezek 20:5-8).
Israel first rebelled against God before the death
angel slew the firstborns of Egypt; thus, Israel in Egypt serves as the shadow
of the Christian Church is Babylon. The Church today prays to the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob while being in active rebellion against the deity to
which the Church prays—is it any wonder why so few prayers are answered?
God swore then, when Israel was still in Egypt,
that He would pour out His wrath on the nation and spend His anger against
Israel in the midst of Egypt. Understand the significance of this: the
Christian Church spiritually lives in the void created in the heavenly realm
when lawlessness was found in an anointed cherub as natural Israel lived in
Egypt. The comparison has the geography of the earth [specially, pre-Flood
Eden] being the physical equivalent of the mental topography of humanity in
spiritual Babylon, the spiritual territory within the void that constitutes the
“outer darkness” into which rebelling angels were cast. The flesh of every
disciple—the tent in which a son of God dwells—remains on earth and cannot ever
enter the realm of thought and imagination, the mental topography of humanity.
Thus, as God swore to pour out His wrath on natural Israel in Egypt but didn’t
for the sake of His name, God is today refraining from pouring out His wrath on
the lawless Christian Church in that portion of the heavenly realm within the
void for the sake of His name so that it should not be further profaned in the
sight of the other peoples who have not yet been born of Spirit (Ezek 20:9).
Today, the separation between spiritually a
circumcised Israelite and the person who has not yet been born of Spirit [the
person who is the spiritual equivalent of an Egyptian] isn’t through physical
plagues affecting the one but not the other. Rather, the separation is
outwardly invisible, and only revealed in this world by the actions and enacted
philosophies of the spiritual Israelite as opposed to the spiritual Egyptian or
Babylonian. In the heavenly realm, the separation is immediately evident, for
one has life and the other is dead. The spiritual Israelite has life through
the earnest of the Holy Spirit—and as the person who places earnest money down
on a parcel of real estate deposits real money with a Realtor, to be held by
the Realtor until the sale is completed, the Father deposits real life in the
heavenly realm in a tent of flesh to be held by this tent of flesh until the
judgment of this tent of flesh is revealed upon Christ Jesus’ return (1 Cor
4:5). Then, as the Father made alive that which was dead through depositing
real spiritual life in a tent of flesh, the Son will give life to whom He will
(again John 5:21), giving imperishable bodies to those disciples whom He
determines worthy.
All teaching that assigns to human beings an
immortal soul is of the old serpent, Satan the devil—and all who teach that
human beings are born with immortal souls teach as ministers of the Adversary.
This cannot be emphasized strongly enough. Satan does not have physical seed, a
false teaching of the Christian Identity Movement, but spiritual seed, which is
human beings teaching his message of lawlessness and hate toward God.
Both the Father and the Son must give life to a
spiritually lifeless tent of flesh before the mortal tent of flesh will put on
immortality, thereby permitting the new creature born into that particular tent
of flesh to walk through the fire (Isa 43:2) separating dimensions. These tents
of flesh will never, never leave this physical realm. There will not be a
bodily rapture of flesh and blood disciples into heaven. Rather, that which is
perishable [human bodies] must put on imperishability received from Christ
Jesus when judgments are revealed for those disciples who chose life on their
day of salvation.
Being born of Spirit makes a person alive in the
heavenly realm and is the necessary prerequisite for “seeing” the kingdom of
God; for the person who has not been born of Spirit is hostile to God (Rom
8:7), while knowing nothing of God. The person who has not been born of Spirit
has no spiritual understanding and is in a taxonomical hierarchy as a beast is
to a human being. As a person’s dog or cat cannot understand why the person
balances his or her checking account, the person who has not been born of
Spirit cannot understand why a Christian would afflict the flesh by keeping the
Fast—and the disciple who doesn’t keep the Fast has written a NSF check to God.
Understand this well: the Christian who chooses not
to afflict the flesh on Yom Kipporim
remains a servant of the flesh, a servant of disobedience, a voluntary son of
Satan. God could, possibly, wink at the ignorance of this person in times past,
but no longer. The disciple who serves the flesh is unworthy of Christ Jesus.
Being born of Spirit must be accompanied by
believing in the Son of Man before the mortal flesh puts on immortality (cf. John 3:14-15; 5:24). Merely being
born of Spirit does not get a person into heaven, for the person born of Spirit
has no say in the matter. Just as human birth comes without the infant’s
consent and advice, spiritual birth comes without the spiritual infant’s
consent, without prior consultation, without the infant deciding to be born or
to make a decision for Jesus. [Billy Graham’s decision theology is bad theology.] God is not a respecter of
persons: every person will be born a second time, born of Spirit, with most of
these births occurring in the great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20:11-15) when
the mass of humankind will be raised from the grave to receive credit or
condemnation for those things done in the flesh. Judgment is the winnowing of
the grain, the separation of the chaff from the kernels. The grinding of this
grain into fine flour occurred during the course of living a life that has
already been concluded. And this post-Millennium resurrection to judgment will
be the main harvest of humanity, and is foreshadowed by the main crop wheat
harvest of ancient Judea … this resurrection to life is being born a second
time for all those who never before knew God. This is the Father raising the
dead. But the Father does not judge the dead. All judgment has been given to
the Son.
Judea brought forth not one but two grain harvests
each year, with the harvest of the firstfruits [the barley harvest] beginning
at Passover with the Wave Sheaf Offering and concluding with the Feast of Weeks,
fifty days later. Disciples today are not of the main crop wheat harvest, but
of the firstfruits, the early barley harvest. And the Father determines whom He
will draw from the world to become part of the firstfruits; i.e., part of the
early barley harvest, with the firstfruits comprising the Body of the Son of
Man.
Today, a physically unbridgeable schism exists
among human beings: one part of all humanity has not been born of Spirit, but
remains as the water that covers the surface of the earth. The second part of
humanity has been born of Spirit, and has its citizenship in the third heaven.
Thus, the first and second heavens separate the waters of humanity (Gen 1:6-8),
with those who have been born from above being above the expanse and those who have
not been born anew being below heaven. The dark portion of day three of the
spiritual creation is still ongoing, and will continue until the fullness of
the Gentiles is born of Spirit (Rom 11:25). The light portion of day three
begins during the seven endtime years of tribulation.
Again, disciples who are born of Spirit have life
in the heavenly realm domiciled in tents of flesh, which were consigned to
disobedience by God (Rom 11:32) so that He could have mercy on all. The new
creature born of Spirit is not consigned to sin and death, but is free to
choose whether this new creature will live or die. The tent of flesh, however,
is not yet given this choice so it remains consigned to sin and death, why
disciples have died in generations past. Thus, for the son of God [the new
creature born of Spirit] a decision of whether to live or die does, indeed,
exist. While the person who has no spiritual life cannot choose to be born of
Spirit, the person with spiritual life will choose whether to present his or her
members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, or whether to present his or
her members to God as instruments for righteousness (cf. Rom 6:12-16; Deu 30:15-19). On a day of salvation, every
disciple chooses life or death, good or evil. And with this disciple’s choice,
God as the Master Potter will form the person into a vessel for honored use
covered by Grace, or for a vessel of dishonorable usage, a vessel of wrath to
be endured for a season, a vessel doomed for destruction. These are every
disciple’s only choices. In blunt language, Christ Jesus takes the disciple’s
decision to present his or her members as instruments to God to form this son
of God into a vessel for honored usage, thereby eliminating from the disciple
the option to make a different choice. The disciple no longer has freewill even
if the disciple thinks that he or she has. Rather, the disciple is tethered to
righteousness and covered by the garment of Grace, which doesn’t mean that the
disciple cannot sin … anyone who has attended a tethered a goat or a sheep
knows how much harm the animal can still do to itself while tethered in a
“safe” area.
For the part of humankind presently born of Spirit,
choice was given—and a choice was made by every disciple, with far too many
disciples choosing lawlessness and death.
Why would anyone choose death rather than life when
the person knew that both choices were available? Is it because false teachers
of Israel have taught disciples that they are not under the law but under
grace; therefore, the disciple who attempts to live by the precepts of the law
is guilty of legalism? Such a
teaching would be contrary to what the Apostle Paul said in that the
uncircumcised person who keeps the precepts of the law will have his or her
uncircumcision counted as circumcision (Rom 2:26).
Endtime Israel consists of the portion of
Christendom which by faith keeps the precepts of the law, and by Observant Jews
who by faith profess that Jesus is Lord (Rom 10:6-9). And all of endtime Israel
will fast on Yom Kipporim. The portion
of Christendom that does not fast has chosen death, not life, on its day of
salvation.
*
If an offering is to be taken up on
this High Day, let the offering here be collected. Disciples who assemble
before the Lord on this day are cheerful givers; they do not appear empty, for
they have brought the tents of flesh with them. Therefore, the collection of an
offering is fully at the discretion of the local fellowship, with both
collecting and not collecting having Scriptural support.
*
If
properly understood, Grace would be defined as undeserved covering for sin,
with “covering” used as in a cloak or mantle that encloses the person, thereby
protecting, sheltering, but also disguising or concealing the person. This
cloak of Grace is Christ’s righteousness, which disciples are to put on as a
garment (Gal 3:27). Disciples, hence, become the righteousness of Christ when
observed from the heavenly realm. But this garment of righteousness that covers
disciples has been given them for the purpose of each disciple as an immature
son of God covering himself while he learns through practice to walk uprightly
before man and God. If the disciple uses Grace for any other reason, the
disciple will not be covered by his own obedience when revealed—and the
judgment of every disciple will be revealed when Christ Jesus returns (1 Cor
4:5). The Son of Man will be revealed when (or at the beginning of seven
endtime years of tribulation) Christ returns, and disciples as the body of
Christ form the body of the Son of Man. So the garment of Christ’s
righteousness is needed as covering while disciples wait for the midnight hour
on this long night of watching that began at Calvary. It is with this garment
of Grace that disciples gird their shoulders and loins while they roast the paschal
Lamb of God with fire [with their sins], and eat of this Lamb [take the
sacraments].
Satan does not
cover disciples’ sins, but is ultimately responsible for them.
Again, the Hebraic linguistic icon, Kipporim, that is usually translated
into English as Atonement
[at-one-ment] is better translated as “coverings.” Traditionally, Judaism has
used the singular form of the icon, Kippur;
hence, calendars identify this High Sabbath as Yom Kippur. But this Day of Coverings appears in Scripture in its
plural form. Two coverings—two goats covered the sins of Israel, not one. Both
goats were the sin offering, not one. Both goats together represent the Lamb of
God. One goat was sacrificed on the altar. Jesus was sacrificed at Calvary. And
the other goat was lead into the wilderness by the hand of a fit man. Jesus was
glorified and now sits at the right hand of the Father, sits across the
precipice of crossing dimensions and having entered the heavenly realm. So as
the natural nation of Israel covered its sins by the death of one goat and by
the Azazel goat symbolically bearing
Israel’s sin beyond a wilderness precipice, disciples have two coverings for
sin. Again, Jesus was sacrificed at Calvary for lawlessness in the natural
world, and He today bears the sins of disciples in the heavenly realm. So
contrary to the teaching of the splintered Churches of God, the Azazel goat doesn’t represent Satan. If
it did, then no disciple would ever experience the second death. Once saved, always saved would be a
truism.
What hasn’t been well understood by the greater
Church is that Jesus will give the sins that He bears either back to the
disciple or to Satan upon His return; He will not be crucified again. He died
at Calvary to create the pathway by which human beings could cross dimensions.
He died to reconcile humanity to the Father. But He cannot die in the heavenly
realm where He now sits, for the presence of life and the absence of life
cannot coexist in an entity at the same moment. The heavenly realm is timeless;
thus, the moment exists without decay, without changing into the next moment.
And the glorified Jesus will not reenter His physical creation where one moment
does become the next moment and all die through the change of moments to be
crucified again.
The disciple who hears Jesus’ words and believes
the One who sent Him passes from death to life (John 5:24), but disciples are
not to be surprised when some for whom Jesus has borne their sins are
resurrected to condemnation (v. 29).
These disciples will have had their sins returned to them because their
righteousness did not exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt 5:20), who
were hypocrites (Matt 23), having the law given through Moses (Deu 30:11), but
not keeping it (John 7:19). Disciples who hear Jesus also hear and believe
Moses (John 5:45-47 & Luke 16:31). But as the long awaited midnight hour
approaches, far too many disciples spurn Moses and erase the laws of God that
have been written on their hearts and minds. These laws of God are placed
inside disciples through receipt of the Holy Spirit. Thus, in erasing them
disciples commit blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
Two coverings for sin: one natural, which returns
the flesh of every disciple to the state of bliss the first Adam experienced
prior to eating forbidden fruit; one spiritual, which causes no sin to be
counted against the disciple in the heavenly realm where disciples received
life through receipt of the divine Breath of the Father. Two births: one
natural or physical and coming from the breath Elohim [singular in usage] breathed into the nostrils of the first
Adam; one spiritual coming from the divine Breath of the Father that descended
as a dove onto the man Jesus, the last Adam. The first covering for sin covers
the natural man, the fleshly bodies of disciples; the second covering for sin
covers the son of God dwelling within the natural man. This second covering is
the righteousness of Christ Jesus; this second covering is Grace. And the
disciple who will not afflict the natural man as Christ Jesus was afflicted at
Calvary—this affliction is depriving the flesh of the food and water needed for
daily sustenance; a figurative one day killing of the flesh—mocks Jesus’
sacrifice for the disciple. Literally, the disciple who will not fast on
Atonement mocks Grace, the covering he or she needs in the heavenly realm not
to have sin counted against the disciple.
From when Adam was driven from the Garden of God
until the law was given from atop Mount Sinai, all of humanity (with the
exception of Israel) had its sin covered through being the bondservants of
Satan, the devil. All of humanity was consigned to disobedience because of
Adam’s disobedience. No person had a choice about whether to be enslaved by
indwelling sin and death. But from all of humanity, God selected one human
being—because of his faith—to become a cultivated variety of humankind: this
man was the patriarch Abraham. As an orchardist takes a scion from one
exceptional fruiting tree to propagate that tree into a new variety through
grafting, God took Abraham from all of humanity and began the process of
propagation, with God Himself bringing forth the next two generations, each
covered by righteousness that comes from faith. Then, in a convoluted way, the
sons of Jacob sold themselves and all of Israel into slavery: when the brothers
of Joseph sold him to slave traders, who in turn sold Joseph into slavery in
Egypt, the stage was set for Israel to enter into Egypt in the same status as
Joseph held. While Joseph was number two in all of Egypt, he still was not a
free man; he was a slave. So when Joseph’s brothers entered Egypt, they came as
elevated slaves, not as free men, something they did not appreciate. Therefore,
when a Pharaoh rose to power who did not know Joseph, Israel’s elevated status
was withdrawn, leaving Israel as a slave people in a way that physically
foreshadowed how the Christian Church is enslaved by indwelling sin and death.
And because Israelites in Egypt were bondservants of Pharaoh, their lawlessness
was not counted against them, but was reckoned against their master, Pharaoh.
*
The reader should read
Romans chapter 5.
Commentary: Every person between Adam and Moses had been
consigned to disobedience as a result of Adam’s disobedience, meaning that
Satan as the prince of this world was responsible for the person’s lawlessness,
not the person, an important concept that has not been understood by
Christendom. Between Adam and Moses, every person was under natural grace (v. 13). Literally, Satan as the prince
of this world was responsible for his servants’ lawlessness, thereby covering
his servants through his introduction of sin into the kingdom of heaven.
But with Israel’s liberation from bondage in Egypt,
Israel was a free nation, no longer in subjection to Pharaoh’s disobedience. It
was, when the law was uttered from atop Mount Sinai, covered by its own
obedience—receipt of the Decalogue
gave Israel knowledge of the righteous requirements of the law of God, and with
knowledge came responsibility. Pharaoh as a type of Satan was no longer
responsible for Israel’s lawlessness.
The covenant ratified by circumcision (Gen 17)
caused Israel to appear naked before God, covered only by its obedience to God.
Israel was not under natural grace and had not been since Abraham circumcised
himself and his household; nor was Israel any longer under the cover of bondage
to Pharaoh. Therefore, with Moses came Israel’s responsibility to walk
uprightly before God as Abraham had, with Israel’s sins only covered by the
nation’s obedience [meaning that Israel had no covering for any sin committed].
And the nation’s obedience didn’t last longer than forty days: while Moses was
still on the mountain, Israel demanded that Aaron cast for the nation gods that
it could follow, for the nation did not know what had happened to the man
Moses. Thus, the nation lost its covering of obedience while the nation was
still camped around Mount Sinai.
Because ancient Israel had no covering for sin but
its obedience; because ancient Israel was not obedient but worthy of death; God
gave to Israel animal sacrifices that did not remove its sin, but temporarily
covered the nation’s sins so that Israel would not immediately die as did the
fellow found gathering sticks on the Sabbath (Num 15:32-36). Also, because
ancient Israel had no life in the heavenly realm, Israel needed no covering for
sin in that realm. Therefore, the man Jesus’ death at Calvary—the reality of
the totality of Israel’s animal sacrifices—permanently covered the nation’s
lawlessness in this physical realm, past, present, and future, no sin would be
physically reckoned to any Israelite, physically or spiritually circumcised.
However, no life was or has been given in the heavenly realm for the
lawlessness of spiritually circumcised Israel in that realm.
The lawlessness of angels under Satan caused God to
cast them into outer darkness [the void in which the physical creation exists]
where they await death. God is not a respecter of persons. If angels as sons of
God must die for their lawlessness in the heavenly realm, so must sons of God
born into tents of flesh unless the lawlessness of these latter sons of God are
covered by Christ Jesus’ righteousness [covering sin by the shedding of blood
pertains to the physical realm, not to the heavenly realm where flesh and blood
cannot enter]. But this covering of righteousness only lasts until the Son of
Man, Head and Body, is revealed at the beginning of the seven endtime years.
Then, because disciples will be empowered by the Holy Spirit, disciples must
live without sin for seven years; disciples will only be covered by their
obedience.
Again, disciples who were not before the holy
nation of God but now are (1 Pet 2:9) have been justified by the shed blood of
Jesus of Nazareth. They have been returned to the state in which the natural
nation of Israel dwelt prior to the giving of the Law from atop Mt. Sinai; they
are not under the Law but under Grace if they present their members to God as
instruments of righteousness (Rom 6:12-14). And just as sin was not counted
where there was no law (Rom 5:13), sin is not today counted in the natural
world against disciples who by faith keep the precepts of the law. These
disciples will not be fully without sin, but the faith through which they keep
the precepts of the law will cause Christ Jesus to cover their shortcomings
with His righteousness; for Christ is in the process of sculpting each of these
disciples who chose life on the day of their salvation into vessels for honored
usage.
Disciples collectively form the holy nation of God
that is inwardly circumcised but also has indwelling sin and death in its
fleshly members (Rom 7:25). The Apostle Paul acknowledges that he didn’t
understand why sin and death remained within his flesh when he had died to sin
through Christ Jesus … his flesh, however, hadn’t yet died. Thus, his flesh was
at war with the law of God that was in his mind. He did not realize that
justification returned the spiritually circumcised new man born into the
fleshly tabernacle of the crucified old creature to a spiritual state analogous
to the natural nation of Israel in Egypt. Spiritually circumcised sons of God
dwelling in tabernacles of flesh become as the physically circumcised nation
dwelling in Egyptian houses was when in bondage to Pharaoh. Therefore, the Lamb
of God crucified at Calvary returns disciples collectively and individually to
the pre-midnight hours of that long night of watching, of roasting the paschal
lamb with fire, of eating the lamb with feet shod and loins girded that Israel
spent in Egypt.
One long
spiritual night or turning away from the Light; one night that began when the
Light left this world at Calvary; one night that will not end until the Lord
returns to fight on a day of battle (Zech 14:3-4), until the kingdom of the
world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ (Rev 11:15), until
the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh (Joel 2:28), until the prince of
this world is cast to earth (Rev 12:9-10)—this one long night of watching comes
in the middle of the seventieth prophesied week (Dan 9:24). Liberation of the
spiritually circumcised nation will occur when this long night of watching is
darkest, when many have fallen sleep, when thieves are about their mischief,
when drunkards have passed out, when those who love darkness celebrate their
sinfulness, when the Church no longer believes it needs to be liberated from
sin and death. This midnight hour is near. Disciples shall be saved not by the
blood of the Lamb of God, but by His life. His blood covers their sins in
spiritual Babylon, thereby allowing the death angels to pass over the fleshly
houses in which disciples dwell. But disciples are saved by His life; for it is
not enough to have spiritual life in a corruptible body. Disciples are to put
on incorruptibility, thereby becoming as Jesus now is, this incorruptibility
allowing them to also cross dimensions and enter the heavenly realm, God’s
rest, foreshadowed by the Promised Land of Judea.
The glorified
Jesus as the high priest of the spiritually circumcised nation of Israel covers
the sin of this holy nation in the heavenly realm with His righteousness; the
heavenly realm is that far land across a dimensional precipice which disciples
do not consciously enter. But Jesus will not be crucified a second time; He
will not die in this heavenly realm for the lawlessness of disciples. Rather,
He will bear the sins of disciples until the revealing of their judgments. At
this time, He will give these individual sins of those disciples who heard and
believed—of those whose righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees—to Satan,
to whom they properly belong. Or He will give these individual sins back to the
hypocrite, the person who did not practice walking uprightly before man and
God; the person who loved the world more than the truth.
Once saved, always saved is a lie, for salvation can be lost. Every
disciple, today, prior to the beginning of the Tribulation, is foreshadowed by
circumcised Israelites in Egypt. No sin was counted against them, but all died
because of the trespass of one man. Similarly, disciples with life in the
heavenly realm through receipt of the Holy Spirit have no sin counted against
them, but all sin and all would die because of the trespass of an anointed
cherub, the ruler of this world, unless disciples’ lawlessness in this heavenly
realm is covered by the cloak of Jesus’ righteousness.
Every
transgression of the laws of God by disciples—transgressions that are not
presently being counted against disciples—still require being covered by death.
The wages of sin is death, regardless of whether this sin is in the natural
world or in the heavenly realm. The price for sin in the natural world was paid
at Calvary, but no price has yet been paid for sin in the heavenly realm by
humanity’s reckoning of time. The sins of the children of God in this realm are
presently covered, not paid-for, an important concept to remember. But
Atonement on the 10th day of the seventh month (corresponding to the
selection of the Passover lamb on the 10th day of the first month [“seven”
representing God’s rest, heaven]) represents when the one who will pay for the
sins of Israel in the heavenly realm is selected. This person will, again, be
either the born-from-above disciple who didn’t believe the Father, or the
anointed cherub in whom iniquity was found (Ezek 28:15). Atonement or Yom Kipporim represents the judgment
that will occur prior to the wedding supper.
Fallen angels as
sons of God who sinned have been cast into outer darkness—into a death chamber;
into time—where they await judgment by glorified saints … a son of God is a
spirit being who has no parent but God the Father. Disciples are born of the
Father, and nurtured by the Church, the last Eve. But the Church does not give
birth to disciples; thus, disciples, like angels, have no parent but the
Father. And as fallen angels are presently confined in darkness or time,
disciples as sons of God in fleshly bodies are also confined within time. And
through this juxtaposition, a disciple can see what is meant by disciples being
a little lower than the angels.
As review, on the
10th day of the first month, the Passover lamb was selected and
penned; the children of the nation that left Egypt crossed the Jordan and
entered Judea; and Jesus entered Jerusalem. On the 10th day of the second
month, Noah entered the Ark—Noah was selected in his generation, as were the
pairs of animals that entered with him. On the 10th day of the third
month, Moses entered the cloud hovering atop Sinai—Moses was selected in his
generation. Therefore, disciples should not be surprised when, on the 10th
day of the seventh month, the one who bears sins in the heavenly realm is also
selected, with the one selected paying with his life. The selected Passover
lamb was innocent of sin; Jesus was innocent. But the anointed cherub in whom
iniquity was found is not innocent. Nor will be disciples, regardless of
whether resurrected to life or to condemnation. But by faith those disciples
resurrected to life loved righteousness enough to crucify their old natures, or
better, break the legs of the crucified old man that each of them once were.
These new creations, born-from-above sons of God that dwell in the fleshly
tabernacles of a crucified old man, are as were the children of the nation that
left Egyptian bondage. These new creations, not any crucified old man, will
enter God’s rest as the reality of the uncircumcised nation that crossed the
Jordan under Joshua. And by figuratively breaking the legs of their crucified
old natures, these new creations will have selected the prince of this present
world to pay for their transgressions. They will, then, enter God’s rest on the
seventh day of Unleavened Bread, a day analogous in the texture of Scripture to
the great Last Day.
Two dimensions,
two worlds, one natural, one spiritual. And what is flesh and blood in this
natural world cannot enter the heavenly realm—the bodies or tabernacles in
which born anew sons of God presently dwell cannot enter heaven. These sons of
God must receive a glorious or incorruptible body (a body of primal energy)
before they can cross dimensions.
The texture of
Scripture adds that in the natural world there were two grain harvests of
Judean hillsides, the early barley harvest and the later wheat harvest, each
watered by its own rains, each watering analogous to receiving the Holy Spirit.
There are also two spiritual harvests, the early harvest when Christ Jesus
returns after the third day of a spiritual creation week foreshadowed by the
physical creation week, and the latter main harvest during the great White
Throne Judgment, when all who have ever lived and who have not previously been
born of Spirit will be resurrected. The great White Throne Judgment occurs in
the “light” or hot portion of the sixth day of the spiritual creation week,
occurs after Satan has been loosed for a short while, the dark or “twisting
away” portion of this sixth day. [The fourth day is the wedding feast, the
creation of the greater light, and the establishment of Christ’s reign over the
earth, the lesser light that rules the darkness. The fifth day becomes Christ’s
thousand-year reign before Satan is loosed for a short while, three and a half
years. The seventh day features the coming of the new Jerusalem, the new heaven
and the new earth, and God the Father dwelling here.]
The above
distills to the realization that the holy spiritual nation—created when the
glorified Jesus breathed on ten of His disciples and said, Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22)—began in the long spiritual
night of watching foreshadowed by the night of watching when death angels
passed throughout Egypt. The midnight hour of this night will see disciples
liberated from the law of sin and death that presently dwells in their flesh.
This liberation will come through empowerment [or being filled] by the Holy
Spirit, the state foreshadowed by what happened on that day of Pentecost
following Calvary. And with the empowerment of the Church, the Son of Man will
be revealed. No longer will a covering for sin be needed. Disciples who have
cleaned the inside of the cup will be clean all over. But disciples who have
not used the covering of Grace to practice walking uprightly before the Father
and the Son will rebel against God, and will commit blasphemy against the Holy
Spirit. They will spiritually die, for they will have slain themselves through
their hypocrisy. Thus, what’s seen is that the High Sabbaths are integrally
linked, with their relevance to the New Covenant revealed by Jesus of Nazareth
being the Passover Lamb of God, a Lamb appropriate to the size of the household
of the Father, a Lamb penned in Jerusalem on the 10th of the first
month. Two goats represented the sin offering of Israel: Jesus represents both
of these goats. And Grace, the covering of Christ’s righteousness that
disciples put on as they would put on a garment, cannot be properly understood
apart from seeing its application to the natural nation through the Azazel goat.
Again, Grace is
not open-ended pardon from sin. It is the undeserved covering for sin in the
heavenly realm that allows the Holy Spirit to be given to chosen human beings
before long demonstrated obedience occurs. Grace allows a human being to
change, to grow spiritually as a child grows physically. Grace allows the end
of the spiritual growth process to determine the process’s outcome. Without
Grace, the first transgression of the law of God in the spiritual realm would
be fatal to the newly born son of God. Hence, life in this dimension would not
be given until the Father and Son were nearly certain that their new creation
would live by the laws and statutes of the Most High.
*
The person
conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms,
followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal.
* * * * *
"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."