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.
High Sabbath Readings
For services on Atonement, October 2, 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 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."