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
this Sabbath is hell-fire, or the lake of fire.
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Weekly Readings
For the weekly Sabbath of November 12, 2005
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 Matthew chapter 5, verses 22 and 29 through 30, followed by Matthew
chapter 10, verses 26 through 28.
Commentary: In the above
verses, the word translated as hell is gehenna, the Greek
transliteration of Ge-Hinnom,
or the valley of the son of Hinnom, an arroyo on the
outskirts of Jerusalem that was
used as the city garbage dump. The valley was designated as the city’s refuse
site after the remnant of Israel
returned from Babylon, for it was
where rebellious Israelites formerly caused their firstborns to pass through
fire. It was where parents offered, by killing with fire, their firstborns to Molech. Thus, this physical valley forms the shadow or type
of a spiritual lake of fire into which rebelling firstborn sons of God the
Father are cast upon Christ Jesus’ return.
In Matthew 10:28, Jesus said to fear the one
who can cast psuche and soma into gehenna.
Jesus’ disciples had not then (when He sent the twelve forth) received the Holy
Spirit or Breath Holy [Pneuma ’Agion]. Thus, His disciples consisted of psuche, shallow breath or life that
comes through the breath of life breathed into the first Adam’s nostrils (Gen
2:7), and soma, flesh. After the
glorified Jesus breathes on ten of His disciples (John 20:22) and said,
‘“Receive Pneuma ’Agion,”’
His disciples consist of psuche, or
the breath of life received from Adam, soma,
the fleshy tent in which each human being dwells, and pneuma, the divine breath which gives every disciple spiritual life
or actual life in the heavenly realm. Disciples, with the receipt of the Holy
Spirit, become as the Apostle Paul describes them when he wishes them well in
all aspects of their lives (1 Thess 5:23). However, before receiving the Holy
Spirit, every human being is as Jesus’ disciples were when He sent the twelve
forth: they are only psuche and soma. They have no life in the heavenly
realm; they have no immortal soul. So while they can be destroyed by fire as
the firstborns of the natural nation were, only the flesh and the life that is
in the flesh will perish.
The sacrificed
firstborns of natural Israel,
offered to Molech in the valley of the son of Hinnom, will be resurrected through birth from above—and
they will know no sin. In essence, through the mischief of their parents,
generations of firstborns of the natural nation were sealed in death before
these generations could know sin. They will live again, as will all of
humankind that hasn’t already received a second birth through receipt of the
Breath of God; and they will do so after lawlessness has ceased to exist.
But Jesus knew
His disciples would be born from above after He was glorified (John 7:39). Thus, He assigned to their physical
breath [psuche] the properties that
belong to spiritual breath [pneuma];
for His sending the Twelve forth forms a shadow of, and is a type of Him
sending forth disciples during the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years
of the tribulation. The end of the age occurs in the middle of these seven
years, occurs when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most
High and of His Christ (Rev 11:15 & Dan 7:9-14). Therefore, when the divine
parents of all children of God cast their spiritual firstborns into gehnna fire,
there will be no rescue of these infants. They will utterly perish because of
their [the infants’] lawlessness, not because of any lawbreaking on the part of
the household of God.
The reader should now read Ezekiel chapter 20.
Commentary: Because the natural nation rejected the Lord’s statutes
and greatly profaned His Sabbaths, the Lord gave this natural nation of Israel
statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not live (v. 25). He defiled them through their
offering of their firstborns to fire; He did it so that He might devastate
them; He did it so that the natural nation might know that He is the Lord (v. 26).
The spiritual
nation of Israel
has condemned infant sons of God to gehenna fire through
teaching these newborns to erase the laws of God written on hearts and minds
when these infants are born of the Holy Spirit. The spiritual nation has done
in the heavenly realm what the natural nation did in the physical realm. But
there is no resurrection after the second death.
All firstborn
belong to the Lord to do with as He pleases.
The reader should now read Exodus chapter 12 through verses 1 & 2
of chapter 13, followed by Isaiah chapter 43.
Commentary: Not just the firstborn of Israel
belong to the Lord—He has the right to give as ransom for Israel
the lives of the firstborn of Egypt,
and of spiritual Babylon. His
giving the lives of the firstborn of man and beast in Egypt
as ransom for the natural nation of Israel
forms a copy and shadow of what will be done when the Lord gives the lives of
the firstborn of [fallen] angel and man in spiritual Babylon.
(Angel and man in the spiritual realm equate to man and beast in the physical
realm. Thus, King Nebuchadnezzar receiving the mind of a beast for seven years
equates to the spiritual king of Babylon, Satan, being cast to earth and given
the mind of a man for a like period, half of which occurs before being bound in
the bottomless pit, the other half after a thousand years when he is released
for a short while.)
Because of the natural nation’s lawlessness and
idolatry, the Lord—with perverse logic—protected the firstborn of this nation,
all of whom belonged to Him, from learning the ways of their parents by causing
their parents to sacrifice them in the valley of the son of Hinnom.
Because of the spiritual nation’s lawlessness and idolatry, the Lord, with
equal perverseness, will protect His spiritual firstborn sons through causing
the greater Christian Church to slay—as Cain slew righteous Abel—those
disciples who keep the commandments of God, especially the Sabbath commandment.
All of the Christian Church will be baptized, or immersed in Spirit and in fire
(Matt 3:11). All will pass through
fire. But those disciples who receive an imperishable body upon Christ Jesus’
return will pass through unharmed and will enter the heavenly realm, where the
marriage supper awaits them. Those disciples who placed their physical life,
their perishable bodies, ahead of obedience to Father and Son will lose their
spiritual lives as well as their physical lives when they are baptized with
fire. They will perish in the flame of gehenna, where the refuse
of the spiritual city of Jerusalem
is burned with age-to-age fire. These disciples who, like the first thief on
the cross, sought to save that which must perish will be no more forever.
The Lord gave to the natural nation statutes by
which it could not live; the Lord has already given to the spiritual nation
statutes that will cause this idolatrous nation to rebel against obedience when
the Son of Man is revealed. And for the spiritual nation’s rebellion, the Lord
will send a great delusion over those disciples who place salvation of their
flesh ahead of obedience to God. This great delusion will preclude their
repentance. All of the rebels will perish in the flames of gehenna.
The reader should now read Ezekiel chapter 16.
Commentary: Again, the natural nation of Israel
in the physical realm forms a copy and shadow of the spiritual nation of Israel,
a royal priesthood, a chosen people, who was not before a nation, in the
heavenly realm. Physical circumcision is a copy and shadow of spiritual
circumcision. The laws of God inscribed by the finger of the Lord on two stone
tablets are a copy and shadow of the laws of God inscribed by the Holy Spirit on
two tablets of flesh, the heart and mind of each disciple. And the natural
nation playing the whore, trusting in her beauty, making for herself colorful
shrines (vv. 15-17) forms a copy and
shadow of the spiritual nation committing adultery with the spiritual princes
of Babylon, Persia, Greece (Dan 10:13, 20). Therefore, the natural nation
taking its sons and daughters, borne to the Lord, and sacrificing them to be
devoured by flames forms a copy and shadow of the spiritual nation slaying its
sons and daughters, borne to the Lord as sons of God, in the flames of gehenna.
When a human being is drawn by the Father (John 6:44, 65) through a whiff and a whisper of His
holy breath, the person receives actual life in the heavenly realm. The person
has been born-from-above before the person realizes that the Father and Son
truly exist. The person will have no interest in God prior to being drawn or
called, and the person will certainly not obey God (Rom 8:7). And yes, many are
called (Matt 22:14). Many receive a
whiff and a whisper. But few will, by faith, turn from disobedience and begin
living as spiritual Judeans. Few will believe Moses—and if a person will not
believe Moses, the person will not believe Jesus (John 5:46), will not be convinced by the only one who has been
raised from the dead (Luke 16:31).
It is as simple as that: every Israelite, natural and spiritual, has a
righteous accuser, Moses (Deu 31:24-27). Yet the greater Christian Church today
scorns this righteous accuser while it cozies up to alien princes, paying them
to tickle her in the arroyo outside the Jerusalem
above.
God the Father has given the greater Christian
Church traditions by which it cannot live, traditions
that will cause it to burn firstborn sons of God in gehenna fire…no disciple can
enter God’s rest on the following day. No disciple can please God by continuing
to live as a son of disobedience. No disciple who cherishes his or her flesh
more than obedience to God will live when baptized with fire.
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."