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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 the nature of Christ. Clickable hymns on this page require RealPlayer to be installed on your computer. The download is free. Possible songs include the following hymns: Weekly
For the Sabbath of December 8, 2007
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 John chapter 8,
verses 12 through 59. Commentary: The Apostle Paul, as a master builder, laid the
foundation for the Church, which is not a building but the assembly or
congregation of God. The foundation—and there can be none other—is
Christ Jesus (1 Co 3:10-11), and here is where problems enter into Christendom:
this foundation is not the Father, the God of Jesus and of every disciple (John
20:17). The foundation is Christ Jesus [using the English convention of placing
the title before the name rather than after]. Why is the foundation of the Church not God the
Father but Christ? Does Paul make a mistake when he says that the foundation is
Christ Jesus? Remember, Jews and many Jewish converts in the 1st-Century
CE wanted to kill Paul for what they believed he taught; plus, all of Asia had
left Paul while he still lived (2 Tim 1:15). So Paul was not popular, for he
taught a gospel that was contrary to the gospel taught by converted Pharisees
coming from Disciples will either deny Christ and be denied by
Christ when their judgments are revealed, or disciples will be one with Christ
through likeness of mind and behavior. Luke records, Then Peter, filled with
the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we
are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what
means this man was healed, let it be known to all of you and to all people of
Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth [[0F@Ø OD4FJ@Ø J@Ø ;".TD"\@L], whom you crucified,
whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you
well. This Jesus [This one] is the stone that was rejected by you, the builder,
which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for
there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be
saved.” (Acts 4:8-12) The name by which there
is salvation—and the only name—is that of Christ Jesus, the
cornerstone for the foundation that is also built from Him. The only name by
which humankind can be saved is that of the Christ Jesus, originally
transcribed to be visually heard (yes, an oxymoron) in Greek characters, two of
which are not today used by English speakers. Unlike the Tetragrammaton YHWH which was never intended to be
visually heard and by convention was never uttered in sound, hence Jesus called
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob “‘Theos’” (Matt 22:32) and substituted “‘Adonai’” [transcribed in
Greek as 6bD4@H — kurios] for the Tetragrammaton when
He cited Psalm 110:1 (v. 44) and
addressed God as “‘Father’” (John 17:1 et al) when He prayed, the name of
Christ Jesus is to be heard and read. Because salvation is not from the Father but
through Christ—as if it were Christ who gives birth to sons of God that He,
God, has raised from the dead (John 5:21) as a man might fertilize a human ovum
which now requires the nurturing womb of the woman, with Grace being this womb [remember,
sexual gender pertains to the creation only, and not to God or the sons of God]—the
typology used by the Apostle Paul has the visible revealing the invisible, even
to the attributes of God (Rom 1:20). The two-being-one attribute of YHWH Elohim seen in Genesis 1:27, when
God makes humankind in His image, male and female, is revealed in the first Eve
being created from a wound in Adam’s side and with Adam then declaring, This at last is bone of my bones And
flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman (ishshah) Because
she waken taken out of Man (ish).
(Gen 2:23) Christology,
as understood through typology, gives personage to the Logos [7`(@H], who was Theos
[2,ÎH] and who was with Theon [2,`<] in the beginning (John 1:1-2). If personage is
not given to the Logos but withheld,
the Logos would represent something
akin to inspiration as in a pagan literary appeal to the Muses, or as in a descriptive statement of the thought process of a
author or of an architect—as the recording of a concept that exists first
as thought before being realized in matter. If personage is not given, Christ
Jesus should not have come as the last Adam (cf. Rom 5:14; 1 Co 15:45), but as the last Eve: He should have been
born as a woman. It is textually certain that the Logos pre-existed the creation of all
that is, and in fact made all things. The only question can be whether the Logos was a Spirit Being akin to Theon in the same way that a wife is
like her husband, the two being one, before the Logos entered His creation as His only Son (John 3:16), or whether
the Logos was the divine thought of
God through which God created all that is … if the Logos were a concept or thought (information) and not reducible to
matter, then it [as Tyndale rendered
the Logos] could only enter its creation as a derivative of itself. But this causes problems for
Mary, for the Breath [Pneuma] of God
did not implant a derivative of a thought in the virgin’s womb. Although
the Breath of God was seen by John the Baptist as a dove (Matt 3:16) and heard
by the first disciples as a mighty rushing wind (Acts 2:2) and by the Apostle
Paul as uttered words are heard (Acts 13:2), the Breath of God [B<,Ø:" ž(4@<] is not the Father of Christ Jesus, for this
divine Breath is never said to be Theos.
This divine Breath is never said to be a Son. Rather, within the concept of a
triune deity, the Holy Spirit functions as Arians would have the Logos function in their Christological
explanation of the creation. But divinity was not assigned to the Breath of God
until the 4th-Century, and personhood was not given to this divinity
until the 5th-Century CE; whereas divinity and personhood are given
to the Logos by the Apostle John in
his gospel. The debate over who Christ is and what is His
relationship with God (again, Christology) fueled a 4th-Century
schism in the visible Church that Emperor Constantine allegedly settled, but in
reality has never been settled and won’t be settled until the kingdom of
this world is given to the Son of Man. Wars have been fought over this debate, with
both sides winning battles—the last time Arians openly defeated
Trinitarians was when the Vandals sacked Rome—and wars will again be
fought over whether Christ is God. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, hundreds
of millions will die in the near future to settle the question during the first
three and a half years of the Tribulation … Judaism made an idol out of
its monotheism, and this idol will carry the armies of the king of the North to
a short-lived victory over Trinitarian Christendom during the first 1260 days
of the seven endtime years. Yes, Arian Christianity, beefed up by the conversion
of Islam through the work of the false prophet, will prevail over Catholicism
and her protesting daughters just before the sixth Trumpet Plague claims the
lives of a third part of humankind, the second “blow” Christ
delivers to spiritual Babylon and its princes and the blow that topples Babylon,
the kingdom presently reigning over this world. Again, the foundation of the Church is Christ
Jesus, and by no other name but His can men [and women] be saved (Acts 4:12).
It is not God the Father that saves men; rather God raises the dead and gives
them life (John 5:21) so that they can enter into judgment, which has been give
to Christ. Salvation comes from the mortal flesh putting on immortality, what
occurs or doesn’t occur when judgments are revealed. Being born of Spirit
does not equate to being saved, which will come as a surprise to the many
disciples who have been called but who will not be chosen (Matt 22:14) for they
would never take a journey of faith that was spiritually equivalent to
Abraham’s physical journey of faith from Ur of the Chaldeans to Canaan.
They have not cleansed their hearts by faith so that they could be spiritually
circumcised. These “many” thought that mumbling the sinner’s prayer was a magic elixir
that would open the doors of heaven to them. They did not know that “being chosen” is first
conditioned by them choosing Christ as the disciple’s Head and King,
which means separating themselves from the kingdom of this world and voluntary
choosing to live as a Judean when all around them are disciples telling them
that they don’t have to keep the commandments. ·
The chosen did
not have to keep the commandments; they did not have to separate themselves
from the common pool of all who have been born of Spirit.. ·
They chose to
walk as Jesus, their King, walked (1 John 2:4-6). ·
By choosing to
walk as Jesus walked, by choosing to imitate Paul (Phil 3:17) who committed no
offense against the Law or the temple (Acts 25:8), they show Christ that they are
one with Him in mind and spirit— Why would Christ marry a disciple who has a
contrary spirit? Such marriages do not work in this world. Why would someone
think that they would work in heaven? If a person chooses to imitate Christ, the person
will hear the words of Christ and believe the one who sent Him (John 5:24)
… again, the foundation of the Church is not God the Father, a point that
is for some reason exceedingly difficult for too many Sabbatarian disciples to
accept. Salvation does not come through the name of the Father, but through the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth [[0F@Ø OD4FJ@Ø J@Ø ;".TD"\@L], which needs not be uttered in Greek, the language in
which it was first written, or in Hebrew
as those disciples who hold the sacred
names heresy contend, or in English—it needs not be uttered at all
except as a thought in the mind, never heard in this world, but rather, heard
in heaven where the languages of this world are not spoken. But hearing Jesus’ words and believing them,
or believing the One who sent Him, is a rare occurrence even among those who
profess to be Christians. For the
visible Church—traditional Christendom—disbelief comes primarily
through Paul’s epistles being twisted by lawless disciples into
instruments for their own destruction (2 Pet 3:16-17); by imbedded lawlessness within
the structure of the visible Church that returns those who have been liberated
from sin back into bondservants of sin, with the commandment most frequently
transgressed being the least of the commandments, the Sabbath commandment. It
is easy for all who would have Christ rule over them to see the rebellion
against Christ by the visible Church. Evidence of this rebellion is all around
them, from filled Church parking lots on Sunday mornings to community Christmas
celebrations. The visible Church practices the traditions of the pagan belief
paradigms that the Jesus Movement should have abolished. And its theologians
use the same Scriptures, for the most part, to support its rebellion against
Christ that the churches of God use to support their obedience to Christ. But
as has been said before, meaning must be assigned to words, which do not come
with little backpacks carrying tidy “meanings” carefully sealed in
foil. The lawlessness of the visible Church precludes any
significant number of its members from being numbered among the chosen, with
each case being a decision Christ will make although He has already stated that
He will deny those who teach lawlessness (Matt 7:21-23) … the question
must be asked, why would anyone who seeks to serve Christ Jesus teach disciples
to break the commandments? The one who keeps the commandments and teaches
others to do likewise will be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matt
5:19). The one who teaches disciples to break the commandments will be denied
when judgments are revealed, regardless of the mighty works this person has
done in the name of Jesus—so why would anyone do this, teach disciples to
break even the least of the commandments? For power? prestige? money? Paul
established the test for genuine ministries: they will work on the same terms
that he worked when he was among the saints at The lawlessness of the visible Church defies
explanation, but is scripturally more understandable than the denial of Christ
by Sabbatarian disciples who have succumbed to the sacred names heresy. Jesus told Pharisees, “‘I am the light
of the world’” (John 8:12 – cf. John 1:4-13; 12:35-36). He is the light of Day One of the
Genesis chapter one creation account, the so-called “P” account (2
Co 4:6). He came from darkness when God said, “‘Let there be
light’” (Gen 1:3). So the darkness obscured Him from the sight of
this world; the darkness hid the beginning and end (Rev 22:13) so that Israel
could not know what God was doing, and had done (Eccl 3:11). Yet it is to this
same physically circumcised nation of Messianic disciples inevitably practice the sacred names heresy: they refuse to
believe that the one who entered His creation as His only Son, the man Jesus,
was God, Theos. They contend that God
cannot die; so because Jesus died, He cannot be God. He cannot be the Creator
of all that is. But to say that the glorified Jesus is not God and did not
receive the glory He had with the Father before the world existed (John 17:5)
is blasphemy against Jesus—is denial of Jesus, and to deny Jesus in this
world will cause Jesus to deny the disciple when judgments are revealed. So the
Messianic movement stands on the lips of Death. Any misstep will cause disciples
to be swallowed by Death through their denial of the divinity of Christ, who
was, when on earth, a circumcised man as any other male Judean would have been.
While here on earth, He was not fully man and fully God—He was fully man,
and He had to have the glory He formerly possessed returned to Him when He was
resurrected from death. * The reader should now read 1
Corinthians chapter 8, verse 6; Ephesians chapter 3, verses 7 through 12,
noting verse 9; Colossians chapter 1, verses 15 through 20, noting verse 16;
and Hebrew chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, noting verse 2. Commentary: In each of the above passages, the Apostle Paul
writes some form of Jesus having created all that exists: that all things were made by Jesus, that who created all things by Jesus, that for by Him were all things created, that
all things were created by Him and for
Him, that by whom also he made the
worlds. Nevertheless, those who have been poisoned by the sacred names heresy will either ignore
Paul because lawless Christendom has so badly twisted the epistles of Paul for
support for its lawlessness, or will explain away Paul through some nonsensical
juggling of the Genesis creation accounts that has the first Adam being created
on day five … disciples need to believe what is written: These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were
created, in the day that the [YHWH Elohim] made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land
… YHWH Elohim formed the man of
dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the
man became a [nephesh]. (Gen 2:4-7) In
this so-called “J” creation account of the first Adam, there is neither
plant, fish, fowl, or beast created before Adam is created on the day when God created the heavens and the earth. This
isn’t day five of the so-called “P” account— In the beginning, God created [filled] the heavens
and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the
face of the deep. And the Spirit [Breath] of God was hovering over the face of
the waters. (Gen 1:1-2) On what day was the first Adam created? Was it not
the day when God created the heavens and the earth? It certainly was if a
disciple believes Scripture. And is the first Adam’s creation not in the
darkness of Day One, before the light comes from the darkness in the face of
Christ Jesus? It certainly is. All of the history of the universe from its
beginning to when Mary gave birth to Jesus of Nazareth is contained in the
first verse of Genesis chapter one. The Apostle Paul was a chosen vessel to “‘know
[God’s] will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his
mouth’” (Acts 22:14) so that he could be a witness to everyone of
what he had seen and heard (v. 15).
It was not Pharisee converts that went out from If the Logos
who was with Theon and was Theos did not enter His creation as the
only Son of Theos and as the Creator
of all that is, then His death at Calvary is an interesting anomaly in the
universal lawlessness of humanity, but His death is not essential to salvation,
the position taken by rabbinical Judaism. Only by Jesus’ life being worth
more than the entirety of the creation could He take on the lawlessness of more
than one other person … because Jesus was without sin, death had no claim
on Him. Jesus had to be made sin—had to take on the sin of
others—before he could die. But the wages of sin is death; so Jesus would
have had to take on the sin of only one man for death to have a claim on His
life. As soon as Jesus took on the sin of this one man—say the second
thief at There is sadness every time another Sabbatarian
disciple, seeking purity in the same way that Pharisees sought purity, swallows
the lies of the sacred names heresy,
which now publishes false English translations of Scripture. There seems to
always be someone who will give an infant in Christ a copy of the Watch Tower magazine, or a copy of the Book of Mormon, or a copy of The Great Controversy, or of The Mystery of the Ages, or now, a copy
of the Bible corrected so that the proper Hebrew names are given to the Father
and His son. The only problem is that though it is easy to refute the writings
of men, it is much more difficult to refute a false copy of the Bible,
especially when the one receiving this copy has been persuaded that the New
Testament was not written in Greek but in a now lost Hebrew text. Even use of
Greek originals cannot be used to dissuade the spiritually dying disciple of
his or her error. All that can be done is to watch the person perish in
disbelief, praying that God will intervene, knowing that in most cases He will
not because the person chose not to hear the words of Jesus and believe the one
who sent Him; chose to swallow poison when “truth” was available to
the disciple. Let it here be said with no uncertainty: the Logos was born as the man Jesus, lived
as a flesh and blood human being, died at * 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." [ Home ] [ Sabbath Readings ] |