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.

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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 1^st-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 Jerusalem to Greece and Asia. So was the gospel he taught errant? Was he a false teacher? And this is a question that must be answered today by every disciple.

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 [Iēsous Christos Nazōraios], 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 — 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, who was Theos and who was with Theon 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 [pneuma hagion] 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 4^th-Century, and personhood was not given to this divinity until the 5^th-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 4^th-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, 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 Corinth; they will not ask for support even though they are entitled to it (2 Co 11:7-15). So no genuine ministry will ever ask disciples for money, but rather, will ask God, for whom the ministry works, for support, and God will faithfully provide the ministry with its needs, for a workman is worthy of his hire. If a ministry is truly working for God as called and chosen teachers, then it is God’s responsibility to ensure that those who work for Him receive their wages in this world and their rewards in the world to come. The ministry needs never to ask those whom it teaches for money.

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 Israel that some Sabbatarian disciples go for understanding of what God did in secret before the man Jesus was born of flesh and blood. These Sabbatarian disciples have the spiritual understanding of the Pharisees, from whom modern rabbinical Judaism claims its theological descent. It is no wonder that in a few locations, rabbinical Jews and Messianic disciples now worship together. They did before the second [actually third] temple was destroyed by Rome in 70 CE, and they will again in more locations once the Tribulation begins.

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.

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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 Jerusalem that were to be witnesses for Christ—these are those with whom Paul contended throughout his ministry. These are included among those who refused to hear what Jesus said about coming from heaven (John chap 8), and Sabbatarian disciples who have swallowed the sacred names heresy—as if mixing honey with gall will make the poison more palatable—deny that Jesus came from heaven as the Creator of all that is.

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 Calvary—then He could die, and the world would be without a Savior. Only by Jesus being the Creator of all that is could His death pay the wages for the sin of all Israel, and by extension, all humanity. To deny that Jesus is the Creator of all that was made is to deny the only sacrifice that will cover the disciple’s lawlessness, former and present. This is why the sacred names heresy is so heinous, for the sacred names heresy contends that God the Father is the creator of all that is.

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 Calvary, and received again the glory He had before He entered His creation as His only Son. By His name—Jesus Christ of Nazareth—salvation has come to humankind, and by no other name will anyone receive salvation. To deny Him in this world will cause Him to deny the disciple when judgments are revealed—and a disciple denies Christ when the disciple refuses to believe that all things were made by Him and for Him.

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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."

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