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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 fate of the dead. 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 22, 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
fate of the dead, what is it? Is it heaven, hell, or the grave? Is there really
an afterlife, or are Christians presently living in the * The
person conducting the service should read or assign to be read Ecclesiastes
chapter 3. Commentary: There is a time for everything, “a time to
keep silent, and a time to speak” (v.
7); a time to believe God, and a time to quit believing those who pretend to
represent God. I said in my heart with
regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that
they themselves are but beasts. For what happens to the children of man and
what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all
have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is
vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.
(Eccl 3:18-20) Solomon understood that God
tests men and women to show them that they are but beasts, and that they are
like other beasts in life and death. God tests them against the widely accepted
belief of The fate of disciples
will be to enter heaven as sons of Son. This is not difficult to understand, or
to support from Scripture. But what will be the fate of those human beings who
never heard the name of Christ Jesus? The human body is a tent
of flesh that is subject to corruption, decay, and death. Flesh and blood (the
life of the flesh) cannot enter heaven (1 Co 15:50), for there is nothing about
the body that can withstand the fire that separates the dimensions, fire
typified by the “flaming sword that turned every which way” (Gen
4:24). There is nothing inherent about flesh that can withstand being tormented
forever in the lake of fire. The body can be reduced to ashes in any
crematorium. It will, otherwise, return to dust unless preservation by freezing
or drying causes it to remain as lifeless meat and bone. If the flesh can be
burned to ashes or will return to dust, then the flesh lacks permanence. If the
breath of humankind is the same as the breath of beasts, then as one dies so
dies the other … Solomon denies that human beings have immortal souls. He
asks who it is that knows that the spirit [Heb: ruwach – breath] of man goes upward and the breath of a beast
goes down into the earth (Eccl 3:21). And the answer is, No one knows this. And
this is the point about which God tests the righteous and the wicked … if
God tests the righteous and wicked through what each believes about the fate of
he dead, believing error has more serious consequences than has been previously
taught; for the implication of Scripture is that the wicked will believe what
the righteous will not. The Apostle Paul said
that eternal life was the gift of God, given by the God “in Christ Jesus
our Lord” (Rom 6:23). Eternal life does not come from a person’s
human father, but from God. It does not come through fornication in the
backseat of a Chevrolet. It doesn’t come through sin. It doesn’t
come in any way except through receiving the Spirit of God, which gives to the
person a second birth, a birth from above as a son of God, a birth that changes
the person from being like other beasts by making the person tripart: body [soma], breath [psuche], and spirit [pneuma]. But the wicked do not
believe that eternal life is the gift of God. When a person is born of
a human father and mother, the person is a son of disobedience (Eph 2:2-3),
consigned to disobedience (Rom 11:32) as a bondservant to sin (Rom 6:6-7). The
person is not free to keep the commandments of God—even the most pious
son of disobedience must break a commandment of God, and breaking one
commandment makes the person a lawbreaker, a sinner (James 2:10). This person
is numbered among the wicked of the world. ·
For those individuals who claim to be Christians yet have
not truly been born of Spirit, the one commandment most often broken is the
Sabbath commandment. ·
For pious Jews the commandment most often broken is the
third commandment (rabbinical Judaism takes God’s name in vain through
denying that the Logos, who entered
His creation as the man Jesus of Nazareth, was the creator of all that has been
made). Jesus’ disciples
had not yet received the Holy Spirit when Jesus sent the Twelve not to
Gentiles, but “‘the lost sheep of the house of The son of disobedience
who has a body of flesh [soma] has
his or her physical life sustained by physical or shallow breath [psuche], but when this son of
disobedience is born of the Holy Spirit [B<,Ø:" ž(4@<], a second life
sustaining force enters the person, the divine breath of God [B<,Ø:" ž(4@<]. The person is now tripart as Paul identifies disciples
when he writes, “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you
completely, and may your whole spirit [B<,Ø:"] and soul [RLP¬] and body [Fä:"] be kept blameless” (1 Thess 5:23). It is the
wicked—those who have not experienced a second birth—that believe
they have everlasting life without receiving this life from God. ·
To teach that human beings have everlasting life apart
from receiving it as the gift of God through Christ Jesus is to utter blasphemy
against the Father and the Son. ·
An immortal soul is everlasting life, and any teaching
that a person is physically born with eternal life is contrary to Scripture. ·
Everlasting life comes to human beings only as the gift of
God, given when the person is born of Spirit. ·
Prior to being born of Spirit, the person only has the
life given to the first Adam, this life making the person a breathing creature,
a nephesh, like other nephesh that are the beasts of the field. It is vanity to believe
that humankind, prior to being born of Spirit, have lives that differs from the
lives of beasts; it is also not biblical. Nevertheless, Augustine of Hippo
wrote, This faith [Christianity]
maintains, and it must be believed: neither the soul nor the human body may
suffer complete annihilation, but the impious shall rise again into everlasting
punishment, and the just into life everlasting. (On Christian Doctrine. Book 1: XXI. Trans. D.W. Robertson, Jr.) Augustine was simply
wrong! Whether he knew he taught a lie probably cannot be determined, but he
neither well understood Scripture nor believed Scripture. The body is dust, the
base elements of the earth. At death it returns to dust that is blown about by
the winds of this earth. It is stone ground into fine flour; thus, the physical
body is a shadow and type of cereal grains (that have inherent life within them)
being ground into fine flour, with disciples typologically identified as the
harvest of firstfruits, the early barley harvest, with Christ Jesus being the
First of the firstfruits, the Wave Sheaf Offering. Jesus said,
“‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it
remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit’” (John
12:23-24). Jesus was that grain of wheat—and the kingdom of heaven grows
from this single grain of wheat. Again, the Apostle Paul
says that the wages of sin is death, “but the free gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23). Jesus said of the Twelve He
sent out that they were psuche and soma, breath and body (Matt 10:28). These
first disciples had not, when sent out, received birth-from-above in the form
of receipt of the Holy Spirit; they did not have the Holy Spirit. Hence, they
were not of tripart composition. They lacked having the Spirit [pneuma] of God. They lacked having
eternal life. Jesus, Himself, lacked having the divine Breath of God (B<,Ø:" [J@Ø] 2,@Ø – Matt 3:16) prior to it descending upon Him as a
dove. The person who dies
without having been born anew is not today, though, in hell, writhing in pain,
roasting in flames not quite hot enough to burn the person to ashes. That
teaching is criminal considering the harm it does, and has done to Christ; for
it has been used by the Roman Church as justification for forced conversion of
pagan tribes and peoples, and used by Evangelical Christians as the reason for their
missionary efforts that destroyed aboriginal cultures worldwide (the Roman
Church adopted aboriginal beliefs and holy days as Catholic stepchildren;
whereas Evangelicals rooted out these beliefs with few exceptions, Halloween
being perhaps the most notable). The person who dies without being born of
Spirit in the person’s physical lifetime—and this will be most of
humankind—awaits resurrection from the dead in the dust of the earth. Salvation lies ahead of this person, not
behind. The Apostle Paul writes, For all who have sinned
without the law will also perish without the law … when Gentiles, who do
not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to
themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of
the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness,
and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when,
according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (Rom
2:12, 14-16) The person who does not
have the law of God written on the person’s heart and mind is a person without the law. This person will perish
without the law, or will be saved by having done what the law
requires—and what the law requires isn’t legalistically keeping the
commandments day by day, but exercising justice and mercy and love toward
neighbor and God. The person who does not know God—the Chinese peasant
who died centuries before Christ Jesus was born—nevertheless knew to exercise
justice and mercy and love. Whether that Chinese peasant did or didn’t exercise
justice and mercy will be known when he or she is resurrected in the great
White Throne Judgment. The peasant will then be like one of the two thieves
crucified with Christ at ·
Every person who has drawn breath will be like one or the
other of the two thieves crucified with Jesus. ·
The disciple, today, either wants Jesus to save his or her
physical life, or the disciple is willing to die for his or her sins, asking
only that Jesus remember the person. ·
Most disciples want to live as Gentiles but be remembered
as Christians— Most disciples want to
save the lives they had as sons of disobedience while receiving the promise
given to the ones willing to lay down their lives for Christ and live as
spiritual Judeans. Again, the world is today
divided between those human beings who have been called by God and born of
Spirit as fruit ripening out of season, and between those who remain as sons of
disobedience. Before a disciple is born of Spirit, the person was
consigned to sin (Rom 11:32) as a son of disobedience (Eph 2:2-3). The person
had no choice about whether he or she would transgress the laws of God; for the
person was born as the bondservant of sin, condemned to disobedience because of
one man, the first Adam. And this concept of being consigned to disobedience
separates Western Christendom’s understanding of free will from both
Eastern Christendom’s and Rabbinical Judaism’s … in both the
Greek Church’s and Judaism’s understanding of sin a person can,
through good works, prevail upon God to accept the person, thereby making
Calvary an interesting but not needful phenomenon; whereas in the Roman Church, Calvary was absolutely necessary for the
forgiveness of sin, and the redemption of the inherently sinful nature of
humankind. The Many disciples will see good or evil in someone
they love. When “good” is seen in a person who does not profess to
be a disciple of Christ Jesus, the “good” is too easily dismissed
by legalists, or too easily accepted as evidence of salvation by liberal
disciples. Neither is true. This “good” person will not enter
heaven upon his or her death, nor will this “good” person be
condemned to hell. Judgment has not yet come upon this person, for this person
is not a part of the household of God (1 Pet 4:17). Thus, this
“good” person will wait in the dust of the earth until he or she is
resurrected in the great White Throne Judgment where this person will be as one
of the two thieves—yes, this person is a sinner despite the
“good” that he or she has done. What is more sad is when disciples have a loved one
who seems unable to not sin … Martin Luther made the observation that the
law seemed to exist to prove that it couldn’t be kept—and it cannot
be kept by those who remain consigned to disobedience. They are not free to
keep it. And being redeemed from sin is all about being born of Spirit so that
the liberated person can keep the commandments. Sin or iniquity is, simply, the transgression of
the law (1 John 3:4). The person who breaks the law in one point breaks the law
(James 2:10), and is a sinner, having presented him or herself as a willing or
unwilling servant to sin (Rom 6:16). In analogy, sin is the mental landscape
through which a disciple must journey—as The antithesis to original sin is a second birth by
Spirit, with this new creature born free, sin having no dominion over this new
creature (cf. Rom 8:1-2; Rom 6:14).
The redemptive work of God is not a regeneration of immortal souls doomed to
hell, but the “renewing” of the creature through a second birth,
the creation of a new life within the tent of flesh of the old self. And
because sin has no dominion over these new creatures in their fleshly tents
[i.e., human beings who have been called-out of this world], these called-out
ones are today under judgment, with their judgments to be revealed (1 Co 4:5)
upon Christ’s return … Jesus said those who hear His words and
believe the One who sent Him do not come under judgment, but pass from death to
life (John 5:24). He also said not to be surprised when some are called forth
from death to life, and some are called to condemnation (vv. 28-29). For the new creature that returns to sin when sin has
no dominion over this new creature spurns the mercy extended by a second birth,
and thereby mocks both the Father and the Son. There is “no condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). This person has been set free from
disobedience [the law of sin and death], and can now live by the commandments
of God, which before, while the person was consigned to disobedience, was not
possible. The person was not previously able to present his or her members to
God as instruments for righteousness (Rom 6:13), for sin had dominion over the
person (v. 14). And again, this is
what many disciples see in siblings, in sons or daughters, in parents—sin
has control of the person, who might well want to do what is right but just
cannot. What about the loved one who is a drunkard, a drug
addict, a habitual thief, an addicted gambler? Is this person automatically
doomed to the flames of hell? No! This person will have paid the penalty for
his or her sins with the person’s physical death. When he or she is
resurrected in the great White Throne Judgment, the character of the person
will come under judgment, not the acts of the flesh for which the death penalty
has already been paid. And the character of the person will be like one or the
other of the two thieves crucified with Christ at The redemptive work of God is about setting free human beings who have
been consigned to disobedience because their father (however many times
removed) is the first Adam, but this work is not that of human beings. No
person can force the Father to draw a person from the world and give to this
person a second birth. And unless the Father draws the person, he or she
remains consigned to disobedience. The dogma of visible Christendom would have the
born of Spirit disciple free from having to keep the commandments of God,
thereby making this disciple an unwitting bondservant of sin, whereas the
“law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2) sets a person
free to keep the commandments of God. Christendom’s
prevailing dogma is exactly opposite of what the Apostle Paul taught. Disciples
are not set free to transgress the law, but set free to keep the law. Obedience
equals life. Disobedience is sin, which equals death. Disciples have been set
free from sin and death so that they can choose life, which comes through
obedience by faith to God. … The fate of the disciple who chooses
death—who chooses to take sin back inside him or herself when liberated
from sin—is the lake of fire, where the person will be reduced to ashes.
After all, even the fate of the anointed cherub in whom iniquity was found
[Satan] is to become ashes under the feet of the saints (Ezek 28:18-19). The expression in Greek that is translated as
everlasting or ever-burning fire means from “age-to-age,” or “until
the end of the age” fire. The disciple who has done evil will be cast
into the lake of fire when Christ returns—and when Christ returns is at
the end of this present age. So the disciple will not be long in the flames of
hell, but will perish quickly. Likewise, the person resurrected in the great
White Throne Judgment will be resurrected just before the coming of the new
heavens and new earth. The person judged unworthy when the books are opened in
the great White Throne Judgment will not be long in the flames of hell, for
this person will also have been resurrected at the end of the age to begin with
Christ’s millennial reign. The redemptive work of God is simple: Jesus said,
‘“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets;
I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them’” (Matt 5:17).
One reason He came was to demonstrate that when a person is not born into
bondage to disobedience [Jesus’ Father was Theos, and was not a descendant of the first Adam], the person can
live by the commandments of God. And when liberated from bondage to sin, the
person is liberated from death. Twice born means that the person has two lives, one
that animates the flesh [the birth by water], and the other that is of Spirit
that has come from heaven as a type of the man Jesus coming from heaven. The
mystery that the Apostle Paul did not understand (Rom 7:15) is that the flesh remains
in bondage to disobedience until the Second Passover. The new creature born of
Spirit and domiciled in the tent of flesh is born liberated from disobedience
and is born free to keep the law of God, but the tent of flesh does not enter
the womb a second time (Nicodemus’ question) to be born again. The tent
of flesh remains as it was when the new creature is born into this
tent—the new creature is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, bond nor
free (Gal 3:28); yet the tent of flesh remains male or female, Jew or Greek,
bond or free. The new creature is not the
tent of flesh. Nor is this new creature the regeneration of an already
existing immortal soul dwelling within the person. Rather, this new creature is
what Paul claimed it was, a son of God, born of Spirit (composed of Spirit),
that has come from heaven and will return to heaven at the person’s death
as a human being’s physical breath returns to being wind at death. The above is a hard analogy to initially
understand: a person is born with no life other than that which comes through
physical breath. Everlasting life is the gift of God (Rom 6:23), and not
something inherited from a physical father. Adam and Eve were expelled from the
Garden of Eden before they ate of the Tree of Life. So no person has
indwelling eternal life prior to receiving it from God the Father through
Christ Jesus; for Jesus told Pharisees that God raises the dead and gives them
life (John 5:21), with the Pharisees then hearing Jesus speak being counted as
dead. So when a person is drawn from this world by the Father (John 6:44, 65)
and called by Jesus (John 15:16), the person receives a second birth in the
form of receiving the Holy Spirit, the divine Breath of God [B<,Ø:" ž(4@<], which has come from heaven to raise the person
from the dead, or from lifelessness. Jesus must still give life (again John
5:21) to the person to whom the Father has already given life, with this second
giving of spiritual life coming when the mortal flesh puts on immortality. So
being born of Spirit will not automatically get a person into heaven;
rather, being born of Spirit simply means that a new creature, composed of
Spirit, now dwells within the mind and heart of the person. And judgment is on
the new creature (1 Pet 4:17) who is of the household of God. Judgment is not
today on the sons of disobedience for they have no life in the heavenly realm,
and in this earthly realm they are subject to the magistrates of this world.
Only when these sons of disobedience are resurrected from death through a
second birth in the great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20:11-15) will they come
under the judgment of God. At that time, “all who have sinned without the
law will also perish without the law” (Rom 2:12), whereas those
“who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires … show
that the work of the law is written on their hearts” (vv. 14-15) so that their consciences
will accuse and excuse them when “God judges the secrets of men by Christ
Jesus” (v. 16). Again, no person is born physically with an
immortal soul. The teaching that human beings possess immortal souls entered
Christendom as a borrowed concept from Greek paganism, but this concept is now
so ingrained into the psyche of Western Christendom that it cannot be easily
returned to paganism. Therefore, it will become a “test” concept
used by the Antichrist to separate genuine disciples from false Christians when
the world professes to be “Christian.” It has all along been a
“test” used by God to separate the wicked from the righteous. Today, the new creature dwelling in a tent of flesh
must wrestle against the tent as if fighting its way out of a paper bag. It
must strive against the indwelling law of sin and death (Rom 7:21-25), and it
must ultimately prevail. Grace covers those times when this new creature loses
battles to indwelling sin. But if this new creature will not or does not fight
against this indwelling sin, this new creature will perish in the lake of fire. The fight into which the infant son of God is born
can be won, and has been won by Christ Jesus. But a disciple gives
Christ’s victory to Satan when the disciple makes him or herself a
willing servant of sin. In conclusion, the fate of disciples—remember
many are called but few will be chosen—who are under judgment today is
determined by whether they will be one with Christ as Christ is one with the
Father: disciples are one with Jesus when they walk as He did (1 John 2:4-6),
and they will imitate Paul (Phil 3:17), who, according to his testimony,
committed no offense against the law or the temple (Acts 25:8). They will live
as spiritual Judeans. The fate of the sons of disobedience is to be
resurrected in the great White Throne Judgment where they will, in about the
same length of time as it took the two thieves at Calvary to establish their
fate, choose life or death by uttering what comes from their hearts and minds,
with the ones who condemn themselves acknowledging that they deserve death.
This is what the second thief did, in addition to acknowledging that Jesus is
Lord (Luke 23:40) and believing that the Father would raise Him from the dead (v. 42). Until then, all who have died as
sons of disobedience await resurrection in the dust of the earth. * 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
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