The Philadelphia Church

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 giving your life for what you believe.

Printable/viewable File

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.

___________________

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father." They answered him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did." They said to him, "We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father--even God." Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God." (John 8:31–47 emphasis added)

*

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. (1 John 2:15–19)

___________________

This is the season when the Western nations best express what it means to be of this world, what the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes represent as things of this world … whoever commits sin is the slave of sin, and whoever seeks the things of this world is the slave of this world. Whoever seeks the things of the world, the finer things of life, is not of God but is of this world, a slave of those things that the person seeks, beit wealth or authority or respect. A Christian is to seek first the kingdom of God, and if the Christian does so, there will be no time remaining in the day for the Christian to seek the presidency of the United States, or to pursue fame and fortune.

The Christian who seeks the kingdom of God will experience trials that severely test the person—

The following e-message was received this week from a pastor of Philadelphia in the Philippines:

Dear Brother —,

First of all thank you so much for your letter of concern and prayers toward us specially in this very difficult situation that we faced. I'm not email you immediately because after the typhoon and flood we experience total blackout, no power, no internet connections, and no cell connections.  

My Brother —, if you ask me regarding about our situation right now? After the deadly rain and typhoon and flood hit Mindanao our government here declares state of calamity and I am very sad to say that half side of our house was washing out by the flood because we are located in a river side and this time we are here in evacuation center ... while we were here in evacuation center we really need clean water because the water as of these time are so isolated because of the flood, and aside of clean water we also need food and even used clothing that we can wear. But anyway, our local government here are giving us some assistance but it is not enough with the numbers of evacuees. 

Brother the partial total causalities or death is 650 and thousands of homeless and the farm and the crafts are totally wash out … aside of that we have so many relatives and friends are very affected at these time… Please Pray for this major needs like food, clean water, and used clothing.

(Name withheld)

The Philadelphia Church does not have an infrastructure in this world, but has, rather, a common reading strategy for taking meaning/understanding from Scripture, meaning that Philadelphia has no focus on the things of this world which leaves it as an ideology unable to physically assist others in times of dire need. Those who are of Philadelphia are not asked to support a headquarters organization or a paid ministry; rather, those who are of Philadelphia, with only a single handful of exceptions, do not tithe or make offerings to those who do the visible work of taking the message/word of the Endurance of Jesus to the world. As a result, when a situation as is presently occurring in the Philippines happens, there is no ability to intervene except through prayer, which is at this time asked for those who are affected … there are about 15 members in the pastor’s flock at last report to us here in Michigan.

Also received this past week was an e-message from a pastor in Kenya who has a physically and spiritually hungry flock … such messages from East Africa are regularly received as updates of what is occurring in particular fellowships. And again, even simple support such as a printed draft of A Philadelphia Apologetic — 2012 cannot, at this time, be sent to these fellowship that depend upon rented time on the Web for spiritual feeding. These fellowships are on their own, and some spiritually starve. But there really is nothing more that Philadelphia can presently do. The resources are not available.

Also this past week was a national news story about children/teenagers in the Los Angeles school district throwing away healthy free school lunches because these lunches consisted of food items the students did not want to eat, items that the nation’s First Lady considered desirable … in a week during which Philadelphians in the Philippines need the basics for life, and when Philadelphians in East Africa continue their long struggle to obtain basic food stuffs, public school children in Los Angeles come to national attention for throwing away their free but bland, healthy school lunches, thereby creating an in-school black market for hamburgers and pizza.

It was the Apostle Paul’s desire to remember the poor:

Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery—to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)--those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. (Gal 2:1–10 emphasis added)

But Paul wasn’t in a position to do much beyond remembering the poor, for he was included in the poor:

For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. (1 Cor 4:9–13 emphasis added)

*

Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. (2 Cor 11:7–9 emphasis added)

The pastor in the Philippines hungers and thirsts, is poorly clothed, homeless, and asks only for prayers. He does not now ask for support … at one time when he was new to Philadelphian ideology, he did not know to not ask, for that is the way of visible Christendom in this world. But with trials and persecution from neighboring Roman Catholics, he has grown in grace and knowledge—and for his growth, he is being hammered by time and chance that happens to all men.

The Sabbatarian pastors in East Africa really don’t understand the concept of not asking fellows Christians for support, but asking God and trusting God to supply the Christian’s needs. A culture of dependency has long afflicted East Africa, but Philadelphia is not a colonial ideology: every Christian must work out his or her own salvation. And the Sabbatarian Christian who closes his or her hand to those in need is without love.

It would be better if nothing ever needed to be written about remembering the poor, or about being “fools for Christ’s sake … working with our own hands” and when “in need” not burdening anyone. Paul wrote to the holy ones at Corinth, “I do not write these things [about being in need] to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children” (1 Cor 4:14). Later in this same epistle, Paul wrote,

Do we not have the right to eat and drink? … Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? For it is written in the Law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain." Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. (1 Cor 9:4, 6–15)

The pastor in the Philippines will not die for want of food and water, but he and his rather young family will suffer, and will question God as to why God would let them suffer for what will be months running into years when the Adversary gives a nearly unlimited amount of food to the poor of America. This has been an issue with which Sabbatarian Christians in East Africa have dealt for a generation: why don’t Americans and American Christians do more to support their brothers in, say, Kenya? Why does President Obama live in the White House and hobnob with the one-percenters of this world when his brother lives in a Kenyan hut?

In the United States of America, it is difficult to go hungry regardless of what Social Progressives claim. The vast majority of the poor in America live pretty comfortable lives, but this will not continue for America has become the greatest debtor nation the world has ever known … America is on the edge of economic collapse. The full faith and credit of the United States of America is really of little worth in a time when America must borrow forty cents of every dollar it spends.

So why do taxpayers continue to fund public school lunch programs that are feeding children/teenagers affluent enough to turn down free lunches in favor of black marketed pizza slices. There is no real hunger in Los Angeles if new reports are true; for a hungry person will eat whatever is available to eat, and eat it quickly, not savoring morsels but virtually inhaling whatever is available: it is the forbidden morsel that is savored.

The person who has known hunger, who has known want, has prepared for tomorrow, and for next year, and for two or more years from now; for this person doesn’t believe that the world will continue as it has been going. This person knows better. This person knows that clean drinking water is not always obtainable as the Alaskan singer Jewel learned when homeless and living in her vehicle in a parking lot. This person knows that many of the weeds in roadside ditches are good food, that there are leftovers in the dumpster behind most restaurants, that the blessing of a Christmas food basket or box is not to be turned down. But this person is socially invisible in America where the children of the poor toss unopened cartons of milk and free lunch entrees into overflowing garbage cans, thereby supporting advocates for ending free school lunch programs. Regardless of what Social Progressives claim, America really cannot afford to throw unopened milk cartons in garbage cans.

America cannot afford the luxury—yes, luxury—of free lunch programs that are mocked by the ones the programs are allegedly intended to help … again, the person who has truly known hunger has already made provisions for surviving catastrophic events. It is the American who has never known real hunger that will be caught when the overburdened social safety net fails. And few in America have ever known hunger; so the soon-coming catastrophe that is sure to occur will tax the resolve of Americans who complacently go about their daily affairs as if the illusion of American prosperity will never deflate.

This week, this Sabbath, is a time when the poverty of Philadelphia interferes with remembering the poor … as multiple hundreds of millions shop for presents that will be mostly forgotten within a month, the need of Philadelphians worldwide—including in America—uproots the shallow faith of spiritual tares, and reminds the genuine that knowledge, itself, has a price that must be paid in this world.

The Apostle Paul placed no burden on the holy ones at Corinth, but Christ Jesus placed a burden on them that they could not pay … “But I [Paul] am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough” (2 Cor 11:3–4). The holy ones at Corinth did not long endure in the faith, but fell away; for their hearts were as closed to God as their purse strings were closed to Paul. And that connection cannot be long ignored, especially when a pastor of Philadelphia dwells in a houseless shelter—and this pastor had only recently completed constructing the fourth wall of the house he rented. For quite some time, he had been living in a house with a side open to the elements.

When so many scam-artists exist in regions such as East Africa, it is difficult to determine from a distance who is and who isn’t genuine. Because Philadelphian pastors do not place a burden on those whom they teach by asking for support, fellowships in regions of abject poverty have received no support from Sabbatarians in more prosperous regions … none could be extended because there was nothing to extend. Philadelphians in the United States are generally well-fed, but they are often poorly clothed and dwell in poverty. Many are elderly, living on Social Security, barely able to make ends meet. Some few work at good paying jobs, but are burdened by debt loads from which they cannot escape. In times past, they sought they good things of this world and they now find themselves enslaved by those good things; e.g., by house payments that are twice the gross income of Philadelphians on Social Security. Hence, they are unable to help their brothers in Christ when a crisis sends a pastor into a homeless shelter. Again, the pastor and his family will survive, but survive with questions about why God didn’t come to their rescue sooner—

Why did Jesus wait more than four days before going to Lazarus? Wait until Lazarus died and was buried for long enough decomposition would have set in (John 11:1–17)? Jesus could have come the first day … the glorified Jesus could have housed and fed the Philippine pastor before anyone in America knew that he and his family was affected by the typhoon that made news in America, but less news than free lunches in Los Angeles being tossed unopened in garbage cans.

Because the number of regular contributors to this work is only a handful, could the suffering of the Philippine pastor be used by Christ Jesus to expose a flaw in the mindsets of the many disciples that now share the reading strategies of Philadelphia?

Enough of this subject. In the time that it would take for a donation or a contribution to reach the pastor whose physical location is not now known with any certainty, the crisis will have eased. Food and water will be available. And the pastor’s needs will be like those of pastors in East Africa, with each having to trust God to supply from local resources those things that are needed to sustain physical life. It’s just that as Paul wondered whether he committed a sin in humbling himself by preaching God’s gospel to the holy ones at Corinth without burdening them, that same concern is present when a pastor of Philadelphia in the Philippines is reduced to refugee status and nothing physically can be done to help him. Something doesn’t seem right. But as Paul refused to change his ways, those of us of Philadelphia also refuse to mend our ways. It is between the individual and Christ Jesus how the individual spends resources entrusted to the individual.

*

The inner new selves of disciples cannot exist except through the indwelling of Christ Jesus as a vessel that has come from heaven and is thus able to contain the non-oxidizing, heavenly fire that sustains eternal life. In order for the dead, human inner self—represented by Terah, Abraham’s old man—to be raised to life, the seed of Abraham promised to Abraham as a blessing to all peoples of necessity must be Christ Jesus.

The transformation between a dead, physical inner self and a living spiritual inner self that is a son of God requires that Christ Jesus represents Abraham (cf. Gal 3:14, 16, 29), with the dead human inner self being represented by Terah … there is a sliding sideways and upwards in transitioning between Abraham and Christ Jesus, with Jesus representing both Abram and Abraham: the inclusion of aspiration, the <ah> radical, in Abram’s name has been an overlooked area for theological exploration.

Terah, Abraham’s old man who dies in Haran, represents the dead old self of every Christian, and Abraham represents the living new self that is of Christ, made alive from receiving a second breath of life—the breath of God [pneuma theon] in the breath of Christ [pneuma Christos]. Sarai will, now, represent the Christian’s fleshly body. And it was Sarai that entered Pharaoh’s harem, not Abram. It is the Sabbatarian Christian’s fleshly body that engages in transactions in this world. And Abram was not circumcised when Sarai dwelt in Pharaoh’s harem. The Sabbatarian Christian is not circumcised of heart when he or she continues to engage in the activities of this world.

For Christians, the desires of the flesh that drives the merchandising of Christ Jesus’ birth can be likened to the half-truth that placed Sarai in Pharaoh’s harem: celebration of the present holiday season reveals that the Christian trekked past heavenly Jerusalem on the Christian’s way to Sin/Egypt, with Sin being the demonic third horseman of the Apocalypse that buys and sells disciples as if they were commodities.

Jesus said,

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. … No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matt 6:19–33 emphasis added)

Is there a need to labor to support oneself? Yes, there is. The Sabbath commandment makes laboring for six days a week of approximately equal importance with resting on the seventh day (see Ex 20:9; Deut 5:13); for if the Lord had not labored, we wouldn’t be here today, either physically or spiritually.

In laboring for six days a week in this present world, transactions will necessarily occur … even Amish farmers buy horse collars and buggies and wood cook stoves from specialists that make these items. In this present world, making transactions cannot be avoided. However, there is a difference between making a transaction out of necessity and engaging in transactions as a way of life, such as stock traders or mutual fund managers do.

The farmer who plants a crop in anticipation of selling his or her crop, whether corn for ethanol or soybeans for export dances with both feet in this world; whereas the person who seeks first the kingdom of God, storing the person’s treasure up in heaven, will be as the subsistence farmer who plants in anticipation of eating his or her crop, of feeding the crop to the farmer’s livestock. When more is produced that can be consumed, the surplus is sold, with this farmer spending of that surplus only enough to obtain those things which the farmer cannot produce him or herself—this farmer is perhaps as close to living under his or her own vine and fig tree as it is possible to get in this present world.

The employee works to produce product or services for an employer that is part of this world; whereas the artisan craftsman farms the knowledge that he or she has, working six days a week to provide the mundane things necessary for life. Without taking a true ownership position in this world, the self-employed professional who works six days a week to provide the necessities for life does, without possessing land, what the subsistence farmer does, for most self-employed persons produce little more than subsistence incomes … yes, every self-employed person makes a practice of conducting transactions, but the person running the business—whether a pizza shop on Alaska’s west coast, or a machine shop in Illinois—isn’t engaged in the business to get rich, but simply to survive, hoping to someday be successful enough that he or she can retire and enjoy the fruits of a lifetime of labor. When this business person is a Sabbatarian Christian, the business usually becomes the only employment available to the Christian; for keeping the Sabbath excludes the Christian from the vocations of this world. Even a fishing guide in rural Alaska is expected to work on the Sabbath, for the guide’s clientele didn’t spend big bucks to come to Alaska to sit around one day each week. Likewise, when commercial fishing openings are regulated by the presence or absence of the fishery’s targeted species, the Sabbatarian Christian cannot serve as a crew member on a commercial boat unless the vessel is also owned by a Sabbatarian for the vessel will fish on the Sabbath if the targeted species is present.

Until a son of disobedience leaves spiritual Babylon and journeys into the Promised Land of God’s presence as Abram left Ur of the Chaldeans and journeyed with his old man to Haran, then on to Canaan—analogous to Sabbath observance by a Christian—the person doesn’t appreciate how the world changes when the Christian begins to keep the Sabbath … voluntarily keeping the Sabbath effectively excludes the person from the majority of those things that the world does and from many sources of employment, almost mandating that the person is self-employed, dancing with one foot in this world, one foot out. Hence, keeping the Sabbath causes most Christians to engage in making transactions at the subsistence level, thereby not permitting the Sabbatarian Christian from outwardly escaping sin. The Sabbatarian will truly be as Abram was when Sarai was in the harem of Pharaoh. And until the Sabbatarian is expelled from the realm of transactions as Abram was expelled from Egypt (Gen 12:19–20) — expelled through acquiring an unconventional lifestyle such as being a cannery’s winter caretaker, or expelled through retirement from the realm of transactions — the Sabbatarian dances toe in, toe out, with the realm of transactions.

One reason so many Philadelphians in America can do no more than they are presently doing when it comes to supporting the work of Philadelphia is that they are elderly: they have been expelled through retirement from the work force, and their only source of income is Social Security benefits. Hence, placing any burden on them is wrong, which means that the work of Philadelphia will continue without worldly compensation being paid to anyone.

The faith that it takes to work without being paid a wage and to continue to trust God to supply the Sabbatarian Christian’s needs is greater than most Christians possess—and will seem to border on insanity … why work if not being paid? Why try? Why not beg—in Western nations, why not apply for public assistance? If the Sabbatarian works without being paid a wage, would this Christian’s time not be better spent trying to find a job that did pay a living wage?

Now the dilemma: how better can the Adversary return a Sabbatarian to sin than to cause the Sabbatarian to seek first the kingdom of God and to not work six days a week? … If the Sabbatarian trusts God to provide the mundane things necessary to supply the flesh but does nothing to supply these things him or herself, does the Sabbatarian truly understand God, the mind of God, or Scripture?

How does the Sabbatarian expect God to provide to him or her the mundane things of this world necessary for the support of the flesh if the Sabbatarian doesn’t work to provide for him or herself? Will not the Sabbatarian who does not work be homeless, hungry, poorly clothed?

Has the argument been defined too narrowly? Either seek first the kingdom of God and wait for God to supply the mundane things needed for life, or labor for six days a week to provide for oneself and seek God on the Sabbath if He can be found after ignoring Him the remainder of the week? Can a Sabbatarian seek first the kingdom of God and still labor with hands for six days a week … the contention of Philadelphia is that this position is the one to hold, seek and labor, always being in a praying state of mind, not worrying about profit or production but doing the best that the Sabbatarian can do physically while seeking first the kingdom.

The Sabbatarian who has a vocation that doesn’t allow him or her to seek first the kingdom and still make a living while working six days a week probably should change vocations, even if this means simplifying one’s life, and shunning peer pressure—the need to conform to the expectations of this world—that will keep the Sabbatarian from fully leaving Sin; peer pressure that will keep the Sabbatarian dancing, one foot in, one foot out, and around and around the Sabbatarian goes until they all fall down, far from God.

Before a Christian’s heart can be circumcised, his or her heart must be cleansed by faith, by a journey of faith equivalent to Abraham’s physical journey from Ur of the Chaldeans [Babylon] to Harlan [Assyria] then on to Canaan [the Promised Land], but again, Abram, didn’t stop in the land of Canaan but continued on south to the land of Egypt, the earthly representation of sin, where through a half-truth that was a full lie—She is my sister—Abram prospered as Pharaoh dealt well with Abram, giving him livestock and slaves before Pharaoh sent Abram away because “the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife” (Gen 12:17).

Abram, however, was not yet circumcised when Pharaoh sent him back to the land of Canaan. Likewise, a Sabbatarian Christian who has left the spiritual kingdom of Babylon and who has journeyed into the land of death where his old man remains, and who has then passed through the Promised Land on his or her way into sin where the Sabbatarian dances with one foot in this world and one foot out (represented by Abram’s half-truth), prospering because of the transactions in which the Sabbatarian engages—this Sabbatarian still does not have a circumcised heart. Only when the Sabbatarian is expelled from the world of transactions and returns to trusting God for the Sabbatarian Christian’s sustenance in this world will the Sabbatarian Christian’s heart be circumcised, which might account for why so many Christians whose hearts have been circumcised are elderly, retired because of their age, or in poverty and for whatever reason unable to successfully engage in transactions.

If the Lord had not afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues, Sarai would have lived out the remainder of her life in Pharaoh’s harem … if the Lord doesn’t afflict the Adversary, sending onto the Adversary great plagues with the tenth plague being the slaying of all uncovered firstborns of man and the Adversary at the Second Passover liberation of Israel, Sabbatarian Christians would never leave the realm of transactions, but would continue to dance to the Adversary’s music, one foot in, one foot out, one foot in, one foot out, until they all fall down into the lake of fire.

Because of an inward need and desire to make transactions for those things that satisfy the appetites of the belly and of the loins, Sabbatarian Christians can know with certainty that they have not yet been circumcised of heart, meaning that if they have been truly born of God as a son, they are a son that is spiritually younger than a Hebrew infant of eight days of age. They are true babes in Christ, able only to ingest milk. Spiritual meat will choke and kill them.

Yet some few Sabbatarians have been circumcised of heart—and all who have been are caught in the crossfire between the expectations of others and their belief of God: they want to believe, and they do believe, but they also have doubts. What if they are wrong? Have they wasted their lives, their chance for salvation? And this will be the mental landscape in which the Philippine pastor dwells for the next few weeks and months as he prays for physical deliverance and doesn’t see that deliverance happening even though he lives day by day with hungry children but without dying.

If the pursuit of salvation drives the Christian to do this or to do that, the Christian has not yet been born of God; for the Christian truly born of God will keep the commands of God out of love for God, not because the person expects some wages (such as life) for keeping the commandments. Salvation is a gift, and not a gift given to many. It is as unusual of a gift as Abraham was an unusual man. Yet it is the will of God that all be saved, but He isn’t going to call this all as foreknown and predestined sons. This all will be saved in the Affliction and the Endurance, and will be saved by spurning sin and doing what it right when obeying God will cost the Christian his or her physical life.

The Sabbatarian Christian who is, today, hungry, thirsty, poorly clothed, homeless gives his or her life over time—over thirty or forty or fifty years—to Christ Jesus, and is therefore analogous to the Christian born of God and filled with the divine breath of God at the Second Passover sacrificing his or her physical life sometime during the seven endtime years of tribulation … the pastor in the Philippines is today giving his life for what he believes—not giving his life as in dying physically but as in living by faith when it would be easier to return to Sin and Death as their bondservant. He needs the prayers of all who are of Philadelphia.

*

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."

---