To aid beginning fellowships in conducting weekly Sabbath services, The Philadelphia Church has instituted a suggested or possible selection of complimentary readings, with limited commentary and suggested hymns. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/readings.html The first of a series of selections about the role of women in the new covenant, considering their absence in patriarchal Israel. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/06-04-05R.html The second of a series of selections about the role of women in the new covenant, considering their absence in patriarchal Israel. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/06-11-05R.html The third of a series of selections about the role of women in the new covenant, considering their absence in patriarchal Israel. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/06-18-05R.html The concept behind this High Sabbath's selection is the nature of the Holy Spirit--it is suggested that fellowships have morning and afternoon services on the High Days; thus, readings for two services are grouped together for Pentecost. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/06-19-05R.html The fourth in a series of selections about the role of women in the new covenant, considering their absence in patriarchal Israel. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/06-25-05R.html The fifth in a series of selections about the role of women in the new covenant, considering their absence in patriarchal Israel. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/07-02-05R.html The sixth in a series of selections about the role of women in the new covenant, considering their absence in patriarchal Israel. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/07-09-05R.html The concept behind this Sabbath's selection, which interrupts the selections on the role of women, is whether tithing retains a part of the new covenant. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/07-16-05R.html Tithing is an act of faith that has solid Scriptural support. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/07-23-05R.html Disciples are today the firstfruits of God, the firstborn, from above, of spiritual Israel, the nation promised to Abraham that will eventually encompass all of humanity. When the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh, every human being will be a spiritual son of the patriarch. As such, disciples today are the spiritual reality of the tribe of Levi. They are the royal priesthood, a nation of kingly priests, or kings and priests, holy to God. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/07-30-05R.html Israel under Solomon forms the shadow of the Church in the Millennium, not in this present age. The Church is singularly and collectively the temple of God (1 Cor 3:16-17). So the temple/Church built in the Millennium is a beautiful building, but Israel under Solomon built for the king an even more magnificent house--and at the end of a thousand years, when Satan is loosed for a short season, humanity turns from God as Solomon when old turned from God because of his many foreign wives. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/08-06-05R.html Solomon's reign--and the peace God gave to Israel for forty years--anticipates Christ Jesus' millennial reign over the earth. At the beginning of this reign, Christ will marry the Church. So today all disciples are part of the Bride. If they keep their heads covered by the righteousness of Christ (i.e., the covering of grace)--the head of the Bridegroom is uncovered--and practice no hypocrisy for their righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees (Matt 5:20), then they will be glorified, adopted, and be one with Christ Jesus as a man and a woman become one flesh through marriage. Canticles anticipates what occurs to Israel after the Bridegroom and Bride marry. The relationship between He and She isn't idealized, but the reflection of what happens when words of love and devotion lose their meaning, the reason why Satan will be loosed for a short while after a thousand years. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/08-13-05R.html Again, the adult circumcised Israelite dwelling in a house in Egypt forms the lively shadow of a spiritually circumcised son of God dwelling today in a tabernacle of flesh in spiritual Babylon. For the individual, baptism equates to crossing the Red Sea--and the adult (the old man) who is baptized will not enter God's rest. The child of God born from above into the same tabernacle of flesh is now directly analogous to the uncircumcised child born into the tent of the adult who left Egypt. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/08-20-05R.html Remember, the essence of Christianity--the basis for the philosophical construct that represents the argument for Christianity--is that the disciple is not a body of flesh, or the flesh, but is an entity born of God that is temporarily housed or domiciled in a body of flesh. Therefore, the person cannot be defined as the body. The flesh is no more than an earthenware vessel, or a building of common stone. The disciple is a priest of God and an actual child of God that lives for a season (while maturing) in a humble physical abode that has no inherent life. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/08-27-05R.html Disciples need to realize that the teachings of historic organizations, particularly of dogma developed in the 3rd through 5th Centuries, is askew, the reason the endtime Elijah must restore all things (Mal 4:5). Because false ministers had crept in among the sheep, a still persistent problem, disciples end up blown about by every wind of doctrine, for most doctrines seem correct to some disciples for a while. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/09-03-05R.html The question is thus asked and answered: what must a person do to receive eternal or everlasting life? A person must hear the words of Jesus, words that Moses also spoke, and believe those words by implementing them. The sacrifices testify of Jesus, who is their reality. The annual Sabbaths testify of Jesus, again their reality. And the journey from Egypt to Judea is the journey every glorified saint will have made. The person who stopped or stops along the way, or who looked or looks back as Lot's wife did will not be glorified. Just this simple. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/09-10-05R.html Are Natural disasters, such as Katrina, of God? http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/09-17-05R.html Again, are natural disasters, such as Katrina and now Rita, the result of God's hand? http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/09-24-05R.html What does it mean to know God? http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/10-01-05R.html Feast of Trumpets http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/10-04-05R.html Knowing God through the prophecies of Jeremiah. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/10-08-05R.html One of the occasions when every Israelite, natural and spiritual, has the chance to show the Father and Son that he or she loves God more than the person's own flesh is through fasting--no food and no water--on the day that symbolically represents judgment, the Feast of Atonement. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/10-13-05R.html Knowing God through the writings of the prophet Ezekiel. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/10-15-05R.html Tabernacles is the roadmap that the holy nation of God follows from mortality to immortality. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/10-18-05R.html Knowing God through the writings of the prophet Ezekiel, part 2. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/10-22-05R.html Knowing God through the writings of the prophet Ezekiel, part 3. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/10-29-05R.html Knowing God through the writings of the prophet Ezekiel, part 4. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/11-05-05R.html Hell fire or the lake of fire. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/11-12-05R.html Advent - Being Born From Above. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/12-24-05R.html Rebellion against God - the great falling away. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/12-31-05R.html Many antiChrists. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/01-07-06R.html The AntiChrist. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/01-14-06R.html The AntiChrist continued. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/01-21-06R.html The Scarlet Woman of Revelation http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/01-28-06R.html The Basics of Typology http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/02-04-06R.html The Basics of Typology - Continued http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/02-11-06R.html Within a Hebraic poetic conceit is a natural element followed by its spiritual equivalent, but also within the conceit are paired thought couplets that move from natural to spiritual. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/02-18-06R.html Those who are teachers of iniquity--antinomian dispensationalists and all others who refuse to keep the commandments of God--will not sit as friends with those who walked in the ways of the Lord. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/02-25-06R.html Again, Jesus said that the only sign He would give of who He was would be the sign of Jonah (Matt 12:39-40). There is no ambiguity in the book of Jonah: the man who fled God was three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish before being spewed out of that fish to come to the men of Nineveh. And if Jesus was not in the grave for three days and three nights, He doesn't qualify as the Son of Man as He established the basis for condemning the generation that would kill Him. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/03-04-06R.html Salvation has come to the nations, but those who are called will not mentally remain where they were. They will, instead, mentally relocate themselves to Judea, i.e., God's rest - from Ps 95:10-11, where they will live as spiritual Judeans. If they mentally remain in the Wilderness of Sin, or if they mentally rebel in the Wilderness of Paran, taking to themselves Egyptian wives, marrying lawlessness, sin, they will never enter into the heavenly realm. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/03-11-06R.html King David understood the relationship between Yahh and the Most High Lord God, the Ancient of Days--again, David was a man after Yah's heart. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/03-18-06R.html The readings and commentary are more extensive for this week and next than will be usual; for the following will most likely be new and unfamiliar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath's selection is the sacraments. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/03-25-06R.html The readings and commentary are more extensive for this week and next than will be usual; for the following will most likely be new and unfamiliar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath's selection is discipleship. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/04-01-06R.html The readings and commentary are more extensive for this week and next than will be usual; for the following will most likely be new and unfamiliar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath's selection is discipleship continued. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/04-08-06R.html The concept behind this High Sabbath's selection is the nature of the Holy Spirit--it is suggested that fellowships have morning and afternoon services on the High Days; thus, readings for two services are grouped together. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/1UB.html The readings and commentary are more extensive for this week and next than will be usual; for the following will most likely be new and unfamiliar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath's selection is predestination continued http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/04-15-06R.html The readings and commentary are more extensive for this week and next than will be usual; for the following will most likely be new and unfamiliar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath's selection is the wave sheaf celebration. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/wavesheaf.html The readings and commentary are more extensive for this week and next than will be usual; for the following will most likely be new and unfamiliar observations. And the concept behind this High Sabbath's selection is the coming of the Messiah--it is suggested that fellowships have morning and afternoon services on the High Days; thus, readings for two services are grouped together. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/2UB.html 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 discipleship. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/04-22-06R.html The false prophets of the splintered Churches of God would have the modern descendants of Joseph being the chosen people of Israel, but that is not the case (vv. 67-72). David shepherds in the heavenly realm. Until then--for David remains in the grave--the shepherds come from spiritual Judah, not a geographical land, but a mental typography that has disciples living as spiritual Judeans in the Jerusalem above, a heavenly city peopled by those who live by the laws of God written on hearts and minds. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/04-29-06R.html Thus, the Law of God inscribed on stone tablets extends through John the Baptist, but moves inside to be inscribed on tablets of flesh once the last Adam is created by the joint acts of Theos [Him coming as the man Jesus] and Theon [giving life through His Breath to Jesus]. The law or commandments do not cease to exist. The stone tablets, though, are replaced by the same commandments being spiritually written on hearts and minds. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/05-06-06R.html If there is no growth, no learning of obedience, then there is no overcoming of the flesh; there will be no glorification. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/05-13-06R.html The good news that must be taken to the world as a witness to all nations is the message that all who endure to the end shall be saved (Matt 24:13-14). The other side of this message is that all who look for physical salvation as the first thief on the cross did (Luke 23:39) will die physically as well as spiritually. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/05-20-06R.html What occurred year by year to or for the natural nation of Israel happens once for the spiritual nation. However, this spiritual nation exists as twins in the womb of the last Eve, with one son hated, one loved. The hated son will slay his righteous brother, leaving Abraham without seed if the third part of humanity doesn't become that single nation descended spiritually from the patriarch. And for this second spiritual Israel, foreshadowed by a second physical Israel crossing the Jordan, liberation from sin and death will occur when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/05-27-06R.html The Sabbath is never the time when disciples do their weekly shopping. It is never a time for buying and selling that does not give rest to the weary. And there remains the keeping of the "little Sabbath" (i.e., the weekly Sabbath) for the people of God (Heb 4:9) - the disciple who knows to keep the Sabbath and who does not condemns him or herself to the lake of fire. No covenant made with Death that makes lies [falsehoods] this holy nation's refuge and shelter (Isa 28:15) will save the lawless disciple. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/06-03-06R.html The giving of the Law from atop Mount Sinai in the third month, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit fifty days after Jesus appeared before the Father--both foreshadow the liberation of the holy spiritual nation from the law of sin and death that presently dwells in the flesh of disciples (again, Rom 7:21-25). http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/06-04-06R.html The relationship between natural Israel entering Egypt, going into slavery to Pharaoh, being liberated from this bondage, then marrying its Lord is analogous to humanity being consigned to disobedience, then being liberated from this disobedience, and following liberation, marrying its Lord, so that these two become one Spirit. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/06-10-06R.html The prophet Isaiah, when speaking of the natural nation of Israel also speaks of the spiritual nation when he says that despite having eyes and ears, Israel is blind and deaf. Never have any people been more unwilling to see, or harder of hearing than the endtime great Christian Church. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/06-17-06R.html The new creature, born from above, born of Spirit, is liberated from sin and death with spiritual birth, but the tent of flesh in which this new creature, an actual son of God, dwells remains under the righteous requirement of the law. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/06-24-06R.html In explaining the parable of the tares to His disciples, Jesus said, '"The harvest is the close of the age--just as weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age."' http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/07-01-06R.html Every disciple has the choice offered to him or her of life or death, good or evil. And once the disciple makes his or her decision, God shapes the person into a vessel appropriate to the disciple's choice. Nothing will separate the disciple who has chosen life from the love of God. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/07-08-06R.html Christianity has struggled with predestination; for Scripture affirms both free will and determinism. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/07-15-06R.html By faith, the person who is physically circumcised or uncircumcised must become spiritually circumcised, which is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter (Rom 2:29). http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/07-22-06R.html A fundamental doctrinal schism separates a minority of the endtime Christian Church from the far larger majority: this schism is over the day on which disciples are to worship God. Sunday? Or Saturday? And for most fundamentalist denominations, the linguistic referent /Sabbath/ is attached to the day of worship. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/07-29-06R.html Scripture or the Sacred Writings to which the Apostle Paul referred was not the Bible that 21st-Century Christians read. Rather, it was the Old Testament in, probably, Greek [i.e., the Septuagint]. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/08-05-06R.html The subject of salvation is truly central to Christianity, for the claim of Christianity is absolute exclusivity: by no other name than that of Christ Jesus can a person be saved. But Christians cannot agree concerning even how this name should be said, or pronounced, or replicated, let alone over larger issues such as Law and Grace. If anything, Christianity is a divided house that, using the authority invested in the Disciples, has condemned most of the house to hell. Thus, the principles underlying salvation through the name Christ Jesus have somehow been overlooked in the marketing of a theologically lite faith that is long on praise music and short on Bible study. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/08-12-06R.html Common sense would tell a person that camping in the middle of a bear trail is not wise. This same common sense should also tell a disciple that if it isn't lawful for the disciple to murder someone, or to steal, or to bear false witness, or to commit adultery, or to covet, or to disrespect mother and father, then it isn't lawful to ignore the Sabbath that is to be remembered. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/08-19-06R.html Without a journey of faith comparable with Abrahams, no heart will be cleansed. The young person will be a Christian in name only, and within a very few generations, the fellowship will be spiritually dead or back in Babylon, singing praises to its king. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/08-26-06R.html The Apostle Paul in a narrative flow about authority transforms intangible love into being the "thing" that Roman converts should give to one another, citing this love as the fulfilling of the commandments, with this love becoming the exchangeable gift that bound together a new culture within an existing society while establishing authority to rule in this new culture. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/09-02-06R.html The two Theos and Theon, from the beginning, functioned as one until Theos entered the creation to finish creating the Way to everlasting life. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/09-09-06R.html Korah doubly missed the point: (1) being holy is an ongoing activity, the way Israel was to live, and (2) Moses and Aaron were chosen by God for the positions they were in, with the two of them together representing YHWH Israel's Elohim, Aaron the spokesman [the Logos] and Moses like God [Theon] to Aaron. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/09-16-06R.html Being holy is an action, not an inherited state. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/09-23-06R.html If the choice remains yours to be made, choose life. Choose to keep the precepts of the Law by faith. Choose to walk as Jesus walked. Choose to live as a spiritual Judean. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/09-30-06R.html Atonement is the day [Yom] of coverings [Kipporim - note the plural "im," which is proper]. Two coverings are needed, the first for sin in this world: the goat sacrificed on the altar. The second covering is needed for sin in that portion of the heavenly realm within the void created when lawlessness was found in an anointed cherub. This second covering is represented by the Azazel goat, the scapegoat, led into the wilderness by the hand of a fit man, and this second covering is Grace, the righteousness of Christ Jesus that disciples put on daily as a garment. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/10-02-06R.html What apparently cannot be helped is that most Christians--by far the vast majority--have never worshiped either the Father or the Son in truth, but have worshiped instead the trace of Christianity that has been tracked as mud onto the pure paganism of Apollonian and Dionysian cults. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/10-21-06R.html Visible Christianity is lawless; it voluntarily presents its members to sin; it serves sin. As such, visible Christianity has made a mockery of Paul's epistles through making itself the uncircumcised nation that does not keep the commandments of God; thus, it is directly comparable to the circumcised nation that did or does not keep the commandments--and if circumcision of the lawless person causes this person to be condemned by the law, birth by Spirit of the person who remains lawless causes this person to be condemned for his or her lack of faith. Yes, unbelief or willful disobedience by the person born of Spirit causes Christ Jesus to sculpt the person into a vessel of wrath to be endured for a season. And the foremost visible evidence of unbelief is the day upon which the person attempts to enter into God's rest. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/10-28-06R.html The Elijah to come came when the Logos entered this world as His Son, His only, to be the cornerstone for the house of God built as the restoration of all things--and this Elijah to come will come again as the capstone to this house when the restoration of all things is complete. Therefore, the Elijah to come is not a human being but the Son of Man, Head and Body, with the next visible focal points being the two witnesses, who will do a spiritual work foreshadowed by the physical work of John the Baptist. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/11-04-06R.html A marriage made between two spiritual corpses is not bound by God--neither spiritual corpse is an Israelite, circumcised of heart and mind. But the practice of marrying and giving in marriage that specifically typifies the world in Noah's day, and again typifies when the seven endtime years of tribulation begin stands contrary to the intensions of God. Endtime disciples are not to remarry and give in remarriage as the world does. A distinction must be made. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/11-11-06R.html A few disciples who are today of the hated son spiritual Esau will be like Caleb. Let those few turn from what is dishonorable and become vessels intended for honored usage by keeping the precepts of the law. They have been liberated from bondage to disobedience so that they can, truly, keep the commandments. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/11-25-06R.html Those who claim they work on the same terms as those whom God has actually called to a work will ask for donations, will ask to receive the tithes and offering of disciples, will ask to be supported--but those who ask are "false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ". http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/12-02-06R.html Too few keep the commandments, especially the Sabbath commandment which cannot be kept on Sunday. Too few value just how special they are to God, for if it were not for the sake of the Elect [disciples who keep the precepts of the law], the days of spiritual Babylon would not be cut short and no flesh would be saved alive (Matt 24:22). http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/12-09-06R.html The one who will be glorified in this world--and has been glorified in the heavenly realm--judges rightly, and has no fellowship with sexually immoral disciples, or disciples who are idolaters, revilers, drunkards, or swindlers. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/12-16-06R.html The Holy Spirit Pneuma 'Agion is the Breath of the Father; i.e., the Breath of Theon. It is an attribute of the Most High; it is an attribute of God the Father. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/12-23-06R.html The Father brings forth spiritual life in a tent of flesh; the Son gives to those tents of flesh deemed worthy immortality. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/12-30-06R.html If the dead are to bury the dead, then disciples who have been made alive through receipt of the Breath of the Father are in the odd position of placing God ahead of family, ahead of community, ahead of state and nation, ahead of social causes, ahead of military defense, ahead of financial considerations, ahead of work, business, recreation, and all of those things that sons of disobedience regard as important. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/01-06-07R.html The old written code does not pertain to those Israelites who are spiritually circumcised. The old written code is for those consigned to disobedience. But this does not mean that anyone who is of Israel can transgress the commandments of God. It means that these commandments have been internalized and remain in the same relative position to the new creature born of Spirit as the old written code is to the physically circumcised Israelite who awaits spiritual birth.recreation, and all of those things that sons of disobedience regard as important. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/01-13-07R.html An assertion will here be made that the return of a remnant of Israel from Babylon to Jerusalem in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah foreshadows and is a copy and type of a remnant of the Church leaving spiritual Babylon to rebuild the house of God in heavenly Jerusalem. This remnant of spiritual Israel was led by the Radical Reformers of the 16th-Century. This remnant has been historically identified as Anabaptists, but it was their non-participation in the governance of this world that signified their exit from spiritual Babylon, the single kingdom of this world over which Satan reigns as the prince of the power of the air. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/01-20-07R.html The Second Covenant, What is meant by Grace? Speaking the Father's Words, The Father's Confirmation of the Sabbaths of God, What is Sin? http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/02-03-07R.html The gates of Hades would not prevail against the Church, a statement that does not preclude the Church from dying but does preclude the Church from staying dead. So even though Satan took over the dead Body after it was buried in hell and called it the living Church of God, causing it to focus on the things of men rather than on the things of God, the Body of Christ was actually concealed in the heart of the earth. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/02-10-07R.html A person cannot walk as Jesus walked and live as a Gentile, cannot happen! Christianity as practiced by Jesus and taught by His first disciples is a fundamentalist sect of Judaism that has removed the Pharisees' emphasis on the physical and relocated this emphasis on the spiritual, with the laws and practices of Moses moving from the hand to the heart, from the body to the mind, from the outside of the cup to the inside. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/02-17-07R.html Before the second Passover will occur-when the Church is liberated from bondage to disobedience; when the dead Body of Christ is resurrected to life--the Church must experience enough to soften its hearts so that those who have already been born of Spirit can receive spiritually circumcised hearts, the circumcision they should have received long ago if they had made a mental journey of faith equivalent in distance to the physical journey the patriarch Abraham made by faith. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/02-24-07R.html Understand, to be submerged in water causes an air-breathing creature a nephesh to drown or suffocate from the inability to breathe; crucifixion causes a person to suffocate. Therefore, submersion in water--a baptism--is analogous to being crucified. In both cases, the person dies from his or her inability to breathe deeply. Thus, to be "baptized into Christ" (Gal 3:27) is to be crucified with Christ (Rom 6:6). Therefore, when the practice of full immersion baptism ceased, disciples ceased being crucified with Christ--and when disciples ceased being crucified with Christ, the Body of Christ ceased to exist. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/03-03-07R.html Where in Scripture are spiritual people addressed? Where is the beef, as the Cattlemen's television commercials of a few decades ago asked? Where is the meat, the real substance of what it means to be spiritual and spiritually minded? http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/03-10-07R.html The position of The Philadelphia Church is that the endtime Elijah who restores all things and who turns the hearts of the sons of God to the Father and the Father's heart to His sons is the glorified Christ Jesus. This endtime Elijah is not a human being, and is certainly not (as some who misuse the name Philadelphia claim) a dead human man who got prophecy wrong. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/03-17-07R.html Baptism is not unto life, but symbolically represents the immersion of the world in water--the Flood of Noah's day--and the loss of natural life that comes with drowning, the loss of breath [pneuma] that comes from the lungs filling with water. For Believers, baptism becomes the "death" that precedes judgment; for judgment is now upon the household of God (1 Pet 4:17). http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/03-24-07R.html Anyone who is sexually active outside of marriage is to be excluded from Christian fellowship, a tough and uncompromising position that comes from realizing that those who have been born of Spirit have no fellowship with those who have not been so born; that the person who has not been born of Spirit still has his or her mind set on the things of the flesh, and is at least passively hostile toward God. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/03-31-07R.html The midnight hour has not yet arrived, for lives have not again been given for the liberation of the Church from sin and death. But that midnight hour is not now far in the future. Rather, it is close. Humanity has entered the time of the end, a period that is a little longer than the seven endtime years of tribulation. Roughly, the time of the end corresponds to the practice of the remnant of Israel beginning to keep the days of Unleavened Bread when the paschal lamb entered Jerusalem on the 10th of the first month (this remnant started the seven day festival five days early, making for a twelve day feast season). http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/1UB07.html Christ Jesus will deliver you to Satan if you do not turn from your lawlessness, repent, and by faith begin to keep the commandments to the best of your ability. And everyone has the ability to put God first in all things, including in those things that you presently do on the Sabbath. You are a liar if you say otherwise. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/04-07-07R.html Again, two sons. One is today celebrating Easter. The other is either avoiding celebrating this day so as to not celebrate Easter, or is observing the Wave Sheaf Offering. The firstborn son of the Church will have assembled before dawn to observe the rising sun on a cold, snowy morning in much of North America, then dressed in its finery, will now be hearing a message about Jesus' resurrection, before it sits down to a ham dinner as families gather together on one of two or three annual occasions - what can be wrong with families getting together, this firstborn son will ask, little realizing that those who sanctify and purify themselves, following after one another, eating pig's flesh, shall come to an end together (Isa 66:17), for many will be the slain of the Lord when He comes (v. 16). http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/wavesheaf07.html Both the circumcised nation that left Egypt, and that nation's mixed circumcised and uncircumcised children who received the second covenant--a covenant made in addition to the Sinai or Horeb covenant (Deut 29:1)--were told to appear before the Lord three times a year. These three seasons were Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. But there are not three harvests of God: there are only two, with one represented by the barley harvest and with the other represented by the wheat harvest. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/2UB07.html The many who would have disciples worship God from a physical location or through a physical organization are those who would deceive disciples if they could (v. 26). But the anointing that is on all who have been born of Spirit actually causes all to have no need for a teacher (cf. v. 27 with Heb 8:11) -- those disciples who know God have no need for a teacher, but all who say they know God but do not keep His commandments are liars (v. 4). It is through keeping the words of God, living by every word that has come from the mouth of God (again, Matt 4:4), that a disciple's love for God is perfected. Therefore, the person, circumcised or uncircumcised, who will not by faith keep the precepts of the law (Rom 2:26-29) is a spiritual Greek, a Gentile, an alien in the house of God, a person whose citizenship remains in this world. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/04-14-07R.html As men cannot command other men to accept salvation, men cannot command women to become meek and quiet. A man can command women to cover their hair if these women want to fellowship with a certain assembly of disciples, but the person who covered against her will is only outwardly compliant. Only her flesh complies with the command to meekness. And the flesh will not be saved. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/04-21-07R.html The relationship that existed in the beginning between Theos and Theon was like that of a man and his wife, in that then two were one as far as natural Israel knew. The relationship was not a hypostatic relationship where one was atop the other so that the lower revealed the upper one. Rather, it was a side by side relationship in which two functioned as one, a relationship like that between Moses and Aaron, who was the spokesman for Moses. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/04-28-07R.html The linguistic phrase _a cult_ carries a negative stereotype of such enormous size that the stereotype alone will smother organizations that are not led by dynamic personalities, thereby assuring the continuance of the stereotype. Men such as Martin Luther, Menno Simon, and Herbert Armstrong would strongly deny that they are cultmeisters, but the _radical_ nature of their teachings produced bodies of believers that continued beyond their deaths to self-identify themselves by the name of the individual, or in the case of Armstrong, by the identifying phrase, Church of God. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/05-05-07R.html If there was one simple answer that could be given in every instance, life would be simple. . .there is actually a simple answer: the disciple who would be great in the kingdom of heaven keeps the commandments and teaches others to do likewise (Matt 5:19). http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/05-12-07R.html Paul addressed these things in passing as he laid the foundation for the spiritual temple, and one of the _givens_ that forms this foundation is that Jesus created all things, and that all things were created for Him. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/05-19-07R.html There is no favoritism with God: both the natural Israelite and the Gentile must, by faith, have his or her heart circumcised by Spirit. To teach otherwise is to make oneself into a false teacher and a false prophet. Circumcision by hands is meaningless in this era. The color of one's skin is meaningless. One's biological lineage is meaningless. One's social status is meaningless--all these things pertain to the flesh, and not to the new creature born of Spirit that dwells in a tent of flesh as a physically circumcised Israelite dwelt in Egypt in houses of clay bricks, or in tents of animal skins and fabric. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/05-26-07R.html The end of this age began immediately post Calvary. All of spiritually circumcised Israel has been living through one long spiritual night ever since, with the midnight hour of that night not yet occurring. The time of the end began when the plan of God could be understood, with this period not beginning any earlier than January 2002. The seven endtime years will begin when the death angel again passes over Israel, slaying all firstborns not covered by the blood of the Passover Lamb of God. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/06-02-07R.html The key of David is understanding typology--and no one or no organization has employed this key to the extent that The Philadelphia Church has. The Bible is an encoded book, but the code of importance is not a substitution of letters and of finding names and event dates closely clustered in the Hebraic text. The code of importance is the code unlocked by the key of David, with this key disclosing that there will again be a Passover slaughter of firstborns that can be likened to the slaughter of firstborns in Egypt when Yah set His hand to liberate a physical nation from physical bondage to a physical king. This second Passover liberation will be of a spiritually circumcised nation from bondage to sin and death. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/06-09-07R.html The two witnesses will not be initially recognized by Jew or Greek, Christian or Muslim; for they will not be in physical Jerusalem, but in a spiritual wilderness as John the Baptist was in a physical wilderness. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/06-16-07R.html The first defining characteristic of the _synagogue of Satan_ is that they say they are Jews, but are not. They lie when they say they are Jews. And the second defining characteristic is that they are of Satan, meaning they remain sons of disobedience, following the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2). http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/06-23-07R.html The task of the shepherds of Israel is to bring back into the light the one who has wandered away; the task of the watchmen is to warn the sheep and the shepherds when wolves or thieves are about to prey upon the sheep. But there was not a watchman to warn Israel that the Adversary slithered into the sheep pen and slew more than are left alive--the carnage is self-evident. Nevertheless, the slain of the Serpent will be few compared to the slain of the Lord if Israel does not heed the warning that a second Passover slaughter of firstborns will occur. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/06-30-07R.html 1. All who came before Jesus were hirelings, or servants. 2. The good shepherd sacrifices himself for the sheep. 3. The good shepherd has more than one fold of sheep, but these folds will be brought together to be one flock with one shepherd. 4. The good shepherd knows his sheep and they hear his voice; the sheep do not follow other voices. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/07-07-07R.html That Jesus breathed on ten of His disciples, thereby directly transferring to them the Holy Spirit, is not insignificant; for according to the Mishnah, a new synagogue could be formed anywhere by ten male Jews. Thus, the ten upon whom Jesus breathed (plus others) were a newly formed synagogue that _with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer_. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/07-14-07R.html The change that occurs within the vision marks when John lives to see Christ's return by consciously entering the heavenly realm. This opportunity was not given to Peter, but it was apparently also given to Paul even though Paul was prevented from telling what he saw. Thus, John's vision has credibility even though it hasn't been understandable. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/07-21-07R.html To follow Jesus is to imitate Paul which will have the person living as a spiritual Judean and spurning the idolatry and lawlessness of the Roman Church and her errant daughters, all truly synagogues of Satan that claim to have the spirit of God but lie; for these communities remain in bondage to disobedience as evidenced by when they take the Passover sacraments. Peter condemns lawless communities when he writes, "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction" (2 Pet 2:1). These destructive heresies are firmly imbedded in denying that Jesus was three days and three nights [72 hours] in the grave; in denying that Jesus fulfilled the only sign He gave, that of Jonah. It is upon this sign, this rock that He built the church. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/07-28-07R.html The intertextual relationship between the Jonah account and account of Christ's resurrection now forms the basis for a hypertextual relationship to the Spiritual Body of Christ being resurrected from death after the third day, with this "third day" being day three of the Genesis one creation account. Thus, the conjoined intertextual realities of what has already happened forms the prophetic revelation of what will happen during the seven endtime years of tribulation, with this second text not now being an inscribed text but a text generated in the disciple's mind. When plants bring forth seed and fruit on day three, God declares the day good. It is only on day two, when no longer does anyone born of Spirit remain here on earth that God fails to declare the events of the day good. And through typology, a disciple can understand why God is not pleased with what occurs on day two. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/08-04-07R.html It is for the benefit of this person that he or she is baptized for the dead, the person being then dead; for following repentance and being baptized for the dead, the person will receive the Holy Spirit and will, if still alive when the second Passover occurs, be baptized by Spirit. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/08-11-07R.html After Jesus healed the man by the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, Jews sought to kill Jesus for not only breaking their Sabbath regulations but also for making Himself equal with God (John 5:18). And in the exchange that followed, Jesus told these Jews, "'Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you had believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words'" (vv. 45-47). Therefore, the following juxtaposition holds: the written words of Moses are visible representations of the invisibly uttered words of Jesus. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/08-18-07R.html Endtime prophecies are not about human kings or presidents; they are not about physical nations. Rather, they are about ideologies, about the mental state of human beings, about who rules these mental states or landscapes. They are about the Church and about what happens when those who are born of Spirit are empowered by the Holy Spirit as the Body becomes the Bride. They are about eliminating those who teach falsely or presumptuously. They are about the fall of spiritual Babylon and the rise of the Son of Man, Head and Body. And they are about the sacrifice of the Body during the first half of the Tribulation. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/08-25-07R.html The modern State of Israel is not the endtime nation of Israel, a nation whose rite of inclusion is circumcision of the heart instead of the foreskin--it is this endtime nation of Israel whose accuser is Moses that has now been taken in the act of adultery. Jesus does not condemn this nation, but commands that this nation go and sin no more (John 8:11). Sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4). Any lawlessness is sin. So this woman who would be the Bride of Christ must sin no more. She must cease her transgressions of the law, for no one, no nation can enter into God's rest on the following day regardless of repentance (cf. Num 14:11, 39-42; Ps 95:10-11; Heb 3:16-4:11). http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/09-01-07R.html Paul consistently addresses the Father and the Son in his epistles, while never sending greetings to the saints from a third personage--and Paul separates the Spirit of Christ from the Spirit of the Father, which is the Spirit by which the Father raises the dead (again, John 5:21). So for Paul, the Holy Spirit [Pneuma 'Agion] does not have personhood but is a force in the heavenly realm that equates to physical breath or wind in this physical realm. In the beginning God was two who functioned as one as if the two were married. The creation concealed the existence of the second entity from physically circumcised Israel even though the plural pronoun is properly used in Genesis 1:26 http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/09-08-07R.html Since those who are reading this high Sabbath message most likely keep/kept the high Sabbath day, it shall here be said that you brought yourself before God on the holy day. You may have also brought moneys, but those moneys are not your offering to God. You are. You presented yourself to God and whether knowingly or not, you committed yourself to being a servant of God for the remainder of your life. You have broken away from those disciples who, if glorified, will be gatekeepers and excluded from the presence of God. You presented yourself inside the temple for service. The heavenly realm is timeless: your service doesn't stop tomorrow or the next day. Once it begins, it continues forward through Christ's millennial reign and into the age beyond when all that is physical ceases to be. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/09-13-07R.html It is only those Sabbatarian Christians who have the spirit of prophecy (Rev 19:10) that will form the offspring of the woman that keeps the commandments (Rev 12:17). Therefore, the remnant goes beyond keeping the commandments and loving God. The remnant also understands prophecy. And no one who thinks physically can understand prophecy. No one who looks for a physical temple to be built in physical Jerusalem understands endtime prophecies about Israel. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/09-15-07R.html Traditionally, Judaism has used the singular form of the icon, Kippur; hence, calendars identify this High Sabbath as Yom Kippur. But this Day of Coverings appears in Scripture in its plural form. Two coverings--two goats covered the sins of Israel, not one. Both goats were the sin offering, not one. Both goats together represent the Lamb of God. One goat was sacrificed on the altar. Jesus was sacrificed at Calvary. And the other goat was lead into the wilderness by the hand of a fit man. Jesus was glorified and now sits at the right hand of the Father, sits across the precipice of crossing dimensions and having entered the heavenly realm. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/09-22-07R.html The sign of Jonah will be a sign of turmoil and tribulation when the spiritual Body of Christ is resurrected from death on the third day. Jesus will not have brought peace to this world, but a sword. He will have set a man against his father (especially if this man makes a journey of faith into Sabbath observance) and a daughter against her mother (Matt 10:34-35). And this time of trouble is apparent in the sign of a red sky being analogous to the sign of Jonah. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/10-13-07R.html Endtime sons of the prophets are those Israelites who have circumcised hearts as _the sons of the prophets_ in the 1st-Century CE were physically circumcised Israelites (Acts 3:25). And as Peter preached repentance to these 1st-Century sons of the prophets, servants of the endtime Elijah will, as John the Baptist did, preach repentance to the endtime Church, which is today more concerned about calendar issues than making disciples for Christ. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/10-20-07R.html In the wilderness, Israel grumbled about receiving manna and called it worthless food. Today, Christians call eating the Passover [i.e., taking the sacraments on the night that Jesus was betrayed] worthless food. Yes, they do. By taking the sacraments on any night but the 14th of Abib, they spurn Grace; they spurn the covenant poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/10-27-07R.html Simeon was awaiting the salvation of Israel, not a prize for finishing in second place. Yet Simeon's prophecy about Jesus when he took the child in his arms placed Israel in the second position: "'[M]y eyes have seen your salvation / that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, / a light for revelation to the Gentiles, / and for glory to your people Israel'" (vv. 30-32). http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/11-03-07R.html No one of endtime Esau, the hated son, shall be spared. God will not have pity on any, regardless of how well they sing praises to Him or create websites dripping of blood. If the disciple will not sigh and cry about the abominations committed within and without the Church, then the disciple is of the hated son. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/11-10-07R.html The factions of yesterday have developed into endtime denominations, leaving the factions of today to stew in a caldron of discord as supporters of this ministry and supporters of that ministry--like negatively and positively charged radicals in a chemical solution--gravitate toward this pole or that pole, with the most active radicals clinging to each other and weaker radicals left to hold hands as the broth simmers, bubbling and splattering as it thickens. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/11-17-07R.html The kingdom of this world is not given to Christ many times, but once. When the stone cut without hands (Dan 2:45) breaks to pieces the metal kingdoms of the image Nebuchadnezzar saw, the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed and a kingdom that shall not be left to others. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/11-24-07R.html The pattern of disciples sending tithes and offerings to a distant administrative headquarters is of Satan, not God. Those who hold to this practice are doomed to failure. The splintering of the former WCG should have been example enough to cause the model to be abandoned, but apparently not so. Apparently more disciples need to be burned; more disciples need the prosperity that comes from giving into a dead ministry, or to an imaginary school or phantom orphanage. Instead of doing a local work with local funds, those disciples trained by the senior Armstrong to send moneys to headquarters will, as if Pavlov's dogs, continue to send their tithes and offerings to a far-removed headquarters, where good salaries have to be paid so that ministers can live as imagined kings. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/12-01-07R.html 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. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/12-08-07R.html It is past time to end the teaching of what is false even if the concept of God is one but consists of multiple entities is seemingly too difficult for beginners to understand. And it is certainly past time to end assigning personhood to the Holy Spirit, and to end denying that the pre-existing Son is the Creator of all that is. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/12-15-07R.html 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. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/12-22-07R.html It has been said of Brigham Young's football team that when they play a game in Las Vegas, they each take the Ten Commandments and a ten dollar bill with them, and bring back both unbroken. Unfortunately, this is simply not true, for they break the Sabbath commandment with most every collegiate game they play. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/12-29-07R.html Understanding holiness, righteousness, and the new covenant begins with eagerly seeking to live by every word uttered by God, with these words forming even the material tent of flesh in which the born of Spirit son of God now temporarily dwells. Understanding does not come from wading through impenetrable theological dissertations, and hacking away obscure constructs on which rest many words, each a mosquito carrying malaria. Rather, understanding comes from hearing the voice of Christ Jesus, with His voice inscribed in Scripture as they are imbedded in the things that have been made when He spoke the world into existence. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/01-05-08R.html There is nothing a person believes that does not come from faith, with the person only partially able to perceive the quality of the faith establishing this thing or that thing. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/01-12-08R.html Those hundred plus thousand disciples who once had a little knowledge thanks to Armstrong but who have rejected what they had, from them will be taken salvation. They no longer have any knowledge to lose; they have only their spiritual lives. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/01-19-08R.html So Judah was all of Israel that remained in the Promised Land when Nebuchadnezzar surrounded Jerusalem--the spiritually lifeless shadow of the Christian Church--was, indeed, an uncircumcised nation as the prophet Jeremiah declares. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/01-26-08R.html The rest of God is heaven. Entering the rest of God is entering heaven. The natural type of this rest is entering Judea [Canaan, the Promised Land]. The spiritual type in this era of entering into God's rest is Sabbath observance. Christ's Millennium reign over the earth will be from the heavenly realm and the last shadow of entering heaven. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/02-02-08R.html The foundation that Armstrong laid is now charred rubble, his work having gone up in flames when tried by fire. Only work constructed on the foundation Paul laid will stand--and this work of Philadelphia is built on Paul and Christ Jesus. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/02-09-08R.html As long as Christ dwells in disciples, these disciples are with the Bridegroom. The Comforter has not been sent from the Father, has not come to disciples. But the time will come at the beginning of the seven endtime years of tribulation when the Bridegroom is taken from disciples by the Father. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/02-16-08R.html If the human body is composed of the dust of the earth (of base elements) as are the bodies of beasts (Eccl 3:18-20), then do the bodies of beasts not suffer complete annihilation, the logical extension of what Augustine taught? That would be his argument, except that Augustine also wrote, _A great thing is man, made in the image and likeness of God, not in that he is encased in a mortal body, but in that he excels the beasts in the dignity of a rational soul_ (Bk. 1, XXII). So for Augustine it is the presence of an immortal soul that separates human beings from other breathing creatures. And because what Augustine writes is contrary to what both Paul and Solomon wrote, Augustine and his borrowed teaching about humankind having immortal souls must be rejected. Augustine must not be believed! http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/02-23-08R.html The theological landmines that explode regularly are fused with the assumption that for a "spirit" to speak or to testify or to teach, the "spirit" must be a living entity like an angel is. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/03-01-08R.html Christians do not know Christ Jesus. They have no idea He said that if Israel did not believe Moses' writings, Israel would not believe His words--if you do not believe Moses' writings, you will not believe Jesus' words, and if you do not believe His words--He spoke only the Father's words--then you have not passed from death to life, but remain numbered among the dead of this world, walking pillars of salt. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/03-08-08R.html After Jesus demonstrates obedience, so that this obedience can beget further obedience, He receives spiritual life from the Father. He creates at Calvary the path or way by which human beings born as sons of disobedience can receive life and obedience (the garment of His righteousness, Grace). He makes it possible for the Father to give life in His house to every person, thereby making all of His sons God. But not all who have been born of spirit practice obedience. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/03-15-08R.html If a person will believe Scripture, the person will never say that the Father created all that is unless the person also adds the qualifier, through Jesus Christ. It was the one who entered His creation as His Son that created all that is, then entered His creation as the light of day one. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/03-22-08R.html Jesus replaced the temple made with hands as the temple of God. Disciples who are one with Jesus have been added to this temple, thereby making each the temple as Jesus was and making them collectively the temple as New Jerusalem will be. No physical temple in present day Jerusalem can be the temple of God, or can have spiritual importance. So efforts to rebuild a physical temple are at best misguided; at worse, these efforts amount to open rebellion against God. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/03-29-08R.html Every fellowship has the same responsibility and authority as every other fellowship to establish a calendar and set the date for Passover observance (which is always on the dark portion of the 14th of Abib) on the Georgian calendar. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/04-05-08R.html The Passover meal is not eaten every week, but once a year for however many years there are until Jesus returns. The Passover meal will be eaten even after disciples are liberated from indwelling sin and death. But the Passover meal would never have been eaten with leavened bread, for the entire period in Judea was _unleavened_ or simply, the Passover. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/04-12-08R.html The Seder is a poor replacement for the sacrifice of a paschal lamb, and a doubly poor replacement for taking the Passover sacraments of bread and wine. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/04-19-08R.html Keeping the Sabbath of God sets a person apart from this world and is a sign that identifies the person as being of the household of God. But the "Sabbath" is not just the seventh day of the week: it is every day listed in Leviticus chapter 23. It is the weekly Sabbath, plus the three seasons a year when Israelites are to appear before the Most High. And the Sabbatarian Christian who will not come before God on these three seasons breaks the Sabbath just as surely as does the Pope. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/1UB08.html Under the second and eternal Sinai covenant, the Sabbath commandments includes the weekly Sabbath and the three times a year when all of Israel is appear before God--and this is what is seen in Leviticus chapter 23. The _Christian_ who does not observe the weekly as well as the annual Sabbaths breaks the Sabbath commandment, and is a transgressor. http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/04-26-08R.html