Position Paper - The Philadelphia Church

Healing vs. Health Care

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Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.” (Ex 15:22–26)

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The Argument—

Death is the primary affliction that God placed on the Egyptians and upon all descendants of Adam because of the disobedience of this man of mud: within the scope and domain of death is every affliction that happens to human beings, for in worst case scenarios each produces the death of the person. The body will either overcome whatever afflicts the person by the natural processes incorporated in cellular reproduction, or the body will succumb to death. Eventually every body will succumb to death: the body that is composed of the elements of this earth will return to being dust. But when God the Father gives to a person a second breath of life, God “heals” a person of death and thereby indirectly heals the person of every physical affliction that can befall the person. However, although God gives to the person “life,” the body of the person remains subject to death; for a “person” is not the body in which either the old or natural self, or after receiving a second breath of life, the new self dwells as a person dwells in a house. Rather, the person is that inner natural self before receipt of a second breath of life, or the inner new self after receipt of this second breath of life that makes the natural self alive as physical breath gives life to the body of flesh. Therefore, the Christian who makes a journey of faith of sufficient length to cleanse the heart—this journey will have the Christian believing the writings of Moses and hearing and believing the words of Jesus—has a circumcised heart, with this inner circumcision producing a spiritual schism analogous to the schism caused by circumcision of the flesh.

Within Christendom are disciples who sincerely believe that they have been born of spirit when their minds remain focused on the things of the flesh, with this focus preventing them from submitting to the law of God. There are also disciples who have been truly born of God: their minds are not focused on the things of the flesh, and they submit to God’s law. Simply put, they keep the commandments. These Christians take no anxious thought about what they will eat or wear; nor do these Christians take anxious thought about the state of the tent of flesh in which this son of God dwells. The Father will provide those things the Christian needs to grow to spiritual maturity, with bodily trials being included in the things the Christian needs to achieve this son of God’s majority. To abrogate bodily trials through utilizing the medical profession may temporarily extend a person’s life, but usually is a humanly devised attempt to thwart the will of God. And while no hard causal relationship exists between faith and healings, the assumption of faith underlies believing the writings of Moses that leads to circumcision of the heart, with healings occurring as they are needed to advance the plan of God among believers and non-believers. Faith will not save the flesh, nor cause God to heal afflictions when it is not yet God’s intention to heal the person. There is no bargaining or negotiating with God as to when He will heal a person, but in giving to the person a second breath of life, He heals the person of any and all afflictions by insuring the person against death.

Those disciples who are of The Philadelphia Church are able to take care of injuries incurred by the tents of flesh in which they dwell, or they will endure the injuries until God grants them relief. If they seek medical attention, they do not sin. Nor shall their “faith” be judged by other disciples. Their actions reflect clear consciences. But no individual or civil authority holds power from God that would require these disciples to seek medical attention when they do not desire treatment for whatever ails the tents of flesh in which they dwell. Nor does any person or civil authority have power from God to compel these disciples to purchase healthcare insurance as a condition of possessing physical life. And it is this last declarative statement that must be understood within the context of delivering the words of life (Acts 5:20) to all people.

The Natural Self & the New Self

Christians contend that they have been born of spirit and filled with spirit when this is not the case, and it is demonstrably not the case for the person born of God will walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:3–6); will follow Paul as he imitates Christ Jesus (1 Cor 4:16; 11:1; Phil 3:17; 1 Thess 1:6); will become imitators of the churches of God in Judea (1 Thess 2:14), all of which kept the Sabbath. The person born of God and circumcised of heart will keep the law (Rom 2:26–27); whereas whoever makes a practice of breaking the commandments is of the devil (1 John 3:4–10). It is the doer of the law who will be justified (Rom 2:13). Although a disciple is not counted righteous by the works of the law, the disciple who is genuinely born of God will do those things that are right in the eyes of the Lord; for Jesus said that whoever keeps the commandments and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of the heavens (Matt 5:19). And in a Christian culture that celebrates lawlessness [not being under the law], if disciples were (as they claim) truly born of God they would condemn themselves by their transgression of the Sabbaths of God, for in transgressing the Sabbath commandment they show that they are obedient slaves to sin, which leads to death (Rom 6:16).

To break one commandment is to break the law (Jas 2:10).

When cast from heaven, the dragon, that old serpent Satan the devil, goes to make war with the offspring of the woman, saints “who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (Rev 12:17). Satan doesn’t come after those Christians who do not keep the commandments: they are already his offspring (1 John 3:8, 10).

This position paper addresses only those saints who have actually been born of spirit as sons of God. Considerable text will be spent addressing spiritual birth, for the subject is not well understood by Christendom, with much of the Sabbatarian Church actually denying that they are born of God when they receive a second breath of life, the breath of the Father [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø]. This denial of spiritual birth, or of being born again, is especially prevalent among disciples of the former Worldwide Church of God, who hold the position that they are merely begotten of God when they receive the Holy Spirit [B<,Ø:" ž(4@<] … human beings who are begotten and not yet born do not drink milk: Paul writes to the saints at Corinth, “I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it” (1 Cor 3:2).

Adam prior to Elohim [singular in usage] breathing into his nostrils was a corpse that looked like a man and had all of the features of a man, but lacked life. Although the word “corpse” is usually confined in common usage to representation of a once-living person who has died, the word is appropriately applied to the lifeless Adam who had flesh on his bones and not-yet functioning organs in place before Elohim [singular in usage] breathed into his nostrils and caused Adam to become a breathing creature, a nephesh. So in the model of Adam’s creation that occurs in the dark portion of Day One[1]—the Logos [Ò 8`(@H] entering His creation as Christ Jesus is the “light” of Day One (2 Cor 4:6)—Adam exists in death before he becomes a breathing creature: for saints, death precedes life rather than follows life. Darkness precedes light. In a biblical day, night comes before the light or hot portion of the day. Turning or twisting away from the light [from God, as in the rebellion of the Adversary and his angels] precedes the hot portion of the day that comes with the rising sun. Hence, “there was the evening and there was morning, the first day” (Gen 1:5).

In the natural world light comes from darkness with the rising of the sun, and life comes from death when Adam received “breath,” used metonymically to represent the nature and personhood of a human being as well as the unconsciously-driven actions of the heart and lungs. The natural man is perishable. He is mud, the elements of this earth. Adam was sculpted mud before Elohim [singular in usage] breathed into his nostrils (Gen 2:7) and Adam became a breathing creature, a nephesh. He was a corpse, and he became a breathing creature, thereby forming a pattern or type that was repeated in the second Adam, the man Jesus of Nazareth, who received a second breath of life when the breath of the Father [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø] visibly descended in the form of a dove, lit, and remained on Jesus (Matt 3:16).

Because of a long history of heresy, misunderstanding, and poor translations, the Greek linguistic icon B<,Ø:" [pneuma], the root of pneumonia and pneumatic tools, properly translated into Latin as “spīritus,” meaning “breath” or the “breath of a god,” comes to English speakers from Latin as the mostly unaltered word “spirit,” which doesn’t mean “breath” in English. The root of the English word “breath” comes from the German word for vapors rising from a simmering pot: throughout the colder months in Germanic lands, human breath can be seen as a vapor, as miniscule water droplets, which is not the case in lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea.

The inhalation and exhalation of a human being, whether described as moving air or as vapors, is the same activity in Greece as it is in America and should be named by the linguistic icon of the particular language that best mimetically represents the act or names the thing. In Greek, B<,Ø:" represents moving air as in “wind” or in “deep breath.” Thus, an infection in the lungs in English is called pneumonia, the name borrowed from Greek as are many medical or scientific names. So the Greek icon phrase, B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø (literally, breath God) should be translated into English as “the breath of God,” and not as the Holy Spirit, to whom personhood has been errantly assigned. And even if B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø were used metonymically to represent God, this breath of God is separate from B<,Ø:" OD4FJ@Ø, the breath of Christ (from Rom 8:9). Both the breath of Christ and the breath of the Father are B<,Ø:" ž(4@< or holy breaths, but they are no more the same breath than the reader of this position paper’s breath is the same as the author’s breath—both the reader and the author are, presumably, human beings so both share the same breath that was initially given to Adam. Likewise, the Father and the Son [and the Logos before] are God [2,@H], which is the singular linguistic icon that represents the house of God as well as the Most High, the Host of Heaven, the Father of all sons of God.

In common usage, the name “Chanel” represents both the designer Coco Chanel and her design house, the “house of Chanel.” The name “Israel” represents the patriarch Israel and the nation that came from his twelve sons and the house of Israel, the northern kingdom of Samaria; plus, today, the modern State of Israel. In the same type of usage, the Greek linguistic icon Ò 2,`H is properly translated into English as “god/God,” which represents any god as well as the Most High God, plus the house of the Most High God. But the linguistic icon Ò 2,`H [the God] is not plural and cannot truly be the direct translation of אלהים [Elohim], which in Hebrew is plural but takes singular verbs when referring to the Lord interacting with the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s descendants, for Israel never knew the Father, and never realized that Yah was the visible[2] Spokesman for the conjoined YHWH, about which John writes (John 1:1–3). The icon Ò 2,`H is the translation of אל [El], written aleph-lamed, Strong’s #H410. Again, this Greek icon Ò 2,`H represents masculine, singular deity, and is properly translated into English as “God,” as is the Hebrew אל [El] properly translated into English as “God.”

The concept of God is one, has “one” representing unity as in Adam and Eve becoming one flesh. The Logos [Ò 8`(@H] who was God [2,ÎH] and was with the God [JÎ< 2,`<] in the beginning were one God as Adam and Eve were one flesh.

The theological blindness that prevented Jewish officialdom from recognizing Jesus as the only Son of Yah and as the First of the firstborn sons of the Father boldly entered into the early Church where it fought with Greek philosophers who detested all things Jewish. The truce that eventually emerged left Christendom blind, but believing that human beings possess immortal souls; that God is either one [the Arian heresy] or three in an unexplainable trinity; that the world was created in six earth days; and that the Roman emperor was God’s representative here on earth. The Church was not only blind, but as the Body was Christ, it was dead as Jesus’ earthly body was dead when buried for three days and three nights. It is still dead, and it will not “breathe” on its own until the Second Passover liberation of Christians from indwelling sin and death through being filled with and empowered by the breath of God.

Meaning should be taken from Scripture via typology; for the visible, physical things of this world reveal and precede the invisible, spiritual things of God (Rom 1:20 with 1 Cor 15:46). The image of man [adam, without the capital “A”], created in the image and after the likeness of Elohim, looking up at God as God looks down at man is a chiral scene, with chirality describing non-symmetrical mirror images such as the left hand being the mirror image of the right hand. The left and right hands are said to be enantiomorphs, with either hand being an enantiomer.

The “breath” that Elohim [singular in usage] breathed into the nostrils of the first Adam is the left-hand enantiomer of the “breath of God” that descended as a dove to light on the second Adam, the man Jesus of Nazareth. The life that comes from death—the life the first Adam received—comes first as breath received from Yah, the Logos [Ò 8`(@H], who, again, was God [2,ÎH] and who was with the God [JÎ< 2,`<] in the beginning (John 1:1–2). It is this breath received from Yah that animates the flesh and causes a person to physically live. It is this breath that King David had with him which he asked not to be taken from him (Ps 51:11).

The conjoined (as in marriage) Tetragrammaton YHWH deconstructs to the radicals “YH” and “WH,” with “H” representing “breath” or linguistic aspiration. The Hebrew Elohim is the plural of Eloah [in Arabic, Allah], which deconstructs to “El + breath.” Thus Elohim is Eloah + Eloah, with the multiple determined by the Tetragrammaton YHWH. … As Adam and Eve were one flesh through marriage (Gen 2:24), the Logos [Ò 8`(@H] who was God [2,ÎH] and the God [JÎ< 2,`<] were one deity in the plural icon Elohim and in the conjoined Tetragrammaton YHWH. But as Eve was not Adam, the Logos was not “the God.”

So there is no misunderstanding, the Son is of the Logos as Eve was of Adam; for again, the physical precedes the spiritual. The glory that the Son now has is the glory the Logos had before He entered His creation as His only Son (see John 17:5). The Logos who was God predates the physical, for He created all that is physical (John 1:3). Both His and the Father’s origins are outside of Scripture; so neo-Arian teachings that have Jesus being an angel or a brother of Michael and Lucifer before the universe was created are based upon extra-scriptural speculation and are false.

The Church is of the Son as Eve was of Adam—this is the right hand enantiomer of Eve coming from Adam, but the Son coming from the Logos is also a type of Eve coming from Adam, for with God and angels, human gender reflects permanent spiritual relationships[3]. Neither God nor angels have gender. The “femaleness” of women reflects the Helpmate role that the Logos as Spokesman had with “the God” [JÎ< 2,`<], the Host of Heaven. It is for this reason that “a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head” (1 Cor 11:10). For the sake of the angels, the Christian wife needs to show herself in the helpmate role that rebelling angels, created as sons of God to be ministering spirits, left when iniquity was found in an anointed cherub.

The Logos entered into death when He entered His creation: He could not enter as Himself, for as He told Moses, men could not look on His glory, on His face and live (Ex 33:20). He had to enter as His Son, His only Son[4], if men were to receive indwelling eternal life coming from receipt of the breath of the Father. So the Crucifixion makes visible what the Logos did in type when He entered His creation; hence, the fifteen or so hours between the resurrection of Jesus at the end of the weekly Sabbath and His ascension to the Father as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering were necessary for the physical to precede the spiritual, in that the only Son of the Logos would “live” here on earth in darkness before the First of the firstborn sons of the Father would enter heaven in the light.

To be born of water is to be born of the womb as a son [or daughter] of the first Adam. In Greek, the natural breath every son of Adam possesses is represented by the linguistic icon RLP0—psuche, most often translated into English as “soul,” whereas the fleshly body is represented by the icon FT:"—soma. So before receiving a second breath of life, every person is composed of RLP0 6"Â FT:" — [shallow] breath and body, or put into the usual Greek or English idiom, flesh and blood, with “blood” serving as the representation of natural breath since blood cares the oxygen molecules needed for cellular oxidation throughout the body. … Adam did not receive an indwelling immortal soul when Elohim [singular in usage] breathed into his nostril. Eternal life is the gift of God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:23), and doesn’t come through fornication in the backseat of a Chevrolet: Adam had no immortal soul, nor do any of his descendants have an immortal soul. The serpent told Eve that she surely would not die (Gen 3:4), and it is from this lie, repeated over and over again by the Adversary, that human beings have come to believe that they possess immortal souls. What human beings possess is an inner natural self that has no life of its own—it is dead, and is the dead [J@×H <,6D@×H] about whom Jesus said, Permit the dead [J@×H <,6D@×H] to bury the dead of themselves [J@×H ©"LJä< <,6D@bH] (Matt 8:22).

·       As a corpse (i.e., before Elohim breathed into his nostrils) Adam formed the visible shadow and copy, the left hand enantiomer, of the invisible inner natural self [Paul’s old man] that has not yet received life.

·       From the perspective of Christ Jesus, a person is dead until the person receives a second breath of life, the breath of the Father [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø]; thus the inner natural self is dead and constitutes the dead [J@×H <,6D@×H] who are to bury their own dead.

·       Receipt of a second breath of life was foreshadowed by Elohim breathing in the nostrils of the man of mud, but was seen in type when the breath of the Father descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove.

The breath received by the first Adam entered the corpse through his nostrils, whereas the second breath of life entered the second Adam behind the nostrils, or in His neck and shoulder area, about where a whale’s blowhole is located. Therefore as a sign, “Jonah” has much greater significance than the simple physical comparison of Jesus being buried in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights as Jonah was in the belly of the whale (great fish) for three days and three nights.

After Elohim breathed into Adam’s nostrils and Adam became a breathing creature [a nephesh], Adam as a human being formed the spiritually lifeless shadow and type of the invisible new self, thereby making visible what cannot otherwise be seen … a person’s natural breath can be felt, observed, even measured, but when “breath” is used as a metonymical representation of personhood as “the Whitehouse” is routinely used as the metonymical representation for the entirety of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government, breath [RLP0] represents those things about a human being that cannot be seen or measured such as human nature, and breath [B<,Ø:"] represents the crucified and resurrected inner self that is a son of God through receipt of the breath of the Father [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø] and the indwelling of the breath of Christ Jesus [B<,Ø:" OD4FJ@Ø]. Hence disciples, after receiving a second breath of life are of tri-part construction: pneuma, psuche, and soma (1 Thess 5:23).

Flesh and blood [FD> 6" "Í:" — from 1 Cor 15:50] cannot inherit the kingdom of God; the flesh will not cross dimensions to enter heaven. The “person” is not and cannot be the fleshly tent in which the inner self, natural or new, dwells.

The “life” breathed into Adam’s nostrils has been continued throughout the generations of Adam in the dark fire of cellular oxidation of simple carbohydrates. Adam had no other indwelling life. Again, he received no immortal soul when Elohim breathed into his nostrils even though he received so-called human nature when he began to breathe on his own … the non-physical components of a person—that which gives to a human being “personhood”; that which is metonymically represented by the Greek word RLP0—includes Paul’s old man, the involuntarily impulses that causes a person to breathe and a person’s human nature that is received from God and that can be taken by God from a person as King Nebuchadnezzar had his taken from him for seven years (Dan chap 4). These things cannot be directly seen, but they are indirectly seen in a human corpse that has lungs and a heart, and the shape of a person. No one will mistake a human corpse for that of a cow. Likewise, no one will mistake human nature for the nature of a cow; no one thought Nebuchadnezzar was in his right mind when he suddenly began to graze grass as an ox would. So in the shape of a human corpse, a person sees “personhood” even when the corpse lacks life.

Jesus gave one sign that He was from heaven, the sign of Jonah (Matt 12:39 et al) … when Jesus asked His disciples, “‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is’” (Matt 16:13), His disciples could not give a definite answer, but when Jesus rephrased His question and asked, “‘But who do you say that I am’” (v. 15), Peter said, “‘You are the Christ, the son of the living God’” (v. 16). Jesus replied, “‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah [E\:T< #"D4T<]’” (v. 17) —

Peter was not the son of Jonah [[T<], but the son of John [[TV<<@L] (John 1:42, also 21:15–17). When Jesus told Peter that the Father that revealed to Peter what could not be known by flesh and blood, Jesus identified Peter as the son of Jonah, with the movement of breath or aspiration going from in front of the nasal consonant “n” (in Greek, “<”) to behind the nasal consonant. This movement of breath is what’s seen when the breath of the Father [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø] descended upon Jesus as a dove: the inner self of Christ Jesus was made “alive” when the breath of the Father in the form of a dove lit and remained upon Jesus to fulfill all righteousness (Matt 3:15–16), with this fulfilling of all righteousness being the model by which sons of Adam would receive a second breath of life, the divine breath of the Father.

Jesus’ receipt of the breath of the Father caused His inner self to live as the resurrected Jonah received life while in the belly of the whale. For the duration of His earthly ministry, Jesus’ physical body was to Him as the whale [great fish] was to Jonah after the waters closed in over Jonah to take his life; after Jonah went down to the land whose bars closed upon him forever (Jonah 2:5–6). In the Logos entering His creation (John 1:3) as His only Son (John 3:16), the man Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:14), the Logos went down to the land whose bars closed upon Him; He entered into darkness, into death. Unless He was raised from the dead by the Father as Jonah was spewed from the whale, the Logos as His only Son, Jesus, would have been no more.

In His prayer shortly before He was taken, Jesus said to the Father, “‘I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed’” (John 17:4–5). The physical precedes the spiritual: Jesus glorified the Father before the Father glorifies Jesus. In glorifying the Father, Jesus did many works, with most of these works being healing of Israelites and Gentiles from afflictions. Jesus also delivered to Israel the words of the Father, but in speaking in figures of speech (John 16:25), Jesus uttered linguistic icons to which meanings must be assigned … today, by the calling of God, the Father’s meanings [linguistic objects] are being assigned to the words Jesus spoke so that “the word” [Ò 8`(@H] Jesus left with His disciple (i.e., His message) can judge, with authority, unbelieving Christians filled with the breath of God at the Second Passover.

The Father (the God—JÎ< 2,`<) sent His Helpmate, the Logos [Ò 8Î(@H], into this world that the Logos created; the Father sent the Logos, who was 2,ÎH (that is, who was also God), into this world as His, the Logos’, only Son, the man Jesus, to whom He, the Father, gave a second breath of life so that Jesus’ inner new self would be His, the Father’s, Firstborn Son, and the First of many brethren (Rom 8:29), all firstborn sons of God (the right-hand enantiomer) as the physically circumcised nation of Israel in Egypt (the left-hand enantiomer) was the firstborn son of Yah (Ex 4:22) … Greek and English are read left to right, so the left hand represents the “natural” that precedes the spiritual; whereas Hebrew is read right to left, making the right hand the representation of the natural as in the Lord telling Jonah, “‘Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left’” (4:11). To a Hebrew speaker, to not know the right hand from the left is to confuse the natural for the spiritual.

Whether in English or in Hebrew, YH (Yah) represents the natural as seen in Psalms 146:1, 148:1, and 149:1, in which David places Yah in the natural or dark position of the thought-couplet, and places conjoined YHWH in the spiritual or light position.

The Father gave to Jesus authority to judge every person who has ever lived, and Jesus gave this authority to the word [Ò 8`(@H], the message He left with His disciples (John 12:48) … the person who hears Jesus’ word [JÎ< 8`(@< :@L — the word of me] and believes Him who sent Jesus into this world has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life (John 5:24). But to hear the words of Jesus, a person must first believe the writings of Moses; for again, the physical precedes the spiritual. The Lord said that He intended to make from Moses a great nation (Ex 32:10 et al): Moses was of Levi, the tribe taken to be priests before the Lord. In Moses and Aaron, the entirety of the priesthood is represented, with Christians to be “a royal priesthood” (1 Pet 2:9). In Moses and in the prophet like Moses (Deut 18:15), all of Christendom is represented; so the person who rejects the writings of Moses rejects the mirror image of the words of Jesus and therefore is unable to hear the message Jesus left with His disciples. The Christian who hears Jesus’ words believes the writings Moses (John 5:46–47).

Because of the misunderstanding and heresies that mentally kept Christians imprisoned in spiritual Babylon from the end of the 1^st-Century CE until the 21^st-Century when the sealed and secret visions of the prophet Daniel were unsealed, thereby opening all of Scripture, more theological territory has to be addressed in this position paper than would be necessary if even the most rudimentary precepts of Christ were commonly understood. What may seem redundant and unfocused actually has a purpose that is larger than simply asserting that God heals.

As Jonah perished when entering the sea—the sailors didn’t want to throw Jonah overboard, but only threw him over when they had no other option—the Logos “perished” when cast into watery space-time. And as Jonah was brought back to life in the belly of the whale, the Logos was brought back to life (i.e., spiritual life) when the breath [B<,Ø:"] of the Father descended upon Him as a dove; His fleshly body was to His then living inner self as the whale was to the living Jonah who prayed to the Lord from the belly of the great fish … the Father raised Jesus from the dead as the Spokesman for Him in a way analogous to the people of Nineveh recognizing the spewed-forth Jonah as the spokesman for the Canaanite fish god, Dagon, a deity they worshiped. Hence, the men of Nineveh were more honorable than the men of Israel who did not recognize Jesus as the only Son of Yah.

For the three and a half years of His ministry, the man Jesus consisted of the physically living body of flesh plus the living inner new self. Prior to Jesus receiving the breath of the Father, the inner self of every person had no life:

·       Eternal life is the gift of God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:23);

·       Without the indwelling of Christ in the form of His breath [B<,Ø:" OD4FJ@Ø] serving as a vessel to contain the invisible bright fire representing eternal life, the type of fire seen when the prophet Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord (1:26–28), receipt of a second breath of life would utterly consume the person;

·       Therefore to fulfill all righteousness, Jesus as the only Son of the Logos had to be the First of the firstfruits so there could be firstfruits, inner new selves that will or won’t put on immortal tabernacles (bodies) when judgments are revealed.

When personhood is not determined by the fleshly body but by the inner self, natural or new, then receiving a second breath of life puts an end to death. In drawing a person from the common pool of humankind (John 6:44, 65) and making the person special by giving to the person a second breath of life, the breath of God, with this breath giving life to the invisible inner self as Elohim [singular in usage] breathing into the nostrils of Adam caused the natural man to become a breathing creature.

·       Elohim breathing into the nostrils of the man of mud ignited the dark fire of cellular oxidation that has been burning ever since in the descendants of Adam;

·       The breath of the Father descending as a dove on the man Jesus ignited the bright fire of eternal life in His inner new self;

·       The disciple who is drawn by the Father from this world and called by Christ Jesus and who has been united with Christ in a death like His—all who are baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death—will be united with Him in a resurrection like His, with this resurrection being the inner natural self passing away and being raised as the new self that is not enslaved to sin.

Possessing the bright fire of God “insures” the person against death—

Every disciple is insured against death from when the disciple is called until the following Passover, but coverage ends if the disciple ignores the Passover either for failure to understand the need to take the sacraments on the First Unleavened or for neglecting to take the sacraments. The Father does not continue to insure this person against death, for this Christian did not “select” him or herself as a paschal lamb representing the living Body of Christ.

While eating the paschal lamb and meal prepared by His disciples, “Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body’” (Matt 26:26). Jesus was then “living”; His body was alive. The bread represented the “living” body of Christ. Disciples are today the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27). And if they take the sacraments of bread and wine on the night that Jesus was betrayed, they eat of the living Body of Christ. But there is no living Body of Christ except for those disciples who take the sacraments on the dark portion of the 14^th of Abib, with the month of Abib beginning with the first sighted new moon crescent following the vernal equinox. In years like 2010 and 2013, when rabbinical Judaism’s calculated calendar begins the month of Nissan before the equinox, disciples who take the Passover on the 14^th of Abib are too few to statistically count. By using Judaism’s calendar, Sabbatarian Christians miss the Passover on these years by a month, and this will be especially important in 2013.

Many are the Christians who have been called by God and who will perish spiritually for any number of reasons: they are as seed broadcast onto roadways, gravel road shoulders, ditches choked with weeds. They are fruiting boughs that have been pruned but still bear no fruit. And foremost among the reasons they perish is their failure to understand Jesus’ words because they do not believe the writings of Moses. Other reasons include having no root in the person’s character, or the person being destroyed by the cares of this world. Some Christians grow well and produce fruit, but fail to produce additional fruit after being pruned, whether that pruning is the first time or the tenth time.

When a disciple understands that a person’s fleshly body is to the living inner new self as the whale was to the living Jonah still inside the belly of this great fish, why would the son of God desire to continue his imprisonment in flesh for longer than necessary? This is not to encourage self-murder, but it is to explain what Paul wrote:

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the spirit [J@Ø B<,b:"J@H] as a guarantee. … We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. … From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Cor 5:1–5, 12, 16–17 emphasis added)

Healthcare insurance as the world understands the concept isn’t about insuring the person against death, but about paying the medical expenses incurred when mending the tent of flesh in which the inner self, natural or new, temporarily dwells—but the tent, like an inflatable raft, comes with its own repair kit, and in Scripture, an instruction manual. Therefore the disciple who believes the writings of Moses and the words of Jesus incurs very few if any medical expenses in this world; for this disciple strives to be holy as the Lord is holy and does not eat common meats nor eats and drinks as the world eats and drinks.

Medical problems strike Sabbatarian Christians less frequently than the same problems strike the common population, but they do occur. Cancer is not unknown, nor is heart disease or diabetes. The children of Sabbatarian Christians still break arms and legs, cut heads and hands, and require at least semi-skilled medical attention. Babies are born. But when Pharaoh demanded to know why the midwives who feared God let Hebrew males live, they told him, “‘Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them’” (Ex 1:19), and so it is with Sabbatarian Christian wives: most are healthy and vigorous and deliver babies without complications.

The fleshly body can be likened to a tent of fabric or of animal skins (or to a house of boards and bricks) that gives shelter to the inner self. This fleshly tent is temporary in nature; it is intended to perish and return to dust. It can be damaged as a fabric tent is damaged; however, again, it is unlike a fabric tent in that it can repair itself if the damage is not too great. But it is of no more nor less use to the inner self than a wall tent is of use to back country elk hunters.

The person who walks according to the spirit (i.e., according to the life that the inner new self possesses) will not set his or her mind on the things of the flesh, with the person’s body being foremost among the things of the flesh. The Apostle Paul wrote, “To set the mind on the flesh is death … the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom 8:6–8). Therefore, the person who has been born of God and who has made a journey of faith of sufficient length to cleanse the heart so that it can be circumcised has been “healed” from death if this son of God continues to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord. This person’s mind is not focused on trying to save the temporary tent of flesh in which this son presently dwells; so for this person, healthcare as the world knows and understands the term is of no great importance and has little value. If the temporary tent of flesh in which this person dwells needs repairs beyond the body’s capacity to heal itself, then the flesh will either perish or God will heal the tent if the person has continued need of the tent. Either way, the person will live: the person was healed of death when the person received a second breath of life and the inner man was made alive.

Let there be no misunderstanding: the thoughts and focus of the person who has not yet received a second breath of life are on the things of the flesh, with the person’s appearance and health being of primary concern.

To the person who has been born of God, facelifts and tummy tucks and apparel advertised by slogans such as, You’ll like the way you look, are simply expressions of vanity that verify the carnality of the one who takes advantage of these ploys. While cosmetic surgery to correct gross disfiguration may be appropriate so that others are not offended by the sight of the person, such surgery should be of no real importance to the genuine disciple. Likewise, when the disciple strives to be holy as the Lord is holy (1 Pet 1:15–16; Lev 11:44–45) the disciples “escapes” ailments common to humankind, for the Lord does not put these ailments on the person—by the person’s attempt to truly be holy, the person avoids (with very few exceptions) hypertension, diabetes, and cancers caused by diet. This is not to say that genuine disciples will never be plagued by cancer or lung problems, but this is to say that environmental factors rather than lifestyle choices will account for the vast majority of ailments that befall disciples.

When the inner new self truly rules the tent of flesh in which this son of God dwells, the person does what the person can to walk as Jesus walked, then commits to God those things the person cannot do. The things that cause sons of disobedience to worry and fret are of little concern to sons of God. Again, the person who lives according to the flesh and whose mind is set on the things of the flesh, with the person’s health being of primary importance, does not and cannot please God. This person is actually hostile to God; whereas the person whose mind is not focused on the things of God takes no anxious thought about what the person will eat or wear or about the person’s health. All of these things will be given to the person as the person needs them and to the extent that the person needs them.

Healing a person of any ailment is not too difficult for God if He chooses to heal the person. Faith in God is, however, tested when He doesn’t choose to immediately heal the person; the disciple’s faith is tested as Abraham’s faith was tested when he was told to sacrifice Isaac. And if the disciple loves the tent of flesh in which the new self dwells more than the disciple loves God, the disciple will inevitably turn to the healthcare community for “a cure” and will thereby fail the test, meaning that the disciple will have to be retested, that the disciple was not yet ready for the particular test of faith.

Paul wrote, “So to keep me from being too elated by the surprising greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger from Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor 12:7–9).

According to Paul, whatever his physical ailment was [probably a weeping from his eyes] it was a messenger from the Adversary … Job’s boils were from Satan (Job 2:7). Physical ailments of all sorts come directly or indirectly from the Adversary. And the healthcare system of this world has evolved to lessen the damage these messengers of Satan do or can do to the person who is not yet circumcised of heart.

If the person’s thoughts are not focused on the things of the flesh, including the physical health of the flesh, then this person has little use for the healthcare system of this world. The person will physically live or die as God determines; for as Jesus allowed Lazarus to die and be dead for four days before He raised him from the dead to live again physically (John 11:39), the Father allows disciples to die and be dead for a period varying from days to nearly two millennia before He raises them from the dead to live spiritually. But since the dead know nothing (Eccl 9:5), they have no awareness that time has passed. They perceive the passage of time as a sleeping man perceives time.

Disciples of Christ Jesus who subscribe to the teachings of The Philadelphia Church understand the fleshly bodies in which they dwell will die and return to dust; they understand that to deliberately hasten death is self-murder; but they also understand that to seek to delay death is futile and a flaunting of the will of God. They steadfastly avoid buying six months of additional physical life with torture, pain, and their lifesavings. They are, however, insured against death when they received a second breath of life, and they have renewed this policy year by year when they drank from the Cup on the First Unleavened. And when the mind is not focused on the flesh, what happens to the flesh is of little significance to the plan God has for the harvest of the earth.

2.

Many Called, Few Chosen

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Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and B<,b:"J@H, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the B<,b:"J@H is B<,Ø:V. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the B<,b:"J@H.” (John 3:1–8)

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To be born of water is to be born of flesh and is to have life via the dark fire of cellular oxidation. To be born of spirit (or better, of the breath of God) is to have life via the bright fire of eternal life. Thus, to be born of water is to have received life from the Logos, who as Yah, breathed into the nostrils of the first Adam, and to be born of spirit is to be raised from the dead by the Father, either while the person still lives physically or afterwards in the great White Throne Judgment. But the Father judges no one: He has given all judgment to the Son, who either will of won’t cause the perishable flesh to put on immortality when judgments are revealed. So both the Father and the Son must give a human being “life” before this person is able to cross dimensions and enter into heaven. The Father makes the invisible inner self alive, and then, at a later time (minutes or millennia later) the Son gives or doesn’t give an immortal body to the living inner self (John 5:21–22).

The Logos as Yah has given life to every person conceived of women through the initial creation of Adam, from whom Eve came. The Father has given life to the firstfruits, of whom Jesus of Nazareth was First. He will give life to every person who has drawn breath and who did not receive life as one of the firstfruits in the great White Throne Judgment [the status of infants who died in the womb is less certain]. So there is no judgment of who receives physical life from the Logos or spiritual life from the Father made at the time when a person is born of water or born of spirit. Judgment comes by what the person or inner self does. In other words, the person determines how the person will be judged.

When a person determines the person’s judgment, the person “judges” him or herself.

The Son, to whom all judgment has been given, has left in this world His word [message] that will judge the person who doesn’t hear His word and believe the Father—Jesus only spoke the words of the Father when He was in this world. So truly, the person who doesn’t believe the writings of Moses and the words of Jesus condemns him or herself to death.

Paul writes that for the person who is not under the Law (i.e., not born of spirit) does not have sin counted against the person (Rom 5:13) for the inner natural self is “dead” and is as the corpse of Adam was before Elohim [singular in usage] breathed into the man of mud’s nostrils. But Paul also writes, “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law” (Rom 2:12). Therefore, the inner natural self that is spiritually dead will perish if it sins [sin is the transgression of the law — 1 John 3:4] without having that sin counted against the inner self when it is resurrected from death in the great White Throne Judgment: this inner self will be resurrected and condemned as if it were livestock to be sacrificed on the sixth day of the spiritual creation week, the last day before the new heavens and new earth comes.

The person who sinned without the law doesn’t get to repent in the great White Throne Judgment, but will simply be made alive so that the person will understand that sin has a price before this price is paid by the person being cast into the lake of fire. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot—the list is almost endless—do not get a second chance: they determined their fate while they lived physically. They judged themselves unworthy of life, and it is that judgment which will be executed on the last day even though no particular sin was counted against them.

In the visible physical things of this world revealing the invisible spiritual things of God, those who will perish in the lake of fire form the mirror image of those will walk through the fire separating the dimensions without even the smell of smoke on them.

A person condemns him or herself by the acts and actions of the flesh, with the person’s acts at the end of life producing finality. Likewise, the person “selects” him or herself to be one of the Elect by the acts and actions of the flesh, with this selection occurring year by year to produce finality.

At the end of the parable of the wedding feast, Jesus said, “‘For many are called, but few are chosen’” (Matt 22:14) … why are few chosen? The criteria for being chosen is clear: Matthew records Jesus saying, “‘Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven’” (5:19). John records Jesus saying, “‘If you 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’” (5:46–47). Matthew also records Jesus saying, “‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven’” (7:21).

Selection is a matter of believing Moses, hearing Jesus, and doing the will of the Father—

Jesus was selected as the Passover Lamb of God. It is as this Lamb that John represents Him in Revelation, and disciples as the Body of Christ are “selected” when they eat the living Body of Christ on the Passover. They are selected as paschal lambs are selected.

When the person who is not under the law does not have sin counted against him or her self, the person is under “natural grace”; yet this person will perish if he or she sins. Likewise, the Christian who is under grace and does not have sin counted against the person will perish if this person does not do what the law requires; for Paul adds that “it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” (Rom 2:13). And Paul does not contradict himself when he says that “we know that a person is not [counted righteous] by the works of the law but through [the faithfulness of] Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be [counted righteous] by faith in Jesus and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be [counted righteous]” (Gal 2:16); for elsewhere Paul writes,

So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart [¦< B<,b:"J4 — in spirit], not by the letter. (Rom 2:26–29)

The person who will be justified will do those things that are pleasing to God by faith, not as a matter of compulsion. To do those things that are pleasing to God is to do the will of God, and keeping the commandments is the outward manifestation by the flesh of the inner self desiring to please God. So selection ultimately becomes a matter of believing God and putting into practice this belief.

Believing God is more than giving lip service to belief, or doing what is right in the person’s eyes. It is making a journey of faith from living as the world does to living as a Judean does, which will now have the Christian keeping the Passover as Jesus kept the Passover.

In the year 28 CE, the vernal equinox occurred on March 22^nd (Julian calendar), and was on March 22^nd in the years 29 and 30 CE. It is the year 30 CE that is of most interest to Christians when it comes to healing—

In the Roman year 30 CE, the 1^st of Abib as March 23^rd, Julian, a Thursday, making April 6^th, Julian, the 15^th of Abib, the high Sabbath, and a Thursday. So a year before Jesus is crucified, the 10^th of Abib was the weekly Sabbath as it will be the following year when Jesus is crucified; the 10^th of Abib is when paschal lambs are selected and penned.

The Apostle John identified the entire period when Israelite males came before the Lord on the first of three seasons [times] a year (Deut 16:16; Ex 34:23) as the Sabbath, with the 15^th of Abib being the great day or great Sabbath of the Sabbath (John 19:31). Therefore, as a matter of cultural tradition, the 10^th day of Abib, the day when the Passover Lamb was to be selected and penned, would have been a weekly Sabbath within the annual Sabbath that includes a First Unleavened (Passover) and the Feast of Unleavened Bread … so there is no ambiguity, culturally the period from when an Israelite arrived in Jerusalem to appear before the Lord as commanded to when the Israelite left was considered Sabbath, with the 15^th of Abib considered the great Sabbath of this Sabbath period. The Israelite male would have striven to be in Jerusalem by the 10^th day of Abib when the Passover lamb was selected and penned; hence, there would have been crowds in and around Jerusalem throughout the first three plus weeks of Abib as crowds would have been in the city for the first three plus weeks of Tishri, the seventh month.

In the year 28 CE, the first new moon [dark of the moon] following the vernal equinox was on April 13^th (Julian)—the year 28 CE was like 31 CE and like this year, 2010, in that rabbinical Judaism’s calculated calendar begins the month of Nissan before the equinox [no calculated calendar was used until after the temple was razed in 70 CE]. Although arguments have been made that the year should begin with the new moon closest to the vernal equinox regardless of whether the new moon is before or after the equinox, these arguments directly or indirectly deny the validity of Christ Jesus’ resurrection; for it was Jesus’ absence (Jesus being the true Bread that came down from heaven) on the Sabbath that establishes when the spring Sabbath should occur just as the absence of manna established when the weekly Sabbath was to occur. So in 28 CE, the first sighted new moon crescent would have been seen on April 15^th (Julian), a Thursday, making the 15^th of Abib to occur on a Thursday, April 29^th (Julian), and thereby placing the 10^th of Abib on the weekly Sabbath.

For the year 29 CE, the 1^st of Abib would have occurred on Sunday, April 3^rd (Julian). Abib 15^th would then have been on Sunday, April 17^th (Julian), and the weekly Sabbath, the day of the First Unleavened, would have been April 16^th (Julian).

Knowledge of the above is necessary to comprehend Jesus healing the invalid of 38 years at the pool called Bethesda on the Sabbath, then disputing with the Jewish leaders before crossing the Sea of Galilee where a large crowd followed him. This is the crowd Jesus fed because the Passover was at hand.

About his gospel, John wrote, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name” (20:30–31). John selected from all the signs [miracles] Jesus did only certain ones that fit into a matrix that would permit a reader to believe that Jesus is the Christ.

Jesus healed many: Israelites and Gentiles, believers and non-believers. Of those whom He healed, and even of those healed by the apostles, there was no hard causal relationship between faith and healing; so no endtime disciple should teach that a causal relationship between faith and healing exists. Although Paul wrote, “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you [Corinthians] are weak and ill, and some have died” (1 Cor 11:29–30), all of the saints at Corinth would die before Christ Jesus returned, not what Paul expected. Thus, it is wrong to say that death of the flesh occurs because the Passover is not eaten as it should be on the First Unleavened.

Unless the disciple is physically alive when Christ Jesus returns, the tent of flesh in which the disciple dwells will perish because of the unbelief of the first Adam. But because the flesh remains mortal doesn’t mean that the person, the inner self, will die: what Paul wrote about taking the Passover without discerning the Body pertains to the inner new self, for the Christian who does not discern Christ’s Body and therefore neglects to take the Passover sacraments that represent the living Body of Christ or who takes these sacraments in an unworthy manner will be spiritually weak, ill, and will die. This Christian by his or her neglect of the Passover will murder the inner new self that is a son of God.

Let’s be blunt: Jesus was crucified on April 25, 31 CE, Julian calendar, a Wednesday, the 14^th of Abib on the sacred calendar. This date is not the 14^th of Nissan on rabbinical Judaism’s calculated calendar, but the 14^th of Lyyar. Because Judaism’s calendar starts the year in the fall with the month of Tishri rather than in the spring with the month of Abib, Judaism’s calendar incorrectly adds the month of Veadar to the following year in years like 28 and 31 CE and years like 2010, 2013, and 2018 CE. Whereas the month Adar II or Veadar should have been added in the year ending with the vernal equinox in 31 CE, as was done because the temple still stood, it was not added by Judaism’s calculated calendar to the year 5770, which at the vernal equinox is Roman year 2010. And this omission causes everyone who uses Judaism’s calendar to set the date for Passover to be off a month, and to not take the Passover in 2010 as Jesus took the Passover. This calculated calendar is not of God but of the Adversary, and its use prevented the Church from “breathing” on its own throughout the 20^th-Century. As Elijah laid over the dead son of the widow of Zarephath three times before the lad breathed on his own, the last Elijah [Christ Jesus] laid over the Church a second time during the 20^th-Century, and now lays over the Church a third time in the 21^st-Century: until the Church takes the authority given to it and establishes its own calendar, which Philadelphia has done, the Church will remain a corpse rather than the living Body of Christ. And as a corpse, the Christian Church, including the majority of the Sabbatarian Church, is as Adam was before Elohim [singular in usage] breathed into this man of mud’s nostrils. So the Christian who keeps Easter or the Christian who uses Judaism’s calendar to set the date for Passover has no indwelling eternal life but is spiritually as ancient Israel was before the spirit was given.

As any orchardist will confirm, fruit is produced on new growth, either on fruiting spurs or on tips. Pruning causes the tree to grow new growth. Where there is no new growth, there will be no fruit, and the disciple who bears no fruit shall be cut off from Christ by the Father (John 15:2). So Sabbatarian Christians who proudly cling to the unchanged doctrines of a dead teacher such as Ellen G. White or Herbert W. Armstrong have seen no new growth in decades and have borne no fruit for equally as long. They are today cut off from Christ even though they sincerely believe they remain alive. But they lack love for other disciples, and this lack of love discloses their spiritual status.

Of all of the miracles (most of which were healings) Jesus performed the ones John selected so that readers would believe fit the matrix of human maturation, which forms the shadow and copy of spiritual maturation … the signs John selected present a chronology that grows from conception to birth to walking upright before God, which has Jesus saying that He has the authority to execute judgment and disciples are not to be surprised when those who have done good are resurrected to life and those who have done evil are resurrected to condemnation; that if Moses’ writings are not believed, the person will not believe Jesus’ words (John chap 5).

John uses a concept-chronology to select which signs he records in his gospel, but once a person is born of God, the person enters into the pattern presented by the annual harvests of Judean hillsides, the early barley harvest and the later main crop wheat harvest, with this harvest cycle running from Passover to Passover—from when a disciple first appears before the Lord at the appointed time as a human being to when the disciple first appears before the Father as a glorified human being.

A disciple is “healed” from death when the disciple is glorified, with this healing from death casting a shadow that looks like the healing of the invalid of 38 years for this healing from death is certain if the disciple sins no more (John 5:14). The disciple who has been called by God can be likened to the invalid who is told, “‘Get up, take up your bed, and walk’” (v. 8). If this disciple will stand and walk uprightly before God as Abraham was commanded to walk uprightly before the Lord (Gen 17:1–2), this disciple will believe the writings of Moses and will hear the voice of Jesus (John 5:46–47) and will keep the commandments by faith, with this journey of faith cleansing hearts, and when hearts have been cleansed they can be circumcised and the Christian “selected” or chosen as a paschal lamb was selected by ancient Israel.

Again, the primary disease that the Lord has inflicted upon all human beings is death, the “disease” that Egyptians tackled nationally as the nation made an all-out effort to defeat first the death of the Pharaoh, then later the deaths of priests and important officials. The Lord promised Abraham that He would do for Abraham’s yet unborn seed what all of Egypt humanly sought to do for Pharaohs, thereby doing for Abraham what Egypt with all of its resources could not really do (Gen chap 15). The Lord made a covenant with Abraham (then still called Abram) that He would give to the seed of Abraham the land from the Nile to the Euphrates, the land between Sin and Death, but the Lord assured Abraham that he should go to his fathers in peace and “‘be buried in a good old age’” (15:15). Abraham was not promised “life” that his fathers had not received; nor was he promised territory or wealth during his lifetime. The promise was for the generations that would come after him, but receiving the promises made by the Lord required Abraham to make and keep another covenant with the Lord, this covenant placing upon Abraham the demand to walk uprightly before the Lord and be blameless, with this covenant seeing the addition of “breath” to his name [Abram » Abraham] and with this covenant being ratified by circumcision of the flesh (Gen chap 17).

Life lies between Sin and Death. The Promised Land that is God’s rest is Life, seen as the visible land of Canaan [i.e., Judea]. The nation that left Egypt (the nation numbered in the census of the second year) could not enter into Canaan[5] because of unbelief that manifested itself as desire to return to Egypt. Only the children of Israel entered into the Promised Land. And so will it be with Christians: those Christians who are born of God and liberated from indwelling sin and death at the Second Passover, with few exceptions will not enter into Life but will perish in a wilderness of sin because of unbelief, whereas the third part of humankind (Zech 13:9) as “children” of the liberated Christian Church will enter into Life. … Sabbatarian disciples represented by the seven named churches will be in the Tribulation as Levites were in the Exodus; they are represented by Joshua whereas those Christians who today are lawless but who do not rebel against God in the great falling away (2 Thess 2:3) of day 220 have about them a different spirit as Caleb had a spirit different from the rebelling Israelites (Num 14:24).

If a person leaves Sin, the person enters into Life; if a person leaves Death, the person enters into Life. But the person who goes north or south, east or west once the person enters Life will perish. The only direction the person who has entered Life can travel and continue to be saved is upward, toward the Jerusalem that is above. Therefore, the Christian who places importance on the things of the flesh has not left Sin, or has not left Death, or remains camped in spiritual Babylon.

Returning to John’s chronology, at Passover of the first year of His ministry (on or about April 28^th, 28 CE, Julian), Jesus cleansed the temple; thus, the healing of the invalid of 38 years did not occur in the first year of His ministry. And because of the weekly Sabbath immediately preceding the high Sabbath in 29 CE, the healing of the invalid of 38 years most likely did not occur in 29 CE. But because of the Passover to Passover cycle that represents the harvest of the Promised Land, and because of the day-to-date correspondence, it is reasonable to say that the healing of the invalid occurred on Sabbath, the 10^th of Abib, in 30 CE; so John’s gospel relates the highlights of the last year of Jesus’ ministry, with the majority of his gospel covering the Passover to Passover period between the weekly Sabbath that is the 10^th of Abib in 30 CE to the giving of the spirit on the 18^th of Abib in 31 CE.

The Christian who by faith takes the Passover sacraments of bread and wine on the First Unleavened [i.e., the night portion of the 14^th of Abib] eats the living Body of Christ and drinks from the Cup representing the covenant poured out for the forgiveness of sins. When this Christian makes the decision to take the sacraments on the same night that Jesus was betrayed, this Christian “selects” him or herself as the penned paschal lamb of God … the Father has already called this person out from the world, but the Father has given all judgment to Christ Jesus (John 5:22), who, again, did not come into the world to judge the world, but left His word—the word [Ò 8`(@H] or message He spoke (John 12:48)—as the judge of all who do not keep the words He spoke. Therefore, the Son left with His disciples the authority to “select” or reject themselves by whether they would eat the Body of the living Christ and drink from the Cup on the First Unleavened. If they ignored the Passover or if they took the sacraments on any other night, they judged themselves unworthy of Christ. And when Jesus comes again, He will reveal this judgment that the disciple made when the disciple did not “select” the disciple as the paschal lamb representing the living Body of Christ, a convoluted way of saying that by not taking the Passover sacraments on the dark portion of the 14^th of the first month, the disciple is condemned.

The importance of the Passover lamb being selected and penned on the 10^th day of Abib, according to the instructions given by Moses (Ex 12:3–6), comes from Jesus saying, “‘For many are called, but few are chosen’” (Matt 22:14). Many Christians are called by God; i.e., drawn from this world by the Father giving them a second breath of life (John 6:44). But of these many who are called, only a few will be chosen, with being chosen coming through believing the writings of Moses and the words of Jesus and therefore walking uprightly before God. Those who will be chosen are “selected” as the paschal lambs of Israel were selected: they are spiritual lambs of the first year who are without blemish, with the Passover to Passover scenario representing this “first year” that is not spiritually a calendar year but the life lived by the disciple prior to human death.

Whether from cancer or from another fatal infection or from an accident or from war or murder or any number of causes, human death does not represent the end of life for either the person who has done good or the person who has done evil. Both will be resurrected. If the person is born of God before Christ Jesus returns as the Messiah, the person, regardless of whether the person has done good or bad, will be resurrected upon Jesus’ return to either glory or condemnation. The person who has not been born of God will be resurrected in the great White Throne Judgment and will, upon judgment, receive either glory or condemnation—judgment is presently upon only those who have been born of God.

The schism caused by outward circumcision that divided humankind (Eph 2:11–16) has been abolished, but abolished only to be replaced by an invisible inner schism caused by circumcision of the heart.

Every person who has not yet received a second breath of life and who is not circumcised of heart (two things, separated by the person making a journey of faith that cleanses the heart) is not today numbered among the selected and chosen spiritual lambs of God that form the Body of Christ. All of these individuals are on one side of the schism caused by inner circumcision. Only a few human beings are on the other side of this schism. And this position paper has relevance for those Christians separated from this world by circumcision of the heart.

When hearts are circumcised and the person selected as the paschal lamb representing the living Body of Christ—selection comes by taking the sacraments on the night Jesus was betrayed—God “insures” the person against death: the person can and will still die physically, but to die spiritually means overcoming Christ Jesus who is “in charge” of the disciple’s salvation. However, the insurance policy must be renewed year by year on the First Unleavened. Failure to renew negates the policy. Failure to take the Passover sacraments on the dark portion of the 14^th of Abib, with the month of Abib beginning with the first sighted new moon crescent after the vernal equinox, leaves the person with no covering for the person’s sin but death … either the person has died physically since the previous Passover, or the person will die spiritually because of the person’s uncovered sins.

3.

Insurance & Insurance Reform

The person who drives or rides in an automobile or in a truck takes upon the person certain risks associated with travel … in a this day in history blurb now some twenty-five years ago, the Lake County Examiner (Lakeview, Oregon) cited a story printed in the Examiner 90 years earlier: a cowboy riding from Plush to Lakeview was thrown from his horse at Adel. A dog barked at the horse, spooked it, caused it to buck, and the cowboy broke his leg when he fell. He was laid up in Adel for three months while his leg healed before he was able to complete his 60-mile trip into Lakeview; the cowboy who broke his leg obtained room and board in a private home until he could again travel. The cowboy received no formal medical treatment, nor was he insured.

In a century, much has changed. Three months seems like an awfully long time to be laid up with a broken leg. Most people would have a walking cast and would be back to work in less than a month. Neither an employer nor an employee can afford to be off work for three months; yet a new mother gets three months off after giving birth so situational economics enters into every healthcare consideration.

The parable Jesus told of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29–37) has a man who was robbed and beaten while traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho having his wounds bound and his expenses covered by the Samaritan who had mercy for the man. But times and people have changed, or so endtime disciples are told by those who are not today circumcised of heart. But nothing has really changed: for those human beings who have truly received a second breath of life, death has been defeated even though they will die physically or will be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortal to immortal. Healthcare as a means of delaying or defeating death has already been supplanted by receipt of a second breath of life and circumcision of the heart—

For the person who has been called and selected, with this selection occurring when the disciple by faith commits to taking the Passover on the dark portion of the 14^th of Abib, the First Unleavened, the healthcare of this world as a means of delaying death should be avoided for this person will not die before his or her time; i.e., will not die before a foreknown amount of spiritual growth occurs or doesn’t occur that satisfies the criteria needed for judgment. Yes, the person can be injured … a Sabbatarian disciple, an American, was rodeoing in the Calgary Stampede [Canada] and was thrown from a bucking bronc and broke both bones in both lower legs. He obviously didn’t win. And as was the case with many young cowboys in the 1960s, he had only money enough for gas to get to the next event. So he had another cowboy pull on his legs until they seemed the right length then splint them with boards from a pallet. He was anointed for his injuries, but he still had to get home. He got someone to drive his pickup, and he rode in the horse trailer with his horse back to Salem, Oregon. And by the time he returned home, his bones had healed enough that he wasn’t interested in having them rebroken so they could be set properly. But that was it for his career as a rodeo cowboy.

Would the young cowboy have benefited from being able to obtain healthcare in Canada? Yes, he would have. But it wasn’t in his mindset to go to a doctor, for he had grown to adulthood in a household that trusted God to heal whatever was wrong with the person. His parents were longtime members of the Church of God, 7^th Day, before joining Armstrong’s Radio Church of God. The young cowboy had been baptized into the Body of Christ, and that was enough for him … in later life, when he wandered from the faith his legs gave him all sorts of problems.

The disciple who travels risks injury that has been addressed by the liability insurance policies of common and private carriers; the disciple who rodeos is now covered by an event insurance policy. But of most importance is that God has insured the disciple against death.

Every messenger from Satan will have to be borne by the disciple until God grants the disciple relief as God granted Job relief but did not grant Paul relief. The cowboy injured at the Calgary Stampede received a messenger from Satan [Paul’s expression] that “bit” him hard when he struck out on his own as a young man, then bit him again later in life; for rodeos schedule go-rounds on the Sabbath, and to ride in the Stampede required that the young man compromise the Sabbath. The divine protection the young man had left him when he decided to ride on the rodeo circuit.

The Lord brought Job to Satan’s attention, saying, “‘Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil’” (Job 1:8) … what fault does a blameless and upright man have? As most who are familiar with Job’s story know, Job was self-righteousness, a fault that the Lord intended to correct in an otherwise sinless man. But Satan never recognized Job’s fault. Self-righteousness was the fault that led to Satan’s rebellion. Thus, Job suffered for years without understanding why he was suffering—and so it is with most faithful disciples who are afflicted physically. Not in every case. But in enough cases that the principle holds, disciples suffer bodily afflictions because the inner new self has no possessions but the tent of flesh in which this son of God dwells. The inner new self doesn’t own cars or bass boats or real property; for all that is in the world is not from the Father but is from the world (1 John 2:16). All that is in this world and that is of this world will pass away as the tent of flesh passes away. So the only thing that can be taken away from the inner new self by the Adversary is “health.”

The disciple genuinely born of God as a firstborn son (as one of the firstfruits) has no need for this world’s healthcare insurance policies, for the world’s medical community cannot protect the disciple from Satan and his messengers. If this disciple has any need for this world’s healthcare system, that need would be to stitch shut a bleeding wound or to set a broken bone, both scenarios that can be addressed by out of pocket expenditures if not addressed by home care as occurred for centuries.

The cowboy who broke both legs in the Calgary Stampede should not have been where he was when he was injured. For the remainder of his life, he will walk with pain, which for many years he didn’t have.

The Apostle Paul’s messenger from Satan kept Paul from becoming vain because of “the surpassing greatness of the revelations” (2 Cor 12:7) he received … what would have happened if Paul could have had his problem medically treated and corrected? Luke records, “And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them” (Acts 19:11–12). So God certainly could have healed Paul at any time, but God choose not to heal him for Paul’s spiritual sake. The medical community would have only gotten in God’s way.

When God can heal a person, believer or non-believer, at any moment, for God to not heal is not an absence of ability but a conscious choice that pertains to what God deems is in the best interest of the person and in the best interests of those involved with the person.

For all sons of disobedience—human beings not yet born of God—healthcare and insurance coverage to pay for this healthcare is a good idea, but not so for those disciples who have been insured by God against death. God will protect and heal them to the extent that He chooses.

Disciples strong in faith seldom if ever use the healthcare system of this world; for they will wait for God to grant them relief either in physical life or in death. They may well not be healed of relatively minor conditions that could be easily corrected by the modern medical community, such as skin cancer. But that is their choice. The inner new self is not governed by the princes of this world, but is subject only to the Lord unless this inner self returns to sin as its obedient servant. And while the princes of this world can attempt to exercise control over the fleshly tent in which the inner new self dwells, that “tent” [the human body] no longer belongs to these princes but belongs to the inner new self.

When the Father draws a person from this world (John 6:44, 65), that person ceases to a part of this world even though he or she remains in this world: disciples are kept in the Father’s holy name as sons of God. They will be hated by this world because of the name they bear, but Jesus asked that the Father keep them from the evil one (John 17:15), and the Father is faithful to do just this for all who are “selected” by taking the Passover on the night that Jesus was betrayed. Jesus asked that they be set apart for holy service.

Messengers from Satan are sent when necessary to set disciples apart for holy service who would not otherwise be willing to do the work which the Father wants from the person. This was the case with Paul who was intent upon persecuting and killing Christians. … When the person is the inner new self, the person has no possession in this world but the tent of flesh in which this person dwells. Nothing can be taken from this “person” except the health of the tent of flesh.

The princes of this world who rule the mental topography of all sons of disobedience, and the civil authorities that reign in this world as their agents lack the authority necessary to compel sons of God to violate their consciences, an issue that was resolved when Peter and John were called before the Council at Jerusalem. When the Council charged Peter and John not to speak any more to anyone in Jesus’ name, Peter and John answered, “‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard’” (Acts 4:19–20). The son of God listens to the Lord, and has no choice about doing what the Lord requires. This means that if this son of God in clear conscience desires to obtain medical treatment this son of God is free to obtain said treatment. But if this son of God chooses to spurn medical treatment and habitually spurns medical treatment, then no authority on earth or in heaven can compel this son of God to seek medical services or compel this son of God to pay for unwanted services or compel this son of God to obtain insurance to cover unwanted services.

Paul tells converts at Rome, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities” (13:1), but Peter and John did not cease proclaiming Jesus or stop teaching in Jesus’ name when the governing authorities demanded that they do so. The apostles were arrested, but an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, “‘Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.’ And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach” (Acts 5:20–21) … the issue in the 1^st-Century was delivery of the words of life; the issue in the 21^st-Century is life itself, for the words of life do not change.

When it comes to life, civil authorities are to be submitted to, but no more obeyed than they were in the 1^st-Century. If civil authorities seek to compel behavior contrary to the Word of God, they are not to be obeyed. This means, simply, if civil authorities compel a son of God to violate his conscience when it comes to matters of healthcare and healthcare insurance, they are not to be obeyed.

But a disciple needs to be logically consistent in behavior, spurning the services of the medical community in little matters as well as in great matters, or availing oneself of these services in all matters. Of course, a person is expected to grow in grace and knowledge; so the disciple is not obligated to do today what the disciple did not do as a son of disobedience or as an infant son of God. If, however, the disciple begins to spurn the services of the medical community, the disciple should not flee to this same medical community when physical life is in imminent danger. Requesting God to intervene on a person’s behalf—and believing that the disciple will be healed—is not a game that incorporates a mulligan for cancer or heart disease. In the British expression, the person who’s in for a penny is in for a pound.

Because the son of God who sincerely believes that God will heal the person’s physical body for as long as this son of God has need for the body places no burden or no burden of consequence upon the healthcare system of this world, and thus, should not be expected to pay for this system other than on a contract for services as received. If a leg is broken and needs set, the disciple should feel no guilt about having the bone set and then paying in cash (or by contract) for the services rendered. The disciple should not expect someone else to pay for the services rendered, and this includes the disciple’s employer unless that employer is responsible for the breakage.

With His sons, God is aware of matters as serious as a limb being lost in an accident or as trivial as a fingernail being lost to a car door. He is not suddenly surprised because something happens to one of His sons. And by experience, God will directly and indirectly warn a son of what will happen, and will, when necessary, intervene directly or indirectly. He will care for His sons, preventing injury and giving health, unless He is permitting Satan to send a messenger for a purpose such as was sent to Job and to Paul.

Again, it isn’t the tent of flesh that will enter heaven, but the inner new self in an immortal body, given to the son of God when judgments are revealed. The Father makes alive the inner natural self by giving to the person a second breath of life, and the Son makes alive the tent of flesh of those sons of God whom he will when judgments are revealed.

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"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

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