Statement of Beliefs
The Philadelphia Church self-identifies itself as the endtime fellowship best representing the sixth (Rev 3:7–13) of the seven churches to which Christ addresses letters to their angels. Its evangelistic efforts are directed, first, toward born-from-above disciples who have chosen to remain in sin, and secondarily toward those individuals who have never known Christ or the Father. As such, its mission is to return born again disciples to spiritual Jerusalem, the walls of which are the laws of God written on circumcised hearts cleansed by faith (cf. Jer 31:33; Heb 8:10 & 10:16). To do this, it preaches the endtime gospel of the kingdom that all who endure to the end will be saved (Matt 24:13–14; 10:22) … all who endure will be saved because dominion over the single kingdom of this world will be taken from the Adversary and his angels and given to the Son of Man halfway through the seven endtime years of tribulation, with the spirit of God being poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28) when the Son of Man baptizes the world (Matt 3:11) into life.
The Philadelphia Church’s understanding of Scripture is based upon typological exegesis, which has the visible, physical things of this world revealing and preceding the invisible things of God (1 Cor 10:11; 15:45–46; Rom 1:20).
Further, The Philadelphia Church recognizes that it is a steward of the mysteries of God, the steward to whom God has entrusted the revelation that the greater Body of Christ consists of genuine spiritual Israelites enslaved in spiritual Babylon just as physically circumcised Israelites were enslaved in physical Egypt. Spiritually-circumcised Israel will be released at a second or spiritual Passover when firstborns not covered by the blood of Christ as the Lamb of God will be slain. If these firstborns are spiritual Israelites, they will lose both their physical lives as well as their spiritual lives. Therefore, The Philadelphia Church will extend toward its critics within enslaved spiritual Israel as much love and compassion as they will allow, in hopes that they will cover their lawlessness with the blood of Christ, taken how and when Jesus of Nazareth commanded and how He taught the Apostle Paul, revealed in Paul’s first epistle to the saints at Corinth.
BELIEFS
1. The Philadelphia Church recognizes the Bible as canonized without the Apocrypha as the inspired but not infallible Word of God, despite the Book of Acts being a Second Sophist novel, Luke’s Gospel being a redaction of late 1st-Century Christian writings and testimonies, Matthew’s Gospel being about the indwelling Jesus not the physical man, and the Pastoral Epistles being pseudonymous writings. The Philadelphia Church teaches that events recorded in the Old and in the New Testaments represent the physical antetypes of spiritual events that pertain to the maturation of spiritual Israel, the nation circumcised of heart. Further, The Philadelphia Church teaches that prophecy exists to reveal events and the shadows of events occurring in the supra-dimensional realm usually identified as heaven that also effect the maturation of spiritual Israel. As such, the Father and the Son have revealed to drawn disciples (Amos 3:7) the past, the present, and the future through the conclusion of the day of the Lord in canonical Scripture.
2. The Philadelphia Church teaches that God is one in unity and in love, but consists of two entities that previously functioned as one deity as if married, and now function as one deity as a father and his eldest son. These two entities are the Father and God of Christ Jesus (John 20:17)—the one who raised Jesus from death (Rom 8:11)—and the Son, Christ Jesus, the unique Son of Theos (John 3:16) who entered His creation (John 1:3, 14) to be born of the woman Mary, betrothed wife of Joseph. These two entities in forming one deity in unity and in singularity, expressed this “oneness” in the Tetragrammaton YHWH, initially a linguistic determinative but transformed into a naming icon when the writings of Moses were translated into Imperial Hebrew after recovery of the Book of the Covenant during the reign of King Josiah (2 Kings 22:8–11). These two entities are present in the linguistic icon Elohim, the regular plural of Eloah, which is formed from “El,” the Ugarit name for God (as in El Shaddai — Gen 17:1), plus the radical for aspirated breath, “ah.” So in the name Eloah, one God and His Breath [El + ah] is present. “Elohim,” as the plural or multiple of Eloah reveals the presence of at least one additional God and His Breath, as seen in the plural pronouns assigned to Elohim in Genesis 1:26; 3:22; 11:7, and Isaiah 6:8—and as seen in the linguistic possessive plurals <Shaddai> and <Adonai>, neither of which should be read as plural excellentiate nouns.
Deconstruction of the Tetragrammaton YHWH reveals the number of deities present in the name Elohim: one entity with His Breath is represented by “YH,” or Yah (see Ps 146:1a; 148:1a; 149:1a, where Yah occupies the structural physical position in the thought-couplet) and a second entity and His Breath is represented by “WH.” This agrees with the Gospel of John, where in primacy [arche] the Logos [’o Logos], the Creator of all that has been made (John 1:3; 1 Cor 8:6; Eph 3:9; Col 1:15–16; Heb 1:2; 3:3-4), was with the God [ton Theon], and was God [Theos]. Because ’o Logos and Theos share one definite article [Theos is without an article] in the third clause of John 1:1, they are one entity whereas the God [ton Theon] has its own definite article, thereby establishing definiteness for two entities, both God and collectively one deity, not as in one “family,” but as in one hypostasis with one personhood but two personages. If God were two, then the kingdom of heaven would eventually be divided against itself and would fail. So the entities composing the one deity function as one in a manner typified by how parts of one human body function together, the analogy the Apostle Paul used for the Church. In heaven, the Father is the Head of Christ, as Christ is the head of the Church through the indwelling of the spirit of Christ [pneuma Christou], with the spirit of Christ entering into the spirit of the person [to pneuma tou ’anthropou] that resides in the soul [psuche] of the person.
To be born of spirit is to receive the indwelling of the spirit of Christ in the spirit of the person, thereby giving heavenly or spiritual life to the inner self of the person, the spirit of Christ penetrating the spirit of the person as a husband penetrates his wife for purposes of procreation … when the spirit of God [pneuma Theou] descended in the bodily form of a dove and entered into [eis — Mark 1:10] the man Jesus the Nazarene, the spirit of God penetrated the spirit of Christ and thereby became the Head of Christ as the spirit of Christ penetrates the spirit of disciples and becomes the Head of these disciples (1 Cor 11:3), collectively and individually forming disciples into the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27) and the temple of God (1 Cor 3:16–17; 2 Cor 6:16). In human marriage, the man functions as the head of his wife, and the woman functions as the body of the man; for it is the woman that brings forth offspring for her husband. The husband, of himself, cannot bring forth offspring.
In analogy, the glorified Christ Jesus functions as the body of God the Father as the wife functions as the body of her husband.
Further, The Philadelphia Church teaches that disciples who deny that the pre-existing Son was the Creator of all that is deny Christ and will be denied by Christ when their judgments are revealed. In addition, The Philadelphia Church teaches that disciples who assign personhood to the divine Breath of God [pneuma Theou] will inevitably deny that they received indwelling eternal life when they received the Holy Spirit; they will believe that they were born with an immortal soul. Thus, they deny the existence of the spiritual life they received through receipt of the Holy Spirit, and as such, they commit blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
3. The Philadelphia Church teaches that the Holy Spirit [pneuma ’agion] is the Breath of God, "breath" used in its figurative or metaphorical sense to represent the creative and life-sustaining power of each member of the Godhead. An individual doesn’t usually assign personhood to his or her breath. Likewise, disciples should never assign personhood to the Breath of God.
As physical breath sustains the dark fire of cellular oxidation, which sustains physical life, spiritual breath sustains the bright fire that is the glory of God (Ezek 1:26–28), which sustains eternal life or life outside the physical creation.
4. The Philadelphia Church teaches that everlasting life is the gift of God (Rom 6:23). Humanity doesn’t have within itself everlasting life. Rather, the first Adam was banned from the Garden of Eden before he could eat of the Tree of Life (Gen 3:22). The only life the first Adam possessed was his physical breath as a breathing creature [nephesh] (cf. Gen 2:7; Eccl 3:19).
5. The Philadelphia Church teaches that born-from-above, or born of spirit disciples receive actual life in the spiritual realm when they receive the Holy Spirit (John 3:8; 1 Peter 1:23; Titus 3:5) through the indwelling of the spirit of Christ [pneuma Christou]. This life is given when the Father raises the spiritually dead by drawing the person from this world (John 6:44) and giving the person to Christ Jesus to call, justify, and glorify (Rom 8:29–30). It is the Father who raises the dead (John 5:21); it is the Son who gives life to those raised from death (also John 5:21). Two receipts of life, one from the Father that gives life to the inner self through the indwelling of Christ; one from the Son when judgments are revealed (1 Cor 4:5). This second giving of life will give to the non-physical inner self a spiritual or glorified body in the supra dimensional heavenly realm.
Both the Father and the Son must give life to a person before this person can enter the supra-dimensional heavenly realm; for flesh and blood cannot inherit, cannot enter the kingdom of God, nor can perishable flesh inherit immortality (1 Cor 15:50). The living inner self of a person born of spirit must receive a spiritual [non-physical and never physical] body in order to enter heaven.
6. The Philadelphia Church teaches that disciples are not under the Law, but are under Grace, which is not unmerited pardon but the mantle or cloak or garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness, put on daily as the reality of ancient Israel’s daily sacrifice. When a called-out person cleanses his or her heart through a journey of faith equivalent in length to the patriarch Abraham’s physical journey of faith from Ur of the Chaldeans to Canaan, the heart will be circumcised by Spirit (Deut 30:6; Rom 2:26-29; Col 2:11). Each disciple is then made an Ark of the Covenant, this Ark containing the two tablets upon which the Law of God is written (the heart and the mind) along with the jar of manna in the form of the indwelling of Christ, and Aaron’s budded staff in the promise of resurrection.
Spiritual circumcision separates those who will be chosen from the many who have been called (Matt 22:14), and circumcision of the heart is a euphemistic expression for no longer being stubborn, self-willed, and as such a servant of the Adversary.
All sons of God born of spirit are as the descendants of Noah were after the Flood, with the Flood representing the baptism of the earth into death. And of the many descendants of Noah, only the patriarch Abraham believed God and had his belief counted as righteousness—and from Abraham came one son of promise, Isaac, whom, the Apostle Paul claims, was the antetype of sons of God born of promise to the free woman, heavenly Jerusalem. Within this analogy, in the womb of Isaac [Rebekah’s womb] are two sons of promise, one hated, one loved though still unborn. The loved son consists of disciples who voluntarily choose to live as Judeans, observing the Laws of God (especially the Sabbath commandment by which disciples show that they know that God sanctifies them), and keeping the distinction between clean and unclean, the meaning by which they show that they know God has consecrated them.
Disciples born of spirit as sons of God become the personification of Christ Jesus, walking in this world as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6), imitating Paul as he imitated Christ Jesus (1 Cor 11:1). These disciples are to Christ Jesus as Jesus was to the Father, with Jesus being the personification of the Father (John 14:9–11).
The veil to the Holy of Holies was rent so each spiritually circumcised disciple can rest under the Mercy Seat, representing Grace, which remains above the Ark of the Covenant. His or her prayers are offered to God in lieu of burning incense, and the disciple’s good works represent the Show Bread offerings. Good works is doing that which the disciple knows is right through the internalization of the Law.
7. The Philadelphia Church teaches that Grace is the glorified Christ bearing the sins of drawn disciples after judgment has come upon them. Jesus’ shed blood as the Passover Lamb of God reconciles disciples to the Father, who abides no sin. Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary is represented by the goat slain on Yom Kipporim. The second, or Azazel goat that has the sins of Israel read over it before being led away into a wilderness by the hand of a fit man (Lev 16:20–22) represents the glorified Christ bearing the sins of spiritual Israelites as their covering. This was the annually enacted shadow of Grace that circumcised Israel so misunderstood that eventually they killed the Azazel goat by throwing it over a precipice … a figurative precipice separates physical life from resurrection in an incorruptible body.
All transgressions of the laws of God a person commits prior to being drawn by the Father are covered by Jesus’ shed blood at Calvary. The person begins his or her spiritual life absolutely sin free … being born of spirit (John 3:5-8; 1 Pet 1:23) is real birth in the spiritual realm, where a physical offering for sin does no good. A second covering for sin will be needed, or the born-again disciple will be cast into the lake of fire if the disciple commits any transgression of the laws of God.
Sin is the transgression of the law of God (1 John 3:4) as represented in unbelief … faith [pisteos] is belief of God (Rom 14:23).
Jesus’ shed blood at Calvary was a physical covering of sin large enough to cover every sin committed in the physical world. But Jesus will not be sacrificed a second time for sins committed in the spiritual realm (e.g., lust — Matt 5:27–28 — where no physical transgression of the Law occurs). But Jesus does not pay the spiritual death penalty for the sins of drawn disciples under judgment (1 Pet 4:17). He will, however, temporarily bear those sins committed in the spiritual realm so that they are not even imputed to disciples—and this is the meaning of Grace, not unmerited pardon of sin. No disciple can grow in grace if grace were unmerited pardon; for to then grow in grace would mean that some transgressions were not initially forgiven and this is simply not so.
When dominion over the single kingdom of this world is taken from the Adversary and given to the Son of Man (see Dan 7:9–14; Rev 11:15–18; 12:7–12 … each passage describes the same event, the one-time delivery of the kingdom to the Son of Man), the glorified Jesus will no longer be Israel’s high priest, but will be Israel’s king and lord. As such, He will no longer bear the sins of Israel. At His return, Jesus will give those sins He presently bears and will continue to bear until the Second Passover liberation of Israel either to the Adversary or to disciples who have left the covenant. The sins He bears/bore for disciples who will be resurrected to life will be given to Satan on the light portion of the fourth day [the resurrection of firstfruits at the beginning of the Millennium].
All disciples who remain in covenant have no sin imputed to them, and are under no further judgment. All disciples who have the faith of Abraham will have their belief of God counted to them as righteousness; for all who hear the voice of Jesus and believe the words of the Father that Jesus spoke pass from death to life without coming under judgment (John 5:24). They are covered by Christ bearing their sins. Therefore, these two coverings—one in the physical realm [Jesus’ death at Calvary], and one in the spiritual realm [Jesus bearing the sins of those in whom He dwells]—represent the reality of the Day of Atonement, a fast day to be kept in perpetuity.
Further, The Philadelphia Church teaches that the doctrine "once saved, always saved" is a false doctrine that does extensive harm to the greater Body of Christ.
As an aside, the reason why animal sacrifices will return during Christ’s Millennial reign is that Christ will not bear the sins of disciples. Before His reign begins here on earth, Christ will have returned the sins He has been bearing to either Satan or to out-of-covenant disciples.
8. The Philadelphia Church teaches that following seven years of tribulation the glorified Jesus of Nazareth will return as the Messiah to establish a thousand-year reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. These seven years of tribulation are the birth pains of spiritual Israel. Born again disciples will not be raptured prior to these years of tribulation. As the second Eve, the Christian Church will not escape the pain of childbirth, this pain to occur following spiritual childbirth as the chiral image of human childbirth.
The Philadelphia Church teaches that these seven endtime years constitute the Affliction and Kingdom and Endurance in Jesus (from Rev 1:9), with the 1260 day long Affliction during which the Adversary continues to reign as the prince of this world (the prince of the power of the air) forming the shadow and copy of the 1260 day long Endurance in Jesus during which the Christ Jesus as the Head of the Son of Man reigns over the single kingdom of this world. Doubled day 1260 [the last day of the Adversary’s reign and the first day of Christ’s reign] represents the transfer of the single kingdom of this world from rebellious angels to the Son of God, Head and Body. As such this doubled day representing the transfer of the Kingdom forms a maquette of the seven endtime years.
The Philadelphia Church teaches that the lawless one [the man of perdition] will be a human person possessed by the Adversary in the Affliction and as such forms the shadow and copy of the Adversary being cast to earth and given the mind of a man in the Endurance in Jesus. Further, Philadelphia teaches that the four beasts/kings of Daniel chapter seven are the four horns that sprout from the stump of the first horn/king of the federated King of Greece (Dan 8:8; 11:4), with this first or great horn broken because he was an uncovered firstborn at the Second Passover liberation of Israel, then a spiritual people through being filled with spirit and thereby liberated from indwelling sin and death. As such, the four beasts of Daniel chapter seven are the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, with the first horsemen being the demonic king that was like a lion and had eagle’s wing that were broken off and this demon made to stand like a man and given the mind of a man and comes as the false prophet to the office of Prophet already in place for him on or before day 220 of the Affliction, the day when the great Apostasy (2 Thess 2:3) occurs, a day like that when Israel rebelled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness of Paran (Num chap 14).
9. The Philadelphia Church teaches that humanity is presently divided between those individuals who have been drawn and called by God and those individuals who have not yet been drawn by the Father (John 6:44, 65), and that those individuals who have been drawn and called as firstfruits are further divided between those who have chosen to live as Judeans and those who do not so choose. God, however, is not a respecter of persons. Every individual will eventually be drawn and called, with the majority of humanity—those human beings who never knew the Father during their lifetimes—to be drawn and called after being physically resurrected during the great White Throne Judgment. This will not be a second chance for salvation. Rather, to know the Father requires possessing life in the spiritual realm through receiving the Holy Breath of God. This gift is presently given to some individuals, those predestined to be called or drawn out-of-season to be vessels created for special use or for dishonorable usage. The remainder of humanity is not now in an ever-burning hell, but is in the grave awaiting resurrection, without knowledge of time or status.
10. The Philadelphia Church teaches that the Sinai covenant, the law by which God married physically circumcised Israel and by which Israel was made His holy nation, has been abolished (Eph 2:15), thereby physically returning humanity to being one nation. This one new humanity, though, has been separated spiritually between those who have the Breath of God and those who do not. This separation will end when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of God the Father and of His Messiah (Rev 11:15) halfway through seven years of tribulation. Then, all of humanity will be liberated from bondage to sin; i.e., to the spiritual king of Babylon, Satan (Isa 14:4–21). All of humanity will then be called (Rev 18:4; Joel 2:32). All will have received the Breath of God. And all who endure to the end will be saved (Matt 24:13; 10:22). Those who endure will be the firstfruits of the harvest of humanity for which the Father and Christ have patiently waited.
11. The Philadelphia Church teaches that the man of perdition will come during the first half of seven years of tribulation as the shadow or antetype of Satan coming as the Antichrist when he is cast from heaven on day 1260. Satan presently deceives humanity by controlling its mental topography (Rev 12:9). He can only do this from the heavenly realm. Once he is cast to earth, he will be limited to physical means to recapture his newly liberated slaves (Rev 11:15), the logic for him requiring that his former slaves accept the mark of the beast (chi xi stigma, the tattoo of Christ’s Cross). Again, he comes pretending to be Christ the day armies surrounding Jerusalem have been destroyed and the man of perdition is destroyed—and he comes after those disciples who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus (Rev 12:17).
The place of safety for spiritual Israel is inside the walls of spiritual Jerusalem, the heavenly city that doesn’t have geographical coordinates, but theological positioning.
Hypocrisy will cause a disciple to be cast into the lake of fire—hypocrisy after being filled with spirit produces blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Hypocrisy is then rejection of the laws of God written on a disciple’s heart and mind by the Holy Spirit.
If a disciple relaxes the least of the commandments and teaches others to do likewise (Matt 5:19), which for most disciples is the Sabbath commandment, this disciple will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. This means, simply, that the person who in good faith rigorously keeps Sunday as the Sabbath should be kept will be called least; whereas the person who knew to keep the Sabbath and did not, keeping Sunday instead, is a hypocrite and will be cast into the lake of fire. It is the person who is genuinely deceived and who through ignorance doesn’t keep or teach others to keep the least of the commandments who will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; this person will be in the kingdom, though. The person who teaches disciples to be lawless will be denied by Christ when judgments are revealed (Matt 7:21-23). But the person who knows to keep the commandments and who keeps them and who teaches others to do likewise will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
12. The Philadelphia Church teaches that historical exegesis is the teaching of the traditions of men. The church’s theological positions are entirely text based. As such, they are subject to modification as the church grows in grace and knowledge. Further, The Philadelphia Church teaches that any centrally organized fellowship with many satellite fellowships will ultimately look to "headquarters" for its authority to implement theological growth instead of to Christ. Therefore, as shown through observing new moons, local fellowships are autonomous, and are fully responsible to Christ for the implementation of doctrinal growth. Whatever a fellowship does that is not of faith is sin; thus, every disciple needs to be fully convinced concerning his or her practice of worship, with the hand of fellowship extended to all who do not cause disruption within the church.
This concludes the STATEMENT OF BELIEFS as The Philadelphia Church understands Holy Writ on this day: 01.01.2015 CE.