|
The following suggested or possible grouping of Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and limited commentary are, hopefully, obviously thematically related. And the concept behind this High Sabbath’s selection is the foundation [rock] of Jonah. Printable/viewable for Greek characters PDF
format Clickable hymns on this page require RealPlayer to be installed on your computer. The download is free. Possible songs include the following hymns: Weekly
For the Sabbath of July 12, 2008
The person conducting the Sabbath service should
open services with two or three hymns, or psalms, followed by an opening prayer
acknowledging that two or three (or more) are gathered together in Christ
Jesus’ name, and inviting the Lord to be with them. The person conducting the services
should read or assign to be read Galatians chapters 3 & 4. Commentary: Paul received his gospel not from other men but
directly from Christ by revelation (Gal 1:12). This is a bold claim, for it
opens Paul up to being easily rejected: how do we know that Paul was of God?
All in But Paul claims that he, not Peter or any of the
other first disciples, laid a foundation and that no other foundation can be
laid, and that this foundation is Christ Jesus (1 Cor 3:10-11). Paul claims
that it was given to him to (1) know God’s will, to (2) see the Righteous
One, and to (3) hear a voice from his mouth (Acts 22:14); for Paul was to be a
witness for God to everyone of what he had seen and heard (v. 15). Such a claim to possession of truth should be
troubling to all who believe that they, themselves, possess the truth, either
received from another teacher such as Ellen G. White or Herbert W. Armstrong or
discovered by their own diligent study and scholarship. What was it that Paul taught that caused so many
problems for him from nearly everyone? The what
is contained in the following clauses: “[F]or in Christ you are all sons
of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put
on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free,
there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if
you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according
to the promise” (Gal 3:26-29). When a person is baptized, the person remains as
the person was. If the person were male, the person remains male. If the person
were circumcised, the person remains circumcised [i.e., a Jew]. If the person
were a slave, the person was still a slave. The tent of flesh doesn’t
change. But baptism isn’t to the death of the flesh, but to the death of
the old nature, the old self, the old man that activated the flesh. So following
baptism, the new creature or new self that dwells within the tent of flesh
(that only got wet at baptism) should dwell alone as the person’s
previous human nature had dwelt alone within the flesh to cause the flesh to
respond in various ways to outside and internal stimuli. And this new self is
the son of God born of the spirit of God [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø] that came from heaven when the disciple received
the Holy Spirit [B<,L:" –(4@<]. Unfortunately, too often the crucified old man
or old self didn’t die, but continues to live on, corrupting the new self
through any number of bad habits and failings. The Greek word [linguistic icon] “pneuma—B<,L:"” that forms the root of English words such
as “pneumatic tools” or “pneumonia” pertains to moving
air as in “wind,” or “deep breath,” or an invisible
force that functions as wind does. When B<,L:" pertains to breath, it is directly translated into
Latin as spīritus. The English
word “spirit” comes by way of Norman French from the Latin spīritus, whereas the English word
“breath” comes from Old English bræth
from the Germanic root bhreu for a
vapor as that which comes from a simmering pot [here a person can see how
language is affected by the geographical region where a word originates, for in
the North breath is seen as a vapor whereas it is not in southern regions]. Thus,
“spirit” should be understood to simply mean “breath,”
either metaphorical breath (for God doesn’t breath air) or literal breath. When aspiration or exhaled breath is employed in
uttering a consonant, this aspiration is inscribed [written] as the glottal
stop, the letter /h/ in English … remember, a consonant is formed by
interrupting the vowel stream of sound, with the particular consonant formed by
where this interruption occurs within the mouth or at the lips. Thus, a graph
of a consonant shows a downturn in sound, followed by a blank spot, then the
upturn of sound, with the sound again returning to what the vowel stream was,
or to a changed vowel stream. Aspiration is pressure against the blank spot,
for sound never completely stops nor does the stream of sound stop between
words. This non-interruption in the stream of sound is what makes learning a
foreign language difficult, for until a template is formed within the mind as
to how much “sound” makes a word, all that is heard is
uninterrupted noise. Because aspiration or “breath” is
written as the glottal stop, the insertion of an /h/or an /ah/before or after a
consonant carries “significance” … in the context of healing
the invalid of thirty-eight years (John 5:5), Jesus asked this invalid,
“‘Do you want to be healed,’” and when the invalid
answered that he had no one to put him in the water, Jesus told the invalid to,
“‘Get up, take up your bed, and walk’” (vv. 7–8). He told the man to
stand, and walk upright, and “at once the man was healed” (v. 9). The Jewish authorities objected
to Jesus healing on the Sabbath, objected to Jesus making Himself the equal to
God, and sought to kill Him. But in confronting these authorities, Jesus said,
“‘For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also
the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all
judgment to the Son’” (vv.
21–22). And it is here where Paul’s gospel enters into play: the new creature that is a son of God has
been given life by the Father when He “raised” the dead, giving
life to that which never before had life in the heavenly realm by placing in
the person the earnest of the holy spirit [B<,Ø:" –(4@<]. Human beings are not
born with immortal souls, or with any form of eternal life. Every person
receives eternal life as the free gift of the Father (Rom 6:23), but this life
dwells in a tent of flesh. As Elohim
[singular in usage] breathed “life” into the nostrils of the first
Adam, then a red mud corpse (Gen 2:7), thereby making Adam a nephesh or breathing creature, the
Father “breathes” spiritual “life” into physically
living but spiritually dead sons of disobedience, with this latter life
entering the person not through the nose but through the mind and heart. The “breath” received by the first Adam that
gave him life entered him through his nostrils, but the “breath of
God” [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø] that caused
Jesus to fulfill all righteousness entered Jesus, the second or last Adam, when
it lit as a dove on the man Jesus and remained with Him. And this “breath
of God” [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø] entered Jesus
not through the front of His face [i.e., His nostrils] but at His shoulders or
neck, where the blowhole of a whale would be located. It is traditionally
taught that Jesus built His Church on the rock [BXJD‘] that was the Apostle
Peter, a teaching that ignores a linguistic fault, but again, Paul said that
he, not Peter, laid the foundation for the house of God, and that no one else
can lay another foundation. So a disciple needs to reexamine what Jesus said
when He asked His disciples who people said He was: He [Jesus] said to them,
“But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are
the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him,
“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed
this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 16:13–17) There is a usually
undetected problem here: Peter was not the son of Jonah [#"D4T<—Barjona]
(Matt 16:17), but the son of John [LÊÎH [TV<<@L] (John 1:42). Peter was Simon of John [E\:T< [TV<<@L] (John 21:16). And Jesus is the one who identifies Peter
as Simon of John, or Simon, son of John; so Jesus knows that Peter’s
father is “John” [[TV<<—], not “Jonah” [[T<]. But the
misidentification is not a mistake. Again, the rough breathing or
aspiration on the vowel /V/would normally be
written in English as the glottal stop /h/
or /ah/. The nasal consonant /</ is transcribed into English as /n/. Thus, “John” has the aspiration of deep breathing
preceding the nasal consonant, whereas “Jonah” has the aspiration moved
behind the nasal. Where physical “breath” enters the physical tent
of flesh (through the nostrils) differs from where spiritual
“breath” enters this same tent of flesh. ·
For Jesus to move aspiration (rough breathing) from in
front of the nasal consonant /V</to behind the nasal /</is directly akin to moving a person’s nose from the
front of his or her face to a whale-like blowhole behind the person’s
head. ·
The sign of Jonah has now taken on greater significance,
for the “great fish” [an expression usually reserved for whales]
breathes through the back of its head. What Jesus pointed to
when He called Peter the son of Jonah was the prophet Jonah and all that Jonah
represented, including being the spokesman from God for Jesus said He would give
one sign that He was from heaven, the sign of Jonah. And He told Peter in
figurative language that on the foundation [rock] of Jonah, He would build His
church. When for a second time
the Pharisees and Sadducees asked Jesus to show them a sign from heaven (Matt
12:38–40; 16:1), Jesus said, He answered them,
“When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky
is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky
is red and threatening.’ [note: same sign] You know how to interpret the
appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil
and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given it except
the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed. (Matt 16:1-4) The context in which a
red sky appears changes the meaning of the one sign. When the red sky appears
as darkness approaches, it means fair weather; whereas when the red sky appears
in the morning, the sign indicates threatening weather. And the sign of Jonah
is a similar sign: the sign of Jonah pertains to the resurrection of
Jesus’ physical body and is the equivalent to the red sky appearing at
evening. But when the sign of Jonah pertains to the resurrection of
Jesus’ spiritual Body [i.e., the Church], it is the equivalent to the red
sky appearing in the morning. The seven endtime years of tribulation are the
stormy and threatening day that will begin when the dead Body of Christ is
resurrected, for the gates of Hades can no more prevail against the Body of
Christ than they could against the physical body of Jesus. [This resurrection
of the Church after the third day will be discussed next time.] Returning, now, to what
Jesus told Peter, “And I tell you, you are Peter [AXJD@H], and upon this rock [BXJD‘], I will build my church [ekklesia—¦6680F\"<]’” (Matt 16:18), and we see that the /os/case ending on the masculine name
Peter [AXJD—] becomes the vowel /‘/when moving to the
genitive case, or from Peter to petra. To verbally utter the /os/ case ending of AXJD@H requires puckering the
lips and exhaling through the puckered lips, thereby locating the exhalation of
breath to the frontmost position of the face; whereas, to verbally utter BXJD‘ requires opening the mouth and breathing in/out from near
the back of the throat—and this movement of utterance from exhalation at
the front of the mouth to the back of the mouth [AXJD@H » BXJD‘] is analogous to the
movement of aspiration /h/ occurring
before the nasal consonant /n/ to
occurring after the nasal consonant [V< » <]. This linguistic play is
fully incorporated within the sign of Jonah, and this “play” has
not previously been well understood in Christendom. Jesus told Peter that He
would build an assembly or congregation [ekklesia]
on the movement of breath [Greek: pneuma; Latin: spīritus] from mouth (the /os
/case ending), and from the nose (the aspiration before the nasal consonant /V</) to the person’s
heart and mind. Jesus said that He would construct an assembly, a church, not
based upon apostolic succession beginning with Peter, but upon The Apostle Paul
understood this concept, which is why he writes that sons of God are neither
male nor female. The whale-like tent of flesh remains male or female. The
“Jonah-like” new creature that now dwells within the whale-like
tent of flesh is neither male nor female for biological gender pertains to the
flesh and to the things of this world. We know that Paul
understood this concept of being twice born for he writes, “For
circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law,
your circumcision becomes uncircumcision” (Rom 2:25) … what
happens? Does the foreskin grow like Pinocchio’s nose when a lie is told?
Of course not—the flesh remains as it was. The uncircumcision is now of
the inner self. Paul continues, 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, by the Spirit, not by the letter. (Rom 2:26-29) The prophet Jeremiah
wrote, Behold the days are
coming, declares the Lord [YHWH],
when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the
flesh—Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in
the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all of these nations are
uncircumcised, and all of the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.
(9:25-26) The assembly or Church that Christ promised to
build would not be built on outward circumcision, but on circumcision of the
heart, which is circumcision of the inner new self or creature born of spirit
that presently dwells in a tent of flesh … within the splintered churches
of God there is utter rejection of the concept that Christians are now
“born of spirit,” or “born again.” But this rejection
comes from a true lack of spiritual understanding: as cited above, Jesus said
that the Father raises the dead (John 5:21) and that the Son gives life to whom
He will (same verse). To whom does the Son give life if the Father raises
the dead? There is no competition between the Father and the
Son to see who can first get to a corpse to raise it from death … Adam
was condemned to death because of his transgression of the single commandment
the Lord gave to this man of mud. Since Adam, every person born of flesh has
been consigned to disobedience (Rom 11:32 — “concluded to sin”
in some translations) and born into this world “dead” as sons of
disobedience; every human being has been born spiritually lifeless, born as a
corpse— The visible things of this world reveal the
invisible things of God (Rom 1:20), thereby making the visible things of this world
the shadow and copy of the things of God. But the visible things of this world
form the mirror-image of the things of God; thus as labor pains precede human
birth in this world and as Eve’s labor pains preceded delivery of Cain
and Abel, labor pains will follow (not precede) the birth of a spiritual Cain
and a spiritual Abel when Zion delivers her children (Isa 66:7-8). As Isaac was
the promised physical seed of Abraham, with this seed coming from a long dead
womb (the womb of Sarah), Jesus is the promised spiritual seed of Abraham, with
this seed coming from a virgin womb (the womb of Mary). As a human being is
born into this world as a son of the first Adam and as a son of disobedience,
Christ Jesus was born into this world as the son of the Logos [Ò 8`(@H] and not born consigned to sin, but born
free to keep the commandments. And as death follows life in this physical
world, death precedes life in the spiritual realm. Hence, the Father raises the
dead by giving them life, beginning with the man Jesus, the First of the
harvest of firstfruits—and Jesus received this life from the Father when
the breath of the Father [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø] descended
as a dove, lit and remained on Him, thereby causing Him to fulfill all
righteousness (Matt 3:15). So when the Son gives life to whom He will, He
causes the mortal flesh to put on immortality: in this mortal tent of flesh has
dwelt a son of God since the person was born again, or born from above, or born
a second time through the Father giving life to the person. So it is not the
new creature that puts on immortality, for this new creature is
“life” that has come from heaven in the form of the divine breath
of God. It is the tent of flesh that must put on immortality, for this tent of
flesh comes from the first Adam, not the last Adam, a life-giving spirit (1 Cor
15:45). When judgments are revealed upon Jesus’
return (1 Cor 4:5), the Son will give life to whom He will through all judgment
having been given to Him (John 5:22) … the Holy Spirit will have been
poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28) when the single kingdom of this world is
given to the Son of Man (cf. Rev
11:15-18; Dan 7:9-14), a one time event that occurs halfway through seven
endtime years of tribulation, occurs when Satan is cast from heaven (Rev
12:7-10) and forty-two months remain (Rev 13:5) before Christ’s return as
the anointed one, the Messiah. As the
world was physically baptized into death by the flood of Noah’s day, the
world will be baptized into life by the outpouring of the breath of God when
Satan is cast from heaven and comes claiming to be the messiah; when spiritual
Babylon and its king (Isa 14:4) falls and the kingdom of this world becomes the
kingdom of the Father and His Christ. Then all of humankind, during these last
1260 days, will be born of spirit and will be part of the harvest of
firstfruits. [But God is not a respecter of persons, the reason why the third
woe (Rev 11:14) remains to be completed.] When asked by His disciples for what would be the
sign of His coming and of the close of this age, Jesus said, “‘You
will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this
must take place, but the end is not yet’” (Matt 24:6) … how
many disciples today hear of wars and rumors of wars and are alarmed? Judging
from the alarmist literature produced by many Sabbatarian fellowships, the
business of Sabbatarian Christianity is scaring disciples with the latest war
rumor. But Jesus said not to be alarmed by such rumors, for
“‘nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and
there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the
beginning of the birth pains’” (vv.
7-8). Those physical things that happen to the sons of
disobedience, irrespective of whether these sons are or are not outwardly circumcised,
should not alarm disciples for they are at best only the beginning of the birth
pains: they are not the hard labor pains of Zion giving birth to many sons of
God. Those labor pains begin when “‘they will deliver you
[Jesus’ disciples] up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will
be hated by all nations for my name’s sake’” (Matt 24:9)
… between verse 8 and verse 9, the Tribulation begins, with Zion giving
birth to a spiritual Abel first, then to a spiritual Cain when the great
falling away occurs. Then after three and a half years, when the man of
perdition (a human being possessed by Satan) is taken and Satan is cast from
heaven, Zion will give birth to a third son, a spiritual Seth that will be
accepted by simply enduring to the end without taking upon himself the mark of
death, the mark of the beast. This spiritual Seth is the third part of
humankind (Zech 13:9). And the endtime gospel that Jesus said would
“‘be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all
nations”’ (Matt 24:14) is the birth announcement of this spiritual
Seth: “‘But the one who endures to the end will be
saved’” (v. 13). Born of
spirit when the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh, spiritual Seth is the
one who will endure to the end. Except for a remnant of Christendom (Rev 12:17),
and except for the 144,000 [natural Jews who accepted Christ during the first
1260 days of the Tribulation and as such are spiritual virgins] (Rev 14:1-5;
7:4-8), the two parts of humankind (Zech 13:8) will be physically and/or spiritually
dead when Satan is cast from heaven. Only the one part remains, and this one
part will be the people of God (v.
9). One death is enough to end one life—unless a
person has been born of spirit, the person will not, and indeed, cannot
experience the second death. Thus, if a person is not today born of spirit,
regardless of how evil the person is, the person will not experience the second
death, the lake of fire. Paul’s gospel was difficult for even Peter to
fully grasp (2 Pet 3:15-17), and it is impossible for the person whose focus is
the flesh to grasp the concept of a second life residing within the same tent
of flesh that was a son of disobedience prior to being drawn and called by the
Father and the Son. When Jesus told Nicodemus, “‘Truly, truly,
I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the A person simply cannot understand heavenly things
if a person is unable to comprehend what Paul [and Jesus] taught about a second
life, a second breath of life dwelling in the same tent of flesh that the old
man or old creature received at birth from the womb. Endtime prophecies about Why is it that an endtime disciple can believe the
story of Nebuchadnezzar having his human nature suddenly taken from him and
being given in its place the nature of an ox for seven years, then receiving
again his human nature (Dan chap 4) yet not understand that his or her own
human nature can be as easily taken from the person, or that a second
“life” or nature be given to the person when the former nature is
crucified with Christ, hence raised up unto death? Has this disciple not
contemplated what it means to be crucified with Christ (Rom 6:6), or to have
died with Him so that the person might live with Him? Are Paul’s words
hollow and without meaning, vain platitudes overused by Evangelical Christendom
to say something while believing nothing? Or do these words of Paul that lay
out his gospel have real meaning? If they do, then the person who makes him or
herself into a willing servant of sin is not under grace but under the law,
with the power of the law being death. * The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal. * * * * * "Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©
2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved." [ Home ] [ Sabbath Readings ] |