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The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and commentary for this week are more in line with what has become usual; for the following will most likely be familiar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath’s selection is typology. 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 August 2, 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 following is
from the Sabbath reading of August 4, 2007: The Apostle Paul, employing the hermeneutics of Judaism and of Christ
Himself, used typology (which is reasoning by analogy) to extract meaning from
Scripture. For the Apostle, the visible world revealed the invisible attributes
of God (Rom 1:20) and that which is physical preceded the spiritual (1 Cor
15:46). Thus, if the visible and physical reveal and precede the invisible and
spiritual, then that which cannot be seen or measured—that which is not
“real” from the perspective of being observable—can be known
from what is “real.” Hence, typology employs realism as its revealing limitation, thereby making what can be known
philosophically meaningful. And in this means, typological exegesis is
“scientific” in that someone doing research uses the presumption
that reality exists and is measurable and observable and can therefore be
known. Likewise, the person employing typological exegesis acts on the
presumption that reality creates the informing shadow of what cannot be
directly observed, causing that which has no substance to be discernable
through that which has substance. What wasn’t known a
year ago is that the visible things of this world form the left hand mirror
image of the right hand of God (God
used metonymically), with the principle of chirality opening all of Scripture. But
knowing to employ chirality in
typological exegesis has required six-plus years of growth in Where
did Jesus go when resurrected to glory but to sit at the right hand of God? If
as a man he was not sitting at the right hand of God, where was He when sitting
with His disciples and Philip said to Him, “‘Lord, show us the
Father’” (John 14:8)? If
the visible things of this world reveal the invisible things of God, the
Apostle Paul’s certain claim, and if Jesus when glorified would sit at
the right hand of God, then without twisting logic Jesus would be to the left
hand side of the Father when He was sitting with His disciples before He was
crucified … this will take a moment to digest, but remember the
relationship between Ò 2,ÎH and JÎ< 2,`< is a face to face [ÎH><`<] relationship, and remains a face to face relationship until Jesus is on
the cross. In order for His disciples to see the Father—Jesus answered
Philip, saying, “‘Whoever has seen me has seen the
Father’” (John 14:9)—Jesus would need to be the mirror image
of the Father; so if Jesus would go to sit at the right hand of the Father, and
if Jesus were the mirror image of the Father, then Jesus sitting with His
disciples would form the mirror image of the glorified disciples sitting with
the Father, with Jesus while still in this world on the Father’s left
side when Jesus answered Philip. So the things of this world will form the left
hand, non-symmetrical mirror image of the things of God, the right hand image,
with the eyes of God upon the Church as the eyes of How
is it that a disciple—someone genuinely born of spirit—can read the
same text year by year and not understand the most basic principles of God? How
is it that Jesus’ words are recorded in the Gospels yet the majority of
Christians cannot hear Jesus’ voice in His own words? * The person conducting the service should
now read or assign to be read John chapter 5, verses 19 through 47; followed by
John chapter 10. Commentary: Jesus said he had
authority to lay down His life and the authority to take it up again, that this
authority came from the Father (John 10:17–18) … to say that He had
the authority to take up His life again would seem to be another expression of
Jesus saying that “‘as the Father has life in himself, so he has
granted the Son also to have life in himself’” (John 5:26). This
authority to take up His life again could be misunderstood as power to
self-resurrect, which would make “death” not really death. But the
greater problem is the tendency to morph the Son into the Father as in a triune
deity that is one hypostasis. For a disciple to move
from physical to spiritual when Jesus only spoke in figures of speech, for He
spoke about heavenly things in the language of physical things, requires
traversing the slippery slopes of disbelief and error: the Son does not give
Himself the authority to take up His life, nor from the context the authority to lay down His life, implying that the Logos needed authority from the
Father to enter His creation as this only Son, this authority coming in the
form of “being sent” (John 5:30). Jesus said,
“‘For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the
very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent
me’” (John 5:36) … the Jews [primarily Sadducees and
Pharisees] searched the Scriptures to find eternal life, yet Jesus had eternal
life dwelling within Him as the One who had been sent by the Father to deliver
the words of the Father, “words” too large to be uttered by human
breath but were uttered through the renewing work of the Holy Spirit, the
divine breath of the Father. These Jews had among them the Today, Christians continue
to diligently search the Scriptures for the “real Jesus,” but
absolutely refuse to hear Jesus’ voice in His words; e.g., Jesus said,
“‘For many will come in my name, saying, “I am the
Christ,” and will lead many astray. And 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 24:5–6) … have many men and women come
in Jesus’ name saying that He was the Christ, and then have pointed to
this war or to that war and used the war to convince many disciples that the
end was upon humanity? Quite a few? Certainly. But to get more personal, during
the Depression and during the early years of WWII, one advertising man came
claiming that THE OUTLOOK, at the moment, is for
six or seven more years of PROSPERITY here in YOU, dear Co-Worker, are not going
to be permitted to enjoy your home, your freedom, your present privileges and
pursuits, many more years. Just a few more years---perhaps six or
seven---perhaps twelve or fifteen---and a re-united Fascist-Nazi Europe will
STRIKE--- his theological descendants continue to market wars
and rumors of wars to an unsuspecting generation, while boastfully observing
how insightful this advertising man was so long ago to accurately describe the
present state of world affairs. So there is no
misunderstanding of who this advertising man was, another excerpt from the same
December 8, 1947, letter is here included: This AGE is closing FAST! We must
WARN the nations, before it is too late! NO ONE ELSE IS SOUNDING THIS WARNING!
Can you realize that? A NEW AGE will soon dawn, with the COMING OF CHRIST! The
GOOD NEWS of that must be proclaimed in great power to the WHOLE WORLD! I am
fighting with every ounce of strength in me to build and prepare this work for
that great COMMISSION---the commission to which we have been called BY JESUS
CHRIST! NOTHING ELSE MATTERS today! Our
nation is in an artificial, stimulated, inflated "prosperity". Our
people are living in a fool's paradise! YOU WON'T BE LIVING IN YOUR HOME MUCH
LONGER---you won't be doing what you are now doing much LONGER! NOTHING ELSE
MATTERS TODAY! We must WARN the people, NOW. We must preach and publish the
GOOD NEWS of the coming Kingdom while there is time. The night is coming
swiftly when no man can work, for God. I am still fighting---doing my
very utmost. I NEED YOUR HELP---to your very utmost. Nothing else MATTERS,
today! GOD BLESS those of you who have
helped so nobly, and at such sacrifice---some of you with just the widow's
mites, who have nevertheless given as MUCH, in proportion to what you
have---and some of you with one, two, or three thousand dollars! God has USED
YOU TO preserve this, HIS WORK! He will reward you, and GREAT shall be your
reward in the Kingdom. Nothing MATTERS any more, in this world! By immediate return mail if
possible---otherwise, at the very earliest possible moment, please send the
largest offering you can, in addition to God's tithe. And, if you cannot give a
large amount, but can LOAN it for the use of God's work, SEND THE MONEY by
return mail or as soon as you can get it, and a letter stating when, and in
what amounts, you may need to have it returned, and I will send you our NOTE
for it. And remember, we are maintaining a cash reserve fund to guarantee
repayment of all such loans. Once again, I leave the issue in
your hands. I know you won't fail me, or our God. THANK YOU, and GOD BLESS YOU!
And PLEASE remember above all, KEEP PRAYING EARNESTLY, and IN FAITH for God to
deliver us, and keep this great work going. With love to all, in Jesus' name, Herbert W. Armstrong The citation that appears
here is not to belittle a minister in the long line of ministers that led a
remnant of the 16th-Century Anabaptists from Babylon to spiritual
Judea, taking this remnant to the outskirts of spiritual Jerusalem, but to
demonstrate how a person can come in Jesus’ name and “alarm”
many by preaching about wars and rumors of wars, deceiving many that continue
to be deceived and will not give up being deceived even when confronted with
what Jesus said was the endtime “good news” of the kingdom …
His disciples asked for a sign of Jesus’ second coming and of the close
of the age (Matt 24:3), and Jesus gave His disciples what they asked, the sign
of His coming and of the close of the age. Jesus began by telling
his disciples not to deceive [read v.
4 in Greek], that many would come in His name and deceive many, that news of
the physical things of this world [wars, famines, earthquakes] should not alarm
disciples for these events were only the prelude to Zion giving birth to a
nation in a day (Isa 66:7–8), that—here is where the understanding
spoken of in v. 15 must begin to be
employed—when Zion gives birth, disciples would be (1) delivered up to tribulation,
(2) put to death, (3) hated by all nations; disciples would (4) fall away, (5)
betray one another, (6) hate one another; and (7) many false prophets would
arise and lead many astray. Also, because lawlessness would be increased (8)
the love of many would grow cold. So far, since v. 9, Jesus has not delivered any good
news, but has told disciples that they would hear of wars and rumors of war,
and nation would rise against nation, and there would be natural catastrophes,
but that all of these “natural” events should not alarm them for
these natural events were but the beginning of Zion’s birth
pains—Zion will give birth before she goes into labor—that nothing
good was going to happen to disciples once tribulation began. But the one who endures to the end shall be
saved (Matt 24:13), and this is truly good news against the backdrop of
everything else Jesus has just said, remembering now that Jesus was still only
speaking to His disciples in figures of speech (John 16:25–26). Immediately after telling
His disciples that the one who endures to
the end shall be saved, Jesus said, “‘And this gospel [good
news] of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a
testimony to all nations, and then the end will come’” (Matt
24:14). So, according to Jesus, the sign of His return and of the end of the
age would be the delivery of the good news that all who endure to the end shall be saved. This good news is
Jesus’ word about patient endurance (Rev 3:10), and the “why”
of why this is the sign of the end concerns Zion being the last Eve, with this
last Eve giving birth to three spiritual sons, a righteous Abel when
spiritually circumcised Israel is liberated from the sin and death that has
dwelt in the fleshy members of disciples (Rom 7:21–25) at a second
Passover, then a lawless Cain when the great falling away occurs with the
revealing of the man of perdition (2 Thess 2:3), and finally, halfway through
the seven endtime years of tribulation, this last Eve will give birth to a
spiritual Seth, the third part of humankind (Zech 13:9) that only has to endure
to the end to be saved, for this third part of humankind will be born of spirit
when the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28), thereby changing
the “natures” of the great predators (Isa 11:6–9) and
changing “human nature” by giving humanity the mind and nature of
Christ. Therefore, the good news
that is the sign Jesus gave of the end of the age is the delivery to all the
world of His word about patient endurance, with this good news being the birth
announcement of a spiritual Seth that will account for the greatest portion of
the harvest of firstfruits. The endtime gospel is not
a message about the personhood of Christ or about the soon-coming The two witnesses will go
forth in sackcloth because they know how many will die physically and
spiritually, and there will be little they can do to affect the disbelief that
grips Christianity once the great falling away occurs … the problem that
slivered Churches of God cannot overcome is the smallness of their thinking:
the endtime harvest of God isn’t of a few, isn’t of 144,000, but is
of a great multitude. It is utter foolishness to teach that the “great
falling away” occurred when Joe Jr. led a spiritually dead work back to
spiritual Babylon—and yes, that work which in 1947 proclaimed that
disciples would not have their homes in a few short years, 6 or 7, 12 or 15 at
the most, died spiritually in 1962 when it rejected further revelation from
God. That work’s greatest material success came after it was dead. As a
chicken runs around after its head has been chopped off, spraying blood
everywhere, that work briefly took its message about the soon-coming kingdom of
God to the world when it no longer had any spiritual life but was running hard
in the throes of death. Unfortunately, many
genuine disciples continue to be alarmed by the physical things of this world
as they were taught to be alarmed by an ad-man who was called to do a work of
God, a work now burned up as straw on the outskirts of heavenly Jesus told the Jews
seeking His life that if they had believed Moses, they would believe Him, for
Moses wrote of Jesus, but “‘if you do not believe his writings, how
will you believe my [Jesus’] words’” (John 5:47)? Today, Christians, like
those 1st-Century Jews, search the Scriptures daily, but they will
not believe Moses—actually, they won’t even read Moses. They will
not hear Jesus’ voice in His words, but they will receive another who
comes in his [or her] own name, whether that “another” is Menno
Simons, or Ellen G. White, or Herbert W. Armstrong, or a host of better known
theologians. But this is not what the slivered Churches of God want to hear:
they want to be titillated by the latest war and rumor of war; by mega-disaster
programs showing how soil liquefaction will magnify the damage caused by an
earthquake to Seattle; by scientific predictions detailing the damage to the
world that will be done by global warming; by news of an impending worldwide
shortage of oil. They literally feed on bad news. Thirty-five years ago, they
were alarmed by global cooling and forthcoming world famine, by the ozone hole,
and by seventy-five French nuclear-tipped missiles that could be used to wipe
out the Consider for a moment the
psychology of disciples being alarmed by bad news concerning the things of this
world, yet celebrating this bad news as if it were truly good news: what sort
of perverseness grips these disciples? Bad news is bad news! The evil that
occurs among nations is not good news concerning the soon-coming The good news that Jesus
said would be proclaimed is about the world being baptized in spirit into life
as the world was baptized by water into death in the days of Noah. But an
ad-man coming in the name of Christ did deceive many into embracing bad news as
good news. The damage done to disciples and damage still occurring from
teaching disciples to be “alarmed” by what happens in this world
through the natural ebb and flow of nations rising against nations and the
forces of nature destroying the works of men hinders many disciples from
participating in delivering the good news that is Jesus’ word about
patient endurance. About this hindrance little can be done: a disciple must
want to be a part of An endtime disciple need
not be a part of Philadelphia to
enter into the kingdom of God, but no other work will stand on the foundation
Paul laid (1 Cor 3:10–11) as pillars in the house of God. So returning to
Jesus’ words: when the Jews asked Jesus to tell them plainly if He was
the Christ, He said, “‘I told you, and you do not believe. The
works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not
believe because you are not part of my flock’” (John
10:25–26). Christians study
Scripture in every denomination, in every sect, in every fringe cult to learn
from Jesus the means to eternal life, but “the many” [from Matt
22:14] do not hear Jesus speaking through His words, hearing instead a
dispensationalist message that what Jesus said only pertained to those who were
under the law, and “Christians” are not under the law—hearing
instead a message about the English speaking peoples being the endtime Israel
that will be delivered from northern captivity when Christ comes, or hearing
instead about “the third angel’s message” to the world. The
damage done by those who have come in Jesus’ name to lead many astray is
too great to fully comprehend, but a disciple can see this damage within
themselves by what they think about Moses, about what they think the endtime
gospel is, about what they think will happen to the mass of humankind that has
never heard the name Jesus. Most likely, the disciple—you—will
struggle to not be alarmed by those things that happen in this world. That you are reading this
Sabbath reading suggests that you are not alarmed by the evil that occurs in
this world, or that you are at least willing to consider whether you should be
alarmed by natural catastrophes and wars and rumors of wars … the sheep
of His flock hear His voice in His words, and they follow Him, not any man or
woman—and this is as it should be. * 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 ] |