The Sabbath — Is it for Endtime Christians? - 10-15-2010

October 15, 2010 ©Homer Kizer

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The Sabbath —

Is it for Endtime Christians?

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Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. (Deut 5:12–15 emphasis added)

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A Baptist asked his pastor about the Epistle to the Hebrews, and he was told that the letter was written to Hebrews, Jews, not to Gentile Christians who were not under the Law. But about those who were not under the Law, the Apostle Paul wrote, “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. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” (Rom 2:12–13). The pastor told his parishioner that since Christians were not under the Law, the Epistle to the Hebrews would just confuse the Baptist who had found, in the epistle, the necessity to keep the Sabbath. And certainly that was the case, for this Baptist remains confused to this day: if a Christian not under the Law sins, according to Paul, the Christian will perish without ever being under the Law, for it is, again according to Paul, doers of the Law who will be justified.

In his treatise to the Romans, in the same chapter [thought], Paul continued,

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” / For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 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. His praise is not from man but from God. (Rom 2:17–29 emphasis added)

Is not the commandment, And you shall not steal (Deut 5:19), one of the Ten Living Words? Is not the commandment, And you shall not commit adultery (v. 18), one of the Ten Commandments? Is not the commandment, You shall have no other gods before/besides me (v. 7), the first of the Ten Commandments?

The Gentile who sins [i.e., who transgresses the commandments — from 1 John 3:4] without the Law or without knowledge of the Law will perish, according to Paul, without the Law. The Gentile Christian who claims not to be under the Law and who sins will perish without being under the Law, according to Paul; for it isn’t the hearers of the Law [natural Jews] who are justified, but the person who does what the Law commands. Thus, it is the transgression of the Law that causes Gentiles and Gentile Christians to perish, as well as causes Jews to be judged, if Paul is to be believed. So where, before God, is the difference between Jew and Gentile? Other than Jews were foreknown through being the firstborn natural son of God (Ex 4:22) as Ishmael was Abraham’s firstborn son, and as Esau was Isaac’s firstborn son, and as Manasseh was Joseph’s firstborn son, where is the difference between Jews and Gentiles when it comes to righteousness?

If the biological descendants of the patriarch Jacob are the firstborn natural son of the Lord, is not the Christian Church, Christ Jesus and the Body of Christ, the firstborn spiritual son of the Father … as the natural sons of Abraham are circumcised in the flesh, the spiritual sons of God are circumcised of heart. And as there was a first nation of Israel that was circumcised only in the flesh, there will be a second nation of Israel that is circumcised both in the flesh and of the heart during the reign of the Messiah. But as there was a first assembly of the Lord that was circumcised of heart, there will be a latter assembly of the Lord that is circumcised of heart—

For the promises made to Abram [Abraham] didn’t come through Ishmael or through Esau or through Joseph, the firstborn of Rachel, Jacob’s wife of choice; rather, the promise made to Abram that in his seed all of the families of the earth shall be blessed (Gen 12:2–3) came physically through Isaac, and through Jacob, and through Judah in the form of the man Jesus of Nazareth. But the promise made to Abraham that he would be the father of a multitude of nations (Gen 17:4) when aspiration [breath] was added to his name (v. 5), with this added aspiration foreshadowing the giving of the Holy Spirit—this promise of being the father of a multitude of nations came spiritually through Isaac, Jacob, and Ephraim, the second son of Joseph, and the son upon who Israel placed his blessing, saying that “‘his offspring shall become a multitude of nations’” (Gen 48:19). For Hoshea, the son of Nun, represented the tribe of Ephraim when Moses chose the twelve Israelites who would spy-out the Promised Land before all of Israel entered (Num 13:8), and Moses changed Hoshea the son of Nun’s name to Joshua, which in Greek is written as [0F@Ø(from Acts 7:45) … Peter said, Let it be known to all the people of Israel that in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene [[0F@ØOD4FJ@Ø J@Ø ;".TD"\@L] whom you crucified (Acts 4:10) that there is salvation in no other name (v. 12). Why? Because as the children of Israel followed Joshua [[0F@Ø] into the Promised Land of God’s rest, the children of God will follow Jesus [[0F@Ø] into the Promised Land of God’s rest; i.e., salvation.

The word play that had Moses changing Hoshea to Joshua [the addition or incorporation of Yah in Joshua’s name] was picked up by the angel Gabriel who told Mary not to be alarmed for she had found favor with God and that she would conceive in her womb a son and that she would name her son [0F@Ø< — Jesus (Luke 1:31) … the reverse translation of [0F@Øinto Hebrew doesn’t give the Hebrew speaker what Moses named Hoshea: the translation works when Joshua’s name is translated into Greek and Jesus’ name originates in Greek.

But the Baptist pastor, holding a doctorate degree in Theology, who confused his parishioner was probably never taught that inner sons of God—the inner self that has been raised from the dead to walk in newness of life as a Judean—must choose life as the children of Israel on the plains of Moab were commanded to choose life (Deut 30:15–20) after making a journey of faith that inwardly represents the physical journey of faith that Abraham made from Ur of the Chaldeans [for Christians, from Babylon, the kingdom of this world] to Haran, where he parted from his old man [for Christians, baptism], then into Canaan, the Promised Land to God’s rest.

When sons of disobedience, who all Christians once were (Eph 2:1–3) regardless of what they believe about themselves, inwardly stand before God with the choice of life and good, death and evil placed before them, with choosing life and good represented by believing the writings of Moses, the prerequisite for believing the words of Jesus (John 5:46–47), and following Jesus [[0F@Ø] into the Promised Land of God’s rest [heaven] as the children of Israel followed Joshua [[0F@Ø] into the Promised Land of Canaan, these [hopefully] former sons of disobedience are commanded to love the Lord by walking in His ways (1 John 2:6; Deut 30:16), keeping His commandments, statutes, and rules. But if the former son of disobedience isn’t really a former son of disobedience, but continues in disobedience when sin has no dominion over the inner self that is under the garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness, then the inner self returns to being a slave of the Adversary … Paul writes, “Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness” (Rom 6:15–16).

For the firstborn natural son of the Lord, the Promised Land was the geography of Canaan, a land that the Lord’s eyes were on continually (Deut 11:12). For the second born natural son [Israel circumcised of heart and in the flesh] of the Lord, the Promised Land is the Messiah’s millennial reign over the kingdom of this world. But between the “birth” of the firstborn natural son and the “birth” of the second born natural son is all of the Christian era that also sees a firstborn spiritual Son, Christ Jesus, and a second born spiritual son, the Christian Church that is also divided into the 1^st-Century assembly and the 21^st-Century assembly, with the Church in the centuries in-between not being of Christ Jesus but being of the Adversary, a claim that is sure to provoke a great many Christians.

Prima facie evidence that the Christian Church between the beginning of the 2^nd-Century and the close of the 20^th-Century has been of the Adversary is in what John wrote:

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he [Jesus] appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:4–10)

The Sabbatarian churches of God, while striving in the 19^th and 20^th Centuries not to make a practice of sinning, have had no love for their brothers in Christ.

Sin is lawlessness, with this lawlessness originating in unbelief; thus, whatever is not of belief [B4FJ,bT], whatever is not of faith [B\FJ,TH — from Rom 14:23] is sin, for belief comes from faith and is faith in action. Sin comes from not believing the Father and the Son. And the Son said,

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 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. (Matt 5:17–19 emphasis added)

The Baptist pastor who addled the mind of his parishioner certainly taught others to relax if not outright break the commandments found in the Law [Torah], the same Law that will be written on hearts and placed in minds of disciples under the New Covenant (Heb 8:10; Jer 31:33).

The Sabbath is the seventh day of a weekly cycle that was established in the wilderness under Moses with the giving of manna for six days, and the withholding of manna on the Sabbath. This weekly cycle has not been broken. The claim of the Catholic Church is that it has the authority to command Christians to worship on the day after the Sabbath rather than on the Sabbath, with this authority going back to Peter who taught Gentile converts to live as Judeans [to Judaize] (read Gal 2:14 in Greek). However, the mystery of lawlessness was already at work while Paul lived (2 Thess 2:7) … by the mid 2^nd-Century, Justin Martyr wrote in his First Apology that “we all gather on the day of the sun” to recall both the creation of light and the resurrection. The work of the mystery of lawless was nearly complete, if not completed. Greek philosophers had successfully merged the worship of Christ Jesus with Asia Minor’s worship of Mithras, thereby blending Zoroasterism with Judaism to produce a hybrid religion that was not of God although it was “Christian” in name, a religion that has had surprising staying power, but a religion that will be utterly abolished during the seven endtime years of tribulation—

In 313 CE, Emperor Constantine declared December 25^th to be the birthday of Jesus Christ … earlier, Emperor Aurelian had declared December 25^th as the birthday of Mithras. And even earlier, pagan Greeks celebrated the birthday of their sun-god, Apollo, on the winter solstice. So it made perfect sense for pagan Greek philosophers to abandon the seventh day Sabbath of the Jews and reshape Mithraic sun worship into Christians worshipping on Sunday.

Justin Martyr argued that the Sabbath was not kept before Moses—and it wasn’t for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived as sojourners in the geographical Promised Land that represented God’s rest. However, for Israel in the wilderness keeping the Sabbath represented entering into God’s rest. For inner selves born of spirit as sons of God—the inner man that dwells in a tent of flesh—keeping the Sabbath represents entering into God’s rest before actual entrance [glorification and going to heaven] occurs. Just as the Sabbath was given to Israel and the children of Israel in the wilderness through the giving of manna, bread from heaven, the Sabbath is given to Christians by the indwelling of Christ Jesus, the vessel able to hold the glory of God that represents the bright fire of eternal life … as the dark fire of cellular oxidation of simple carbohydrates sustains physical life, with manna as bread from heaven fueling this dark fire all the while Israel journeyed in the wilderness of Sin/Zin, the inner bright fire seen in Ezekiel 1:26–28 that represents the glory of the Lord sustains eternal life, the indwelling of life received from the Father through receipt of His breath [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø], a second breath of life. For a human being would be utterly consumed by this bright fire that is the holy spirit [B<,Ø:" ž(4@< — breath holy] if it were not contained within the person in a vessel that has also come from heaven, the spirit of Christ [B<,Ø:" OD4FJ@Ø — from Rom 8:9].

Thus, since the indwelling of this bright fire would consume a human being without the person first receiving the indwelling of Christ Jesus, the true bread of life came from heaven, which is why Paul wrote that “the free gift of God is eternal life in [©<] Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23). Paul literally means “in” [©<] as coffee is held in a cup and the manna Moses saved was in a jar in the wood Ark of the Covenant. The fleshly body of a son of God is the spiritual ark of the covenant, and the fleshly body of this son of God holds the two tablets of flesh [the heart and the mind] on which the Torah is written [representing the two tablets of stone on which the Lord wrote the commandments] as well as the promise of being raised from death [represented by Aaron’s budded staff] and the indwelling of Christ Jesus [represented by the jar of manna]. The mercy seat covering the wood Ark of the Covenant, now, represents grace. And the Book of Deuteronomy that was placed beside the wood Ark (Deut 31:26) remains as a witness against spiritual arks of the covenant as it was a witness against ancient Israelites.

As Israel and the children of Israel were sustained on manna, the bread that came from heaven in the dark of night, for forty years—from Egypt to the Promised Land, or from sin to God’s rest—Christians will be sustained by Christ Jesus, the true Bread that comes from heaven, throughout the seven endtime years of the Affliction and Endurance, the 2520 days that follow the Second Passover liberation of Israel.

Note the sequence for Israel in the wilderness: Israel received the Sabbath (Ex chap 16) before the commandments were given at Mount Sinai; Israel received the Sabbath with the giving of manna and began to keep the Sabbath while being sustained by manna before the children of Israel entered God’s rest … except for Joshua [[0F@Ø] and Caleb [who had a different spirit about him — Num 14:24], none of the nation numbered in the census of the second year entered into God’s rest.

When the children of Israel crossed the Jordan on the 10^th day of the first month (Josh 4:19), the day the Passover lamb of God is selected and penned, the children born in the wilderness were uncircumcised: they were circumcised, though, before they ate the Passover on the 14^th of the first month at even (Josh 5:2–7). For with the circumcision of the children born in the wilderness, the reproach of Egypt was rolled away (v. 9). As foreskins were rolled away in circumcision, the reproach or covering of Egypt was rolled away, thereby linking the natural covering of flesh with slavery to sin and by extension, to death. To be circumcised represents in type liberation from death: to be circumcised in the flesh represents the generational continuation of physical life whereas to be circumcised of heart represents indwelling eternal life of the individual. Thus, circumcision “heals” a male from the “disease” of death as a woman shall be “saved” in childbearing. Through removing the natural skin covering the “head” of a man, the man is made naked and must then cover himself with the garment of obedience to God [righteousness].

Whereas the “head” of a natural Israelite male is uncovered in circumcision of the flesh, the “head” of the Christian male is Christ Jesus, for the Christian’s circumcision is of the heart and not of the penis. Both outward males and females can be circumcised of heart: biological gender makes no difference. Therefore as the husband of a woman is the “head” of the woman, Christ Jesus as the Bridegroom is the “head” of every Christian for there is not, for inner sons of God, male or female, Jew or Greek, free or imprisoned. And as in ancient Israel where the burden of proof fell upon the woman accused of adultery, Christians must “prove” their faithfulness to Christ Jesus by walking as He walked; i.e., by living as a culturally despised Judean.

The sins of Israel in Egypt were covered by Israel’s slave status; for the people of Israel were not free to worship the Lord. Moses asked Pharaoh not for the liberation of Israel, but for permission for Israel to go three days’ journey into the wilderness to worship the Lord (Ex 5:1 et al). Thus the reproach of Egypt was that covering of slavery representing death for national sins; for throughout the forty years of the Exodus, Israel did not cover itself with any sin offering but its obedience to the Lord … in order words, by obeying the Lord, Israel would live. When Israel did not obey the Lord—at Sinai (Ex chap 32) and in the wilderness of Paran (Num chap 15) and in the manner of Korah (Num chap 16) in particular—the nation died, first spiritually when Moses prevented Israel from kindling a fire on the Sabbath (Ex 35:3) then physically (Deut 1:34–40). Representational democracy (for which Korah was an advocate) was rebellion against the Lord, and no rebellion is permitted … Israel has no more right to transgress the commandments than it has to vote in new leaders; Christians have no right to change the Sabbath from the seventh day of a weekly cycle originating in the days of Moses to the day after the Sabbath.

The mirror image of manna given for days one through six of each week beginning on or about the 15^th day of the second month of the year Israel left Egypt is Jesus, as the Bread of Life that has come down from heaven, being available for harvesting every Sabbath on or about the day of the Second Passover liberation of Israel, with circumcised-of-heart Israel’s exodus being both individualistic and collective … the numbering of Israel doesn’t occur when Israel leaves Egypt—“the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children” (Ex 12:37)—but on the first day of the second month in the second year (Num 1:1) when a census of the men of Israel was conducted and those men listed in the census [the tribe of Levi was excluded — v. 47] numbered 603,550 (v. 46).

No provision was made for Israelites who did not take [eat] the Passover in Egypt: the firstborn in that household would have simply died as the firstborn of Egyptians died. But there is no textual evidence that any Israelite did not believe Moses and take the Passover on the dark portion of the 14^th of Abib … to be of Israel required the household eat the Passover on the 14^th of the first month. Likewise, to be of circumcised-of-heart Israel requires that endtime disciples take the Passover sacraments of bread and wine on the dark portion of the 14^th of Abib, the day and time when Jesus kept the Passover and when Israel in Egypt ate the Passover.

With the second year that Israel was in the wilderness came the second Passover on the 14^th day at even of the second month (Num chap 9) … there is no makeup date for Yom Kipporim or for the Feast of Weeks or for the Feast of Trumpets or for the Wave Sheaf Offering, with Yom Kipporim having importance seemingly equal to that of the Passover. So why the second Passover, except that there will be a Second Passover liberation of Israel, the nation that now “eats” the true Bread of Life. But there really is no living nation that is circumcised-of-heart Israel today; thus, Israel will eat this true Bread of Life after its Second Passover liberation from indwelling sin and death.

Israel in the wilderness would have been a very hungry nation for the two weeks before the law was given at Mount Sinai if it hadn’t eaten bread from heaven … Christians—endtime disciples who take the Passover sacraments and thereby cover their sins with the blood of Christ—have 220 days following the Second Passover to begin to walk as Judeans who love their brothers, or they will find themselves in rebellion against God and will find themselves, on day 220 of the Affliction, under a strong delusion that causes them to believe what is false so that they will not repent, turn to God and be healed from death.

If the Second Passover liberation of Israel were to occur in a year like 2011, when the 15^th day of Iyyar falls on a Thursday, with the week of the second Passover matching the week when Christ Jesus was crucified, the rebellion [Apostasy] of day 220 would occur on Sunday, December 25^th, Christmas day—

For far too long, Christians have accepted as true the basic tenet of Mithraic sun worship that the Son/sun was born on December 25^th. But this isn’t all that Christians have “borrowed” from Mithraic sun worship and Greek pantheism: Christendom stole the concept that human beings are born with immortal souls when this is simply not the case. The inner self that animates the flesh is as a “dumb” word processor that has no way to change or modify the software program until the inner self is made alive through receipt of the holy spirit: only when the Father has raised the inner self from death [not the fleshly body] (John 5:21) through giving to the person a second breath of life can changes be made to the software that animates the flesh. This is why Paul wrote, “Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness” (Rom 6:12–13). Paul addressed the inner self that has members: hands, tongue, feet, eyes.

The inner self that was dead and about whom Jesus said, “‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead [the dead of themselves]’” (Matt 8:22), is raised from death by the Father (again John 5:21) on the conditional terms of hearing Jesus’ word [message] and believing the One who sent Jesus. This person—this inner self who believes the writings of Moses the prerequisite for believing the words of Jesus (John 5:46–47)—passes from death to life without coming under judgment (v. 24). And when judgments are revealed upon the Son’s return (1 Cor 4:5), the Son to whom all judgment has been given (John 5:22) will give life to whom He will (once again, John 5:21) by causing the mortal flesh to put on immortality (1 Cor 15:53); for “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (v. 50).

Disciples of Christ Jesus judge themselves as they “prove” their faithfulness to the Bridegroom by walking as He walked when He dwelt on earth as the man Jesus of Nazareth.

Judgment follows death (Heb 9:27); so to pass from death to life without coming into judgment requires the inner self to have never been alive when the Father raises it from death. For this inner self doesn’t escape judgment, but enters into judgment when the inner self commits the tent of flesh in which the inner self dwells to being baptized. Peter wrote, “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God” (1 Pet 4:17).

With baptism after the inner self is raised from the dead through receipt of the holy spirit—baptism before receiving a second breath of life only causes a person to get wet—the inner self enters into judgment, with the inner self judging itself either rightly or wrongly. If the inner self judges itself rightly, obeying the gospel of God, the inner self will desire to keep the commandments of God and will earnestly strive to keep the commandments and to walk as Jesus, who was without sin, walked. The inner self, born as an infant son of God when the holy spirit is received, will (like a human infant and young child) sometimes fall for no explainable reason. Grace, the garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness, covers these falls, which should occur less frequently as the son of God grows in grace and knowledge. So judgments are being made while the son of God dwells in a tent of flesh, with these judgments to be revealed [not made] when the Messiah comes.

The perishable flesh that descends from the first Adam who was expelled from the Garden of God before he could eat from the Tree of Life (Gen 3:22–24) does not inherit an immortal soul. No person inherits or receives what is imperishable through a man having his way with a woman. And to teach otherwise marks the person as a pagan liar.

Justin Martyr, a pagan philosopher who converted to 2^nd-Century Christianity, argued that the Sabbath was only instituted as a sign to Israel (Ex 31:13) that the Lord sanctified Israel and no other people, and [here is where he goes way wrong] that the Sabbath was a temporary measure because of Israel’s sinfulness … is You shall not murder (Deut 5:17) also a temporary measure because of Israel’s sinfulness? Or did Jesus say,

You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, “You fool!” will be liable to the hell of fire.(Matt 5:21–22)

Is And you shall not commit adultery (Deut 5:18) also a temporary measure? Or did Jesus say, “‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart’” (Matt 5:27–28)?

For Christians, the commandments that regulated the actions of the hands [murder] and the actions of the body [adultery] moved inside to regulate the desires of the heart [anger] and the thoughts of the mind [lust]; for disciples of Christ Jesus are Israelites circumcised of heart by the soft breath of God after hearts have been cleansed by faith. They are not necessarily circumcised in the flesh; for it isn’t the fleshly body that is raised from death to walk in newness of life when disciples receive a second breath of life, the breath of God [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø]. It is the inner self, the inner man, consigned from human birth to disobedience (Rom 11:32) as a slave of the Adversary, that is raised in newness of life to walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:2–6). … Again, slavery or imprisonment equates to death: to be a son of disobedience is to be a slave of the Adversary and is to be spiritually dead.

And in the same place that Moses, who led a nation out from slavery but to be its death from disobedience, spoke to the children of Israel, saying, You shall not murder, and You shall not commit adultery, Moses also said, Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you (Deut 5:12).

Adultery doesn’t move to another day, or another time, or another wife when the Law of God [the Torah — from Jer 31:33] is written on hearts and placed in minds (Heb 8:10); nor does the Sabbath move to the 8^th day, the day after the Sabbath (from John 20:1; Luke 24:1), under the New Covenant. Rather, the Sabbath moves from regulating hands and bodies of outwardly circumcised Israelites to regulating desires and thoughts of circumcised-of-heart Israelites.

Justin Martyr in his First Apology drew the connection between Hebrews being circumcised on the 8^th day and Christ Jesus being resurrected on the 8^th day, which was actually the 4^th day of the seven-day-long Feast of Unleavened Bread. But in drawing this connection, he neglected what Jesus said to the assembled Jews in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles,

“Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the Law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (John 7:19–24)

The Sabbath and circumcision are separate concepts, with circumcision not being regarded as “work” from which Israel shall rest on the Sabbath. Rather, circumcision “heals” part of a man; for, again, outward circumcision pares away the natural skin covering of the head of a man, thereby making a man naked before the Lord so that the man must cover his nakedness with obedience to God by walking uprightly before the Lord.

Israel in Egypt was “covered” by its slave status as circumcised-of-heart Christians in this era are covered by grace. However, following the first Passover, Israel was liberated from physical bondage to a human king and had to cover itself with its own obedience as it was led by Moses and Aaron. Following the Second Passover liberation of Israel, Christians will be liberated from indwelling sin and death and will have to cover themselves with their obedience to God as they are led by the two witnesses.

When circumcision was given to Abram as the ratifying sign of the covenant by which Abram was to walk upright before the Lord, aspiration [the /ah/ radical] was added to Abram’s name: Abram became Abraham. This aspiration represents the physical sign or type of post-Calvary disciples receiving the indwelling of eternal life through receipt of a second breath of life.

The physical descendants of Abraham were to be outwardly circumcised and were to outwardly walk uprightly before God, spurning all evildoing. Isaac so walked. After wrestling with the Lord, Jacob walked uprightly. But the sons of Israel did not walk uprightly before there was famine in the land. They conspired to kill their brother Joseph, and they ended up selling him into slavery and lying to their father. And Joseph in his person bore the wages of their evil deeds: he was enslaved, even when he was second in all the land of Egypt, for all the people of Egypt belonged to Pharaoh. So when Israel went down to Egypt seventy in number, Israel entered into slavery because of the famine [the want of bread] that was in the Promised Land.

The descendants of the sons of Israel in Egypt continued to walk corruptly before the Lord: their eyes feasted upon the detestable things of Egypt, and the nation defiled itself with the idols of Egypt (Ezek 20:7). Israel, in Egypt, never walked uprightly before the Lord, but again, Israel had its unrighteousness “covered” through being the slaves of Pharaoh and never being a truly free people.

Grace is the mantle or garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness that is able to clothe or cover the man made naked by circumcision, with grace not covering the outer man but the inner man born as a son of God through receipt of a second breath of life. Jesus’ death at Calvary paid the death penalty in this world for every sin that Israel has committed and will commit; Jesus’ death at Calvary is analogous to the goat sacrificed on the altar on Yom Kipporim. But once the inner self, inner man is made alive through receipt of the divine breath of God [B<,Ø:" ž(4@<] (a post-Calvary happening), the disciple has life in the heavenly realm where a second covering for sin is required, with this second covering being analogous to the Azazel goat that has the sins of Israel read over its head on Yom Kipporim and is led into the wilderness by a fit man. The Azazel bears the sins of Israel without paying the death penalty for these sins. Likewise, Christ Jesus bears the sins of His disciples in the heavenly realm where He will not again be crucified. Thus, when judgments are revealed (again, 1 Cor 4:5), the sins of born-of-God Christians in the heavenly realm will either be given back to the disciple who shall die for them in the lake of fire, or shall be given to the Adversary who is ultimately responsible for all lawlessness. Christ Jesus will not continue to bear these sins. Grace will end when the Son of Man is revealed [disrobed] (Luke17:30).

Justin Martyr never understood Paul or what Paul taught. And if Paul was not understood by the middle of the 1^st-Century CE, and if the mystery of lawlessness was already at work while Paul lived, it is reasonable to conclude that with the death of the Apostle John (ca 100–102 CE), whom Justin Martyr claimed as a contemporary, the Church also died. This conclusion is additionally supported by the 135 CE edicts of Emperor Hadrian that outlawed Jewish practices and worship. Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi in From Sabbath to Sunday (Rome: the Pontifical Gregorian University Press, 1977) makes a reasonable argument for the Christian Church abandoning the Sabbath because of the Hadrian edicts.

There is evidence that some Christians observed both the Sabbath and Sunday as late as the 4^th-Century, but to observe both days is not to be committed to either day—and for Christians, unbelief [what is not of faith] is sin; for unbelief will eventually manifest itself in transgression of the commandments. Thus, Christians who observed both Sabbath and Sunday as their day of rest transgressed the Sabbath Commandment because of their lack of commitment to Sabbath observance. And this is a problem presently being seen in the Sabbatarian churches of God with the High Sabbaths: a Christian cannot use rabbinical Judaism’s calculated calendar and keep the annual High Sabbaths as Jesus kept them.

Tertullian [Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, ca. 160–220 CE], a fluent and prolific writer of theology from Carthage, condemned Christians who participated in Saturnalia and New Year festivities; yet he defended Christians celebrating Sunday against accusations that by worshiping on Sunday Christians participated in Mithraic sun worship. He declared that Christians no longer kept the Jewish Sabbath, but he never gave a good reason why they didn’t. Perhaps most importance here is his assertion that pagans had better fidelity to their own sects and to their own festivals than Christians had for Sunday or even Pentecost. He claims that pagans would not share in Christian observances for fear they would be identified as Christians, but Christians, on the other hand, had no fear of participation in the pagan festivals of Saturnalia and New Years and Matronalia, with the giving of presents, games and banquets; that Christians were not apprehensive about being identified as heathens because they participated in pagan mid-winter festivals. (Tertullian, On Idolatry, 14).

Tertullian said that some well-mannered pagans supposed that Christians worshiped the sun because Christians, at the beginning of the 3^rd-Century, prayed towards the east and made Sunday their day of festivity (Tertullian, Ad Nationes 1:13) —

The prophet Ezekiel saw in vision the abominations of Israel, the worst of which was “at the entrance of the temple of the Lord … were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east” (8:16). Because of the abominations of Israel, the Lord told Ezekiel, “‘Therefore, I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them’” (v. 18).

Does the Lord, today, hear the prayers of Christians who provoke Him to anger with their lawlessness? No He doesn’t, unless He has changed—and He does not change (Heb 13:8).

If Christians were keeping Saturnalia and recognizing December 25^th as the date Jesus’ birth, with December 25^th being long celebrated as the date of Mithras’ birth, with these practices formalized in Christendom’s observance of Christmas—and if Christians prayed toward the east and kept Sunday as its principle festival day, should not any reasonable person in Tertullian’s day or even today conclude that Christians differ not a wit from pagans, particularly Mithrians?

Tertullian is called the father of Latin Christianity, and well he might be: he is perhaps most famous as the first Latin writer to use the term “trinity” [trinitas], with the earliest exposition of Trinitarian theology. He was the first to identify in Latin the godhead as three persons, one substance [tres Personae, una Substantia]. But he understood neither Moses, nor Jesus. He certainly messed up what Paul wrote and ignored what John wrote. But the claim that he is the father of Latin Christianity [the Roman Catholic Church] stands without a serious challenger.

Emperor Hadrian effectively banned Sabbath worship as a Judaizing practice. Nevertheless, Sabbath observance by Gentile Christians was still secretively practiced as late as the mid 4^th-Century CE; for in canon 29 of the Council of Laodicea, a regional synod of clergymen from Asia Minor that gathered at Laodicea, Phrygia Pacatiana, in 363–364 CE, authorities ordered Christians to cease Judaizing by resting on the Sabbath. These authorities decreed that Christians must work on that day and if possible rest on the day after the Sabbath, errantly dubbed the Lord’s Day; that any Christian found to be a Judaizer was anathema from Christ.

[What is this, if possible rest on the Lord’s day? Except for the Levitical priesthood, who has permission from the Lord to work on the Sabbath? Who has permission to relax a commandment, let alone break one? Who will be counted as “least” in the kingdom of heaven? The person who relaxes a commandment? Is this not what Jesus said?]

By the 4^th-Century, the wheel had turned a half circle: what was lawful and right before God had become illegal for a Christian who claimed to be of God. No longer could a Christian take the Passover sacraments on the dark portion of the 14^th of Abib; the Christian was expected to observe Easter, according to Emperor Constantine’s decree. No longer could a Christian keep the Sabbath; Sunday was the official day on which Christians were to appear before God, if they could so appear. No longer was obedience to God the reasonable expectation of all who identified themselves as disciples of Christ; obedience to the Church and to the emperor was the expectation placed upon Christians—and an expectation that would last for 1,200 years.

In Emperor Constantine’s famous Edict of Milan (313 CE), the Roman state afforded legal protection to confessions of faith for all religions within the Empire: Constantine went beyond Galerius’ toleration of other religions as an indulgence to be purchased (311 CE). But he also declared on March 7^th, 321 CE, that the Day of the Sun, Sunday [dies Solis], was to be the day of rest throughout the Empire—

The Sabbatarian really could not dwell within the boundaries of the Roman Empire. Sabbatarian Christendom would rest in its grave until 1528 CE when the Anabaptists Oswald Glait and Andreas Fischer returned to Sabbath observance.

Since 1528 CE, a trace of Christian disciples have dwelt in the Sabbath, which represents for Christians a mental landscape analogous to the geographical land of Canaan for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the children of Israel.

According to international standard ISO 8601, Sunday is the seventh and last day of the week.

When Korah took men, 250 chiefs of the congregation of Israel, and rose up against Moses, Korah said to Moses and Aaron, “‘You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourself above the assembly of the Lord?’” (Num 16:3) … Why would the Lord exalt Himself above the assembly of men? Why indeed? What assembly exists that has the authority to declare Sunday—one day after the Sabbath—the seventh and last day of the week when the Lord has decreed otherwise?

The presumptuousness of Western societies equals or exceeds that of Korah.

The Lord dealt with Korah as He dealt with the Adversary, and the Lord will deal with the assemblies of men, beginning at the Second Passover liberation of Israel; for the Lord will not ask permission to slay firstborns that already belong to Him. There will be few houses where someone is not dead when death angels again pass over the land. The world will suddenly focus on “getting right” with God—

But what does “getting right with the Lord” means? Christian theologians, the Ten, will convince most Christians to do with zeal what they have been lackluster in doing, and that is rebelling against God.

The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews said,

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. (2:1–4)

What was heard? Was it not recorded by Matthew, by Mark, by Luke, by John? Will not every transgression receive a just retribution? Which transgression will not? Who will make the argument that transgression of the Sabbath commandment will not receive a just retribution?

The writer of Hebrews continues,

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. … Take care, brothers, lest there by in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

For who were those who heard and yet rebelled?? Was it not those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of their unbelief. / Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as He has said,

“As I swore in my wrath,

‘They shall not enter my rest,’”

Although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way” And God rested on the seventh day from all His works.” And again in this passage He said,

“They shall not enter my rest.”

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formally received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again He appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

“Today, if you hear His voice,

do not harden your hearts.”

For if Joshua [[0F@ØH] had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest [F"$$"J4F:ÎH — sabbatismos] for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from His. / Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than two-edged [*\FJ@:@< — double language] sword, piercing to the division of soul [RLPH] and spirit [B<,b:"J@H], of joints and of marrow, and discerning thoughts and intentions of the heart. (3:1, 12–4:12)

The above is the passage that confused the Baptist parishioner: if there remains a keeping of the little Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath that forms a type of entering into heaven in the double-voiced discourse of Scripture, then why are Christians not keeping the Sabbath and resting on the seventh day as God rested on the seventh day? It would seem logical and reasonable that they would be.

What the writer of Hebrews does, especially in chapter 4, verse 12, is establish that in Scripture—in the doubled-language discourse represented by Hebraic poetics—the Promised Land of Canaan was the physical representation of the Sabbath, which in turn was the spiritual representation of entering heaven. As the nation that rebelled in the wilderness (Num chap 14) could not enter into the geographical land of Canaan that represented God’s rest (Ps 95:10–11) because of that nation’s unbelief, the Christian Church cannot enter into Sabbath observance because of similar unbelief, with Christian unbelief “exposed” by the word of God so that thoughts and the intentions of hearts can be visibly seen. With very few exceptions, Christians are an assembly of Korahs, each convinced that the assembly [the Church] can better determine the path of Israel’s journey from sin to righteousness than can the Father and the Son.

It would seem that believing the Lord is easy to do, but apparently it is not. Hence, few Christians enter into God’s rest while the promise of entering stands. Most have hardened their hearts and simply will not be Judaizers. They will not walk as Jesus, an observant Jew, walked. They are not willing to walk to the beat of a different drummer, one out-of-sync with the rest of the world.

Sabbath observance visibly marks who is of God. A second marking now must occur: the Sabbath keeper must have love for his or her brother before the obedient disciple is truly a Christian. It is not enough to do what the Law requires because those things are required. Rather, the disciple must by faith choose to be obedient to God; for it isn’t the works of obedience that have importance to God but the belief, the faith that would cause a person to live by the words of God.

When a son of disobedience encounters the writings of Moses, this son of disobedience has the option of either rejecting Moses or ignoring Moses, but not the option of believing Moses and keeping the commandments—because the person is a son of disobedience and a bondservant of the Adversary, the person cannot keep the commandments; the person is not “free” to keep the commandments.

Freedom is an elusive concept. Paul writes, “For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2), but once free from being the bondservant of sin and death, the Christian is to become the slave of obedience “which leads to life” (Rom 6:16). So freedom only comes for long enough that the Christian can choose to enter into God’s rest while the promise of entering still stands (Heb 4:1). Once the Christian either enters or doesn’t enter, the Christian is the slave of whom the Christian chose to obey (again, Rom 6:16). So today is the person’s day of salvation, which isn’t a time linked day but is when the disciple as clay on the Master Potter’s wheel is centered and its workability determined. If the disciple is unworkable, refusing or neglecting to enter into God’s rest when the promise of entering stands, then the Master Potter sculpts the Christian into a vessel of wrath prepared for destruction (Rom 9:22); whereas if the disciple is workable, Christ Jesus sculpts the Christian into a vessel intended for honored use (v. 21). Both disciples are from the same lump of clay, but one chose to be the servant of sin, which leads to death, while the other chose to serve obedience, which leads to righteousness and glory.

The Christian who, today, on his or her day of salvation, chooses to enter into God’s rest—represented by entering into Sabbath observance—commits him or herself to keeping the commandments by faith. The person is numbered among the saints: “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus” (Rev 14:12). Those Christians who do not enter into Sabbath observance while the promise of entering stands are not counted as saints, but as spiritual livestock to be sacrificed when the temple of God is dedicated during the time, times, and half a time [three and a half days] between Armageddon and when the new sacred year begins.

Christians are not to deface the fleshly tabernacles in which they dwell, meaning that they are not to tattoo themselves or make piercings in the flesh after they have been born of spirit. Rather, Christians in the Affliction, the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years, mark themselves with Sabbath observance as the antithesis of “Christians” who mark themselves with the tattoo of the cross [P>lr — from Rev 13:18] in the Endurance, the last 1260 days of the seven endtime years … while the present prince of this world continues to rule, Sabbath observance marks those individuals who are of God, for the remainder of humankind, all sons of disobedience, are unmarked; they are indistinguishable one from another. But when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man halfway through the seven endtime years, the tattoo of the cross will mark those who are of the Antichrist; for the saints—those Christians who keep the commandments—are the unmarked class.

Again, a slave is a slave: if a male slave in the antebellum South had his own workshop where he produced pottery for the plantation or pottery that was sold as a regular item of commerce, the slave was not an entrepreneur free to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Rather, he was simply a valuable slave that had to be watched in case he became uppity … even if the slave received proceeds from the sale of his work, the person was not “free” to come and go as he pleased. Even if the slave owner permitted the slave to participate in voting on a course of action that would affect a party—as occurred when York voted with other members of the Lewis and Clark expedition as to where the expedition would overwinter in Oregon—the slave was still a slave. But if the slave could be persuaded that he [or she] was free, the slave would accept limitations placed upon his [or her] freedom that also apply to other slaves who believe they are free, meaning that the Adversary’s slaves have been told that they are free for so long that they sincerely believe they are free when they spurn keeping the commandments of God. They do not realize that they are not free to keep the commandments.

Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts; for most of humankind, even the most pious Buddhist, Catholic, Muslim, or Mormon, have not heard the Lord’s voice. Rarely does a person hear the voice of the Lord; rarely does the Father draw a person from this world (John 6:44). Until the Second Passover liberation of Israel, when every Christian regardless of sect or denomination is filled-with and empowered by spirit [the breath of God], saints are rarely encountered … Christians are many, but those Christians who have truly been born of spirit are few and far between, for they are the spies that had gone ahead to scout out the land. They are Joshua [[0F@Ø], or they are Caleb, who had a different spirit about him. Saints have about them a different spirit, the divine breath of God.

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