March 25, 2004 ©Homer Kizer
Prophecy & the Passover — The Book
Preface
Understanding Scripture begins with realizing that in all things the physical precedes the spiritual (1 Cor 15:46), and the visible reveals the invisible (Rom 1:20). Thus, understanding precludes strict literal readings of the received text; for literal readings ask the reader to limit connotative meaning to the outer boundaries of denotative meaning. A mountain is a mountain. The holy mountain of God, then, is restricted to possessing definite geographical coordinates. It is not a nation, nor a government. But it has been traditionally understood to be the government of God. So tradition works against the abiding cultural tendency of literalism, thereby producing unresolved tension between the reader and the text. This tension, in turn, produces skewed readings when it seeks resolution through the introduction of additional texts, whether historical records or earlier apologetics. It is this continued use of additional texts that must be resisted if endtime Christian apologetics is to return to being text-based rather than tradition-based. God doesn’t need to use the traditions of men to unseal previously sealed and secret prophecies. The visions of the prophet Daniel were sealed with their shadow. The apparently unsealed prophecies of Revelation were sealed through the use of two literary tropes, the first being that the vision John sees doesn’t occur until the Lord’s Day, the second being the use of attributes as appearance.
Literalism places specific demands on the reader and on the text, with the initial demand being that literary grotesques are quickly resolved or dismissed as nonsense, not held until the text reveals itself. The nature of a text being Holy Writ doesn’t encourage readers to dismiss a grotesque as nonsense; thus, borrowing from outside source texts has been the preferred resolution of a grotesque. This borrowing, though, has produced the fractured appearance of the greater Christian Church, for this borrowing has been a little here and a little there—a little of Augustine, a little of Luther, a little of Calvin, a little of Moody. The borrower welds his or her literalism onto the framework of historical exegesis so that he or she becomes a traditionalist when portions of the text are deconstructed using now conventional critical practices. Ancient textual scribes are expected to maintain voice consistency over a lifetime as gaps in their consistency are pried open for examination by literary ants. From pulpits, traditionalists stomp on these divinity school ants, which in turn write the apologetics from which the next generation of literalists will heavily borrow. Moses is faulted for his lack of historicity (he never names the Pharaoh with whom he dealt). Daniel is faulted for seeing a vision that discloses an extended period of secular history. Isaiah is broken into three fragments. The demands placed on Scripture by critics are those of fiction, as opposed to those placed on non-fiction. Text believability must conform to what can occur in the known world, with the exception that Jesus is allowed a virgin birth and resurrection from death by traditionalists.
But the nature of Scripture precludes literalism, for the purported purpose of Scripture is to reveal through what exists what cannot be observed or measured. Scripture defines itself as an extended metaphor—the narrative of Scripture is a story about cross-dimensional war that produces the logic for a sudden creation of the universe. The dimension [heaven] in which this war occurred/occurs is timeless, a characteristic that hinders standard linguistic references in Indo-European languages that use verb tenses to locate a phenomenon in space-time. Therefore, what can be known about this timeless dimension that lacks the apparent solidity of matter can only be expressed through metaphor, or by a series of metaphors. A metaphor identifies one thing as another thing; thus, a metaphor is never true in its literal meaning. It is a literary devise used to aid understanding by representing the unfamiliar in terms that, hopefully, are familiar to the reader. Thus, Jesus of Nazareth is a type of Adam. Noah is, then, a type of Christ Jesus. And the Christian Church, spiritual Israel, is a type of the circumcised nation of Israel. Therefore, what can be observed in the natural world includes what can be determined about this timeless dimension that human beings cannot enter to make measurements and record observations. Scripture, now, reveals how much of what can be observed is relevant, or better, pertains to the spiritual realm. The wars of the Chinese Empire are not relevant, nor are the wars of the Aztecs. But the history of Israel is—but only the portion of this nation’s history that is recorded in Scripture. This limitation of relevancy must be fully perceived. Moses doesn’t name a Pharaoh, for Moses records the shadow of the spiritual nation’s endtime release from bondage to sin or lawlessness. Israel’s exodus from Egypt will become a forgotten event (Jer 16:14–15). It is only important as the shadow that reveals humanity’s liberation from being influenced/ruled by Satan and his federation of angels. And overcoming lawlessness is the precursor to a human being crossing dimensions. God isn’t in the business of creating additional rebels. If a person will not be ruled by Him—when coexistence or oneness is a defining characteristic of timelessness—the person cannot ever be one with Him, and as such is precluded from being glorified. Only that which will coexist in unity with existing life in the heavenly realm will enter this dimension. The rebelling angels have already been cast into outer darkness, and Satan and the remainder of his angels will be cast from heaven halfway through seven years of tribulation. They are not now one with God; hence, they cannot remain in this dimension where opposition cannot exist without encountering the limitation of a paradox.
The early Christian Church used typology and typological exegesis to peer, as if using a periscope, into the supra-dimensional realm identified as heaven. The events that happened to the circumcised nation in its exodus from physical bondage became examples of unbelief and disobedience from which the early Church could draw comparisons. But the nature of a metaphor precludes its truthfulness—one thing is not another thing. Thus, typology contains within itself the basis for its reputation though limiting the assignment of meaning to a word to a literal or denotative definition. It must be understood that words [signifiers or linguistic icons] have no meanings [signifieds or objects] other than the ones a particular reading community [Stanley Fish’s term] assigns to the letter combinations. When a reader encounters a previous unknown letter combination, the reader intuitively uses the context in which the combination appears to establish a meaning for the combination. If the reader is unable to establish a satisfactory assignment of meaning, the reader must either seek help, or go on, treating the letter combination as nonsensical.
Because typology/metaphor contained within itself its own reputation, the early Church chose not to identify its history with that of circumcised Israel, which it had replaced as the holy nation of God (compare 1 Pet 2:9 with Exod 19:5–6 and Eph 2:15). Therefore, disputes festered among early theologians as the Church became increasing “Greek.” These disputes divided the early Church—in a manner remarkably similar to how taxation divided the physical nation of Israel following Solomon’s death—into a northern school [Ephesus] and into a southern school [Alexandria]. These two schools became the spiritual equivalents of the house of Israel [Samaria] and the house of Judea, with the southern school favoring allegory over typology/metaphor as its preferred method for extrapolating meaning from the received texts. And the southern school prevailed over the northern school when Emperor Constantine ruled Bishop Arius’ Christology errant at the Council of Nicea (ca. 325 C.E.). Rome, now, became a type of Babylon, which the 1st-Century Church had deduced.
The language of “religion” and especially of Evangelical Christianity has attempted to attach literalist precision to the language’s inherently metaphorical nature; hence, Come up here becomes the basis for a doctrine of bodily rapture to heaven. The language of science, though, has little trouble in expressing concepts that are shrouded in the so-called ancient myths of the Bible, concepts such as additional dimensions to our unfurled four dimensions, or behavioral control through control of the subconscious mind. But religion and science divorced each other more than a century ago, and have remained wary of the other ever since. Likewise, many liberals within Western society—social scientists that know so little about the hard sciences that for them Beer’s law comes in redneck bottles—would like to dismiss these ancient myths as irrelevant to life in the 21st-Century. We will here remind them that the defining characteristic of time is its passage through the expansion of space at the rate of heavy mass particle decay. And with the passage of time comes forgetfulness. All things continue somewhat as they have for the past four millennia, or so. There is little reason to believe that change, especially sudden change will occur. The evidence of history is that within perimeters, the earth is stable, and life will continue as it has. But is this really true? The evidence of science reveals a sudden creation of matter. When this creation occurs can be disputed, with one body of believers placing faith in distances calculated by the decay rate of light mass particles [photons], which quantum physics has shown to take all possible paths between two objects, thereby skewing their reliability for calculating distance. Another body of believers has opted for placing faith in the received “myths” that purport to be the words of living beings in the timeless dimension encompassing the universe. This timeless dimension isn’t outside the universe, but exists with it although concealed in a manner somewhat similar to how the height of a cylinder is concealed from perception when encountering a circle on a two-dimensional plane. A point on a two-dimensional plane has no referent for assumption of height. And human beings are spiritually as points on a two-dimensional plane. They cannot think spiritually until they have received awareness of another dimension through actual life in that dimension being imparted to the person (Rom 8:7). Those many individuals who have not yet received this life will regard those who have it as crazy, or at best, odd. Those who do not have this life are absolutely unable to comprehend the height of the cylinder.
A dog can to taught to come, heel, even to open doors. But a dog has an exceedingly difficult time in comprehending mathematical functions, let alone in formulating quadratic equations, just as human beings have a difficult time in marking territory with a few squirts of scent-enhanced urine. Change in timelessness is exceedingly difficult, for coexistence or oneness is necessary: two or more things cannot occupy the same time and space. If time as a function of gravity doesn’t exist, then every moment is the same moment. Since time is properly labeled “space-time,” there is also no space as we perceive distance and stellar geography. All locations are as one. Therefore, only that which coexists with everything else can exist, or the inherent problems of a paradox precludes existence. Christ is one with the Father, as His disciples are one with Him. If they are not one—and permanently so—they cannot enter this timeless, spaceless dimension. Yet inside of time, change is dictated through the passage of time. Change is inescapable, as is death. But death cannot occur in a timeless dimension, for the presence of life and the absence of life cannot coexist at any particular moment. The passage of time is necessary for death to occur. Human beings can die as easily as a dog can mark its territory, whereas God and angels cannot. However, God can know the end of manner from its beginning as easily as we solve equations; for outside of time, both the beginning and the end are visible at the same moment.
The above analogy isn’t perfect, but is presented to begin making the case that prior to spiritual birth, a human being for all of the person’s abstract abilities is like a dog contemplating higher mathematical functions when it comes to the person understanding spiritual concepts and realities. The person cannot through no fault of the person. The required basis for understanding isn’t in the person’s conscious or subconscious mind, despite the person having great or little intellectual capability. Only when this person receives the Breath of God [Pneuma ’Agion] will this person grasp what will until then remain invisible and unintelligible.
The construction of words/signifiers in Semitic languages better allows for the doubling of meanings/signifieds that link the mental topography of the subconscious mind with a geographical landscape—this is the central metaphor informing all Scripture. The same signifier in Hebrew can mean rain in due season as means a teacher of righteousness, with both meanings coming from a root that conveys the sense of to expel. The Holy Spirit becomes the rain needed to ripen the early barley harvest and the later maincrop wheat harvest of the Judean promised land. Spiritually, these two crops are the two harvests of humanity, the first upon Christ’s return as the Messiah; the latter harvest occurs at the conclusion of Christ’s Millennium reign as Lord of lords and King of kings. This is the great White Throne Judgment.
The Holy Spirit is the Breath [Pneuma] of God. But God is not physical and does not breathe air. Rather, physical breath becomes an active metaphor for spiritual breath, or the Holy Spirit, which imparts spiritual life in a manner somewhat described by the physical breathing process. A human being before receiving the Holy Spirit, by extension, exists as a spiritual corpse as Adam was a physical corpse prior to receiving the breath of life (Gen 2:7). And as the dead Adam would have been unable to perceive the things of a man prior to receiving life, a spiritual corpse is unable to perceive the things of God prior to receiving spiritual life. These spiritually lifeless corpses will utter banalities such as Christians should read the U.S. Constitution rather than biblical myths, as these corpses advocate legalizing same-sex marriage. But allowances must be made for their spiritual ignorance. They are to be tolerated by Christians until the end of their age, when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh (Joel 2:28), when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ (Rev 11:15). Then Satan will be cast from heaven (Rev 12:9–10) so he can no longer reign over the sons of disobedience as the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2–3). The end of this age begins suddenly, without additional signs or warnings. These spiritually lifeless corpses will be saved if they endure in faith until the end (Matt 24:13), for they will receive spiritual life and the nature of Christ Jesus halfway through seven years of tribulation. The good news that must be proclaimed to the world as a witness to all nations before the end comes (v. 14) is that all who endure shall be saved. Same-sex marriage and other such spiritual abominations will cease even before the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh.
Again, the linkage of humanity’s mental topography with geographical landscapes lies at the heart of all biblical metaphors. The Christian Church as spiritual Israel is presently in spiritual Egypt, where fields are watered with one’s foot [irrigated]. Little faith is required. With exceptions, a Christian doesn’t have to rely on the coming of the early rains to develop spiritually. A Christian can supply his or her own spirit-developmental needs through combating the law of sin that dwells in his or her members (Rom 7:25). Every Christian, whether he or she acknowledges the reality, is in bondage to an inner law of sin that resides in the appetites of the body, just as the Apostle Paul remained in bondage to this law of sin and death even though he writes of liberation (8:2). Disciples are liberated by having been made righteous through Christ Jesus despite disciples still committing sin (1 John 1:8). They are not liberated from the appetites of the flesh. They fight against physical addictions and desires that are contrary to righteousness, or doing what is right. They fight to do what is right, and they occasionally lose merely because they lack the mental or spiritual strength to do what they know they should have done. They repent, and resume the fight—only to lose again and again. But by continually repenting and engaging the law of sin and death that dwells in their flesh, they become stronger and better able to resist sin, to overcome sin, to do what is right before death has taken them. Thus, every Christian remains in need of spiritual liberation from this spiritual law of bondage just as the circumcised nation needed liberation from physical bondage in Egypt. And the liberator is Christ Jesus, who died as the paschal Lamb for the household of God the Father.
The Judean promised land that occupied a portion of the earlier Garden of Eden becomes the visible representation of the possessing the mind of God, which becomes the initial step in crossing dimensions. (The human body cannot cross dimensions because of its appearance of solidity.) The promised land shrank geographical through disobedience until both the house of Israel and the house of Judea were taken into national captivity, leaving Eden the size of Jerusalem. Finally, all of Israel went into physical captivity for seventy years before the captors released a remnant of Israel from Babylon to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. The majority of the circumcised nation remained in Babylon and never returned.
When the man Jesus of Nazareth said that not one stone would remain atop another (Matt 24:2), physical Eden—what remained of the Garden of God that had stretched from the Euphrates to Egypt—was the size of the temple mount in Jerusalem only. Eden was the temple, so when Jesus drove out the moneychangers, He drove Babylon out of Eden. And He did this twice (Matt 21:12– 13 & John 2:13–17), once at the beginning of His ministry at Passover when it wasn’t then time for Him to be sacrificed, then again at the end of His earthly ministry in the days immediately preceding the Passover when He was sacrificed. Thus, when the Apostle Paul identifies disciples of Christ Jesus as the temple of God, stone had become flesh—the stones of the temple of God that had housed the ark of the covenant and the two tablets of stone on which the laws of God were written had become the bodies of disciples, with the laws of God written on the hearts and in the minds of these disciples. The preliminary step in crossing dimensions was accomplished, the step Jesus referenced when He first drove out the moneychangers and said, ‘“Destroy this temple and in three day “I will raise it up”’ (John 2:19). Jesus was, during His earthly ministry, the temple of God, for He possessed the Breath of God (Matt 3:16). Ten of His disciples became similar temples when He breathed on them (John 20:22) the evening following His Ascension.
With spiritual birth, the laws of God are only written on the hearts and minds of disciples, the two tablets of stone housed in the ark of the covenant that is the body of the disciple. But the body of the disciple—the temple itself—was taken captive by the serpent when the woman believed the lie that she would not die (Gen 3:4) and ate forbidden fruit. This living temple remains subject to the belly and loins despite the laws of God reigning in the disciple’s heart and mind. The disciple’s mind is unable to perfectly rule over his or her appetites, which are like physical stones that have not yet been cast down: the Wailing Wall. So every stone of the temple hasn’t yet been cast down, but will be. With receipt of the Holy Spirit, a civil war was initiated within every disciple, a war the disciple is to fight until death or liberation from sin comes. This liberation of spiritual Israel from spiritual bondage will come in a similar manner as how circumcised Israel was liberated from physical bondage in Egypt. The seven years of the Tribulation will become the spiritual nation’s journey through the wilderness of Sin, with the great falling away of the Church (2 Thess 2:3) being foreshadowed by the circumcised nation believing the report of the ten spies.
Typology discloses an event of such spiritual magnitude that no amount of forewarning can adequately prevent its occurrence: the greater Christian Church will rebel against God and will be rejected by God. Those individuals who think themselves saved will perish in the lake of fire. They will not be ruled by God; they will not walk blameless before God by faith even though they have been liberated from bondage to sin. This great falling away, or rebellion against God occurs 2300 days before Christ Jesus returns. It is certain, as is its date; for from outside of time, all events within time can be observed from a single perspective. However, the only means for the invisible nation of spiritual Israel to realize or be forewarned about the nation’s rebellion are through prophecy (the second chapter of 2 Thess & visions of Daniel) and by seeing this rebellion through the occurrence of its shadow. The circumcised nation that left Egypt was unable to enter the promised land because of its unbelief (Heb 3:19). The Christian Church of today will be unable to enter the kingdom of heaven because of its unbelief following its liberation from bondage to sin. The giant of obedience to the laws of God frightens this nation. Ten witnesses will say that the laws of God cannot be kept, that a person is accursed for even trying to keep them. Two witnesses for God will insist that they can be kept, that obedience is not too large of a giant to slay, that Sin will be prohibited from harming the oil and the wine (Rev 6:6), the pressed and refined products of the promised land (Deu 11:14). The barley and wheat, the two harvests of the promised land, will be weighed in balances of Sin, to be bought and sold as merchandise, but those Christians who believe the spiritual Joshua and Caleb will cross the Jordan. They were refined as silver is and tested as gold is (Zech 13:7–9) by the Tribulation. They will have been saved by childbirth, the heat and pressure of walking blameless before God by faith..
When their judgment is revealed, Christ will deny knowing the many teachers of lawlessness (Matt 7:21–23) that have presently convinced the holy nation of God that it doesn’t have to live within the laws of God, all of them. These teachers of lawlessness have been so effective that when Israel is liberated from bondage to sin, the nation will return to sin, thereby committing spiritual suicide. This is why Christ will deny knowing these teachers who have done mighty works in His name—they are murderers. Willingly or unwillingly, they serve Satan, who appears as an angel of light. They appear as ministers of righteousness. They don’t appear evil. Yet they are the most vile sort of spiritual murderers, slaying new born infants by teaching these infants that they do not have to live by the laws of God, written on their hearts and minds. No condemnation of them is today strong enough. Every condemnation falls short of adequately conveying how truly evil they are as they preach against legalism, little understanding the concept.
The seven years of the Tribulation are represented by the seven days of Unleavened Bread, when leavening represents sin or lawlessness (1 John 3:4). Both immediately follow the Passover liberation of Israel. So for seven years, the Church is to live without sin. During these seven years, its covering for sin becomes its obedience to God. Its covering will be its legalism.
Disciples will become one with the Father and the Son through obedience as children in the household of God. Juvenile delinquents will not be glorified. The type of obedience the patriarch Abraham displayed (Gen 26:5) will be expected from disciples during the Tribulation, when disciples are no longer under bondage to sin. Again, they are, by faith, to walk blameless before God. Christ will no longer be their spiritual covering, for He has liberated them. Sin will have no claim to them. But this they must believe by faith, just as the circumcised nation was to believe that swarms of hornets (Exod 23:28) would drive the Canaanites out from before them when they entered the promised land. They didn’t believe that God would do this for them. Instead, they believed the ten spies as the Church will believe the ten witnesses that cling as miry clay to the iron toes of the spiritual kings of the North [Death, the 4th horseman of Apocalypse] and of the South [Sin, the 3rd horseman].
So the Bible—that easily labeled (and dismissed) collection of ancient myths which has for ABC Television less relevance to daily life than the U.S. Constitution where new rights to aberrant behavior are periodically discovered—becomes the futuristic trans-dimensional travel guide that reveals life without opposition. Time, and the passage of time are necessary for the concept of opposition to be explored without the limitations of a paradox. Again, in a timeless dimension, life and the absence of life cannot coexist. To move from life to death requires the passage of time. Thus, since the wages of sin is death through the cessation of breath (not separation from God), the creation of the universe was necessary to conclude the civil war begun when iniquity was found in an anointed cherub (Ezek 28:15). When Satan is cast from heaven and into time, death becomes possible—and promised (Ezek 28:18–19) to him. Likewise, rebelling angels who have been restrained in time (a subject explored in a future chapter) can now die. They are presently awaiting judgment, with actual death through loss of spiritual breath being one possible verdict that glorified saints, who overcame lawlessness through obedience to the laws of God, can deliver upon an individual rebelling angel.
Phenomena in the invisible spiritual realm that has traditionally been identified as heaven are revealed through the shadows they cast in the physical realm—these shadows are cast on the mental topography of humanity, a landscape as real as the earth’s geography. The signifier shadow is a metaphoric expression that conveys the concept of a lifeless similitude in one less dimension than the reality that produces the image. Indo-European language users perceive shadows to be connected to the reality that produces them; thus, a non-time-linked similitude is not really a shadow but an example, or a type. However, when the reality producing the shadow is in a timeless dimension, its similitude can appear anywhere within time. Expressed in more spiritual terminology, that which is represented by baptism by water (Matt 3:11) forms the shadow of both that which is represented by baptism by Spirit, and that which is represented by baptism by fire. The one visible, physical shadow reveals both of these two invisible, spiritual baptisms. This one shadow doing double duty is the spiritual wisdom necessary to use typology as the endtime periscope for peering into heaven.
One visible, physical phenomenon foreshadows two realities, one of which corresponds to Jesus’ earthly ministry, and the other corresponds to His spiritual ministry, especially to His endtime liberation of Israel from spiritual bondage. The man Adam is the physical shadow of Jesus as the last Adam (1 Cor 15:45–49), who was baptized by Spirit following His baptism by water (Matt 3:16), then baptized by fire [glorified] following His Ascension. As a man, Jesus was not yet a life-giving spirit. He became a life-giving spirit following His baptism by fire. And Israel’s Passover exodus from Egypt is the visible, physical phenomenon that foreshadows spiritual Israel’s liberation from bondage to sin, then rebellion and rejection, followed by the liberation from bondage to sin of all humanity when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ (Rev 11:15 & Dan 7:9–14). One physical liberation through the slaying of uncovered firstborns becomes the shadow of two spiritual liberations, one to begin the Tribulation and one near the middle of these seven years trying, testing, and weighing humanity. Thus, all who endure in faith to the end will become part of the early barley harvest. Those who die without ever receiving spiritual birth will become part of the wheat harvest that will be gathered into the barn of God during the great White Throne Judgment. Every human being that has ever drawn breath will receive spiritual birth in one or the other harvests of God, for God is not a respecter of persons, offering salvation to one and withholding salvation from another.
Since Calvary, the Church has been roasting and eating the slain Lamb of God in anticipation of the death angel passing through spiritual Egypt to slay all firstborns not covered by the blood of the paschal Lamb. This is what is meant by passages about the end coming as the Flood of Noah’s day, or the fire of Lot’s day (Luke 17:26–30). Liberation from bondage to sin comes with the death angels’ slaughter of uncovered firstborns.
No additional warnings, no signs in the sky—the end of the age begins with the cross-dimensional slaughter of a third of the Christian Church as well as a similar percentage of the remainder of humanity. This slaughter of the Church is needless, for the Church should be covering its sins through eating the Bread and drinking from the Cup as Jesus established the New Covenant Passover example. Salvation is as simple as hearing the words of Jesus and believing the One who sent Him (John 5:24). But apparently the Church can more easily hear other men speak than it can hear Jesus speak across dimensions through received texts.
Each person reading this preface, and by extension, this assembled work has within him or herself the knowledge necessary to enter the kingdom of God. All that remains is the determination of the person’s will…do you want to be one with Christ Jesus enough to actually to put your physical life at risk? Do you want to be one with Jesus enough to live by the laws of God that have been written on your heart and mind? Do you want to be one enough to walk blameless before God by faith as Abraham walked blameless before God? Abraham is the father of the faithful, not the father of the perfect. His faithfulness was his obedience to God. Your faithfulness during the Tribulation will also be your obedience to God. Disobedience comes from unbelief. Will you believe God? Or the report of the ten witnesses? Joshua and Caleb represent the remnant from today’s northern and southern houses, respectively, of spiritual Israel that is glorified. Only a remnant of Israel arrives at the promised land of heaven. The souls under the altar (Rev 6:9–11)—when attributes have become appearance (the glorified Christ doesn’t really appear as a lamb even though He is the paschal Lamb of God)—form one of two loaves baked with leavening that is offered to God on the Feast of Weeks. The other loaf is the great multitude (Rev 7:9–10) that Joshua and Caleb lead to glory. This multitude primarily consists of the half of humanity that doesn’t self-identify itself as Christian when the Tribulation begins, the half that is willing to obey God and live within the laws of God when it receives the Holy Spirit, the half that hasn’t been taught that the laws of God cannot be kept. Abraham kept the commandments of God by faith. You will hear the words of Jesus and put these words into practice when you believe the One who raised Jesus from the dead. Belief is getting up and going when God says to move. Belief is keeping the Sabbath when God says to. Belief is doing what a person is told to do when the person is told to do it, not doing it the following day as the rejected nation did. Unbelief leading to disobedience is keeping the Sabbath the following day because that is how you have always done it. That is prima facie evidence of deciding for oneself what is right and what is wrong, of having eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Today, time is your ally. You can change, and begin living by the laws of God, especially the Sabbath. If you don’t, time will become your enemy as you lose your spiritual life in the lake of fire. Remember, in the timeless realm of heaven oneness [unity] with God (John 17:20–23) isn’t a goal, but a defining attribute of life. Believing God now is your practice time for establishing this attribute. If you think that you don’t need to practice being one with God, that because Jesus fulfilled the commandments that you don’t need to live by those same commandments, then you have been horribly mistaught and are a prime candidate for damnation.
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