An Infallible Text - Part Two - Commentary From the Margins - October 23, 2013

October 23, 2013 ©Homer Kizer

Commentary — From the Margins

An Infallible Text

[Part Two]

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God is light. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is identified as the life and light of humanity (John 1:4). And “light” casts no shadow of itself. What blocks light casts a shadow, and it is unrighteousness, ungodliness, unbelief that blocks the light that is God; thus, the man Jesus of Nazareth, who was without sin until He took upon himself the sins of Israel, would have cast no shadow in this world until He was the selected and chosen Passover Lamb of God, meaning that there should be no written record of Him as a person until He took upon Himself the sins of others. In addition, there should be no written record of Him post-Calvary until after His disciples received spiritual life … only for the short period during which the man Jesus bore the sins of “Israel” and paid with His life the death penalty for these sins should Christ Jesus have cast a shadow in this world. Likewise, until the glorified Jesus bore the sins of His “friends,” His first disciples who were to be sons of light, Jesus would have cast no shadow (i.e., left no written record) of Himself, nor would His disciples whose sins He covered have left shadows of themselves.

It is for the above reason—light casts no shadow of itself—that John the Baptist’s early identification of Jesus as the Lamb of God becomes important: “[John] looked at Jesus as He walked by and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God!’” (John 1:36). For until this identification is made, there should be no inscribed record of Jesus’ existence in this world, and because this identification comes near the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry, the claim of John’s Gospel is that Jesus actually took upon Himself the sins of others following His baptism. And this becomes important because in John’s Gospel, the glorified Jesus “breathes” on ten of His disciples (John 20:22) thereby physically transferring to them the holy spirit [pneuma ’agion] before He gives these ten authority to forgive the sins of others (v. 23).

The relationship or relative timing of receiving the indwelling breath of God [pneuma Theou] and then having the authority to forgive sins becomes important for how it is that a born-of-spirit disciple is able to forgive sins.

The anonymous author of John’s Gospel doesn’t give readers an account of Jesus’ baptism, nor should there be an account of Jesus’ baptism, meaning that the baptismal account of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel and the account in Matthew’s Gospel exist for reasons apart from historical accuracy. Therefore, the differences between the Synoptic accounts of Jesus’ baptism have standing in determining the “intent” of the each account’s anonymous author. This is not to say that these Synoptic accounts are not accurate although they cannot all be factual, but is to say that they can be used to establish intentionality of the phenomenon producing the particular text … the anonymous author of Luke’s Gospel in accordance with then-established literary traditions in the Greco-Roman world “explains” why he wrote [Luke 1:1–4], and his reason wasn’t historical accuracy but to confirm what Theophilus had been taught.

Until the spirit or breath [Greek: pneuma] of God the Father actually entered into Jesus, this human man could bear or cover no sin but His own—and again, He was without sin; for His Father wasn’t of the first Adam so He was not humanly born consigned to disobedience. He was humanly born “free”; thus, He could “choose” not to transgress the Law, something sons of disobedience as bondservants of the Adversary cannot do until a ransom price has been individually paid for each person …

The teaching of traditional Christendom that the man Jesus was fully man and fully God originated in proto-orthodox Christendom’s 2^nd & 3^rd Centuries struggle against Ebonite Christians who denied Jesus’ virgin birth (thus Jesus was merely a righteous man) and against Marcionite Christians who denied that Jesus was a man, insisting that Jesus only appeared to be a man. By adopting the illogical position that Jesus was simultaneously fully man and fully God, proto-orthodox teachers and theologians compromised both Ebonite [the Circumcision faction] and Marcionite arguments; thus, proto-orthodox ideology through an authoritarian clergy, determination of the canon, and a vainly chanted creed gained control of greater Christendom. And in making the argument that Jesus was simultaneously fully man and fully God, orthodox Christendom revealed its lack of spiritual understanding; reveals its inability to understand the most basic of Christian doctrines, that of a man and his wife forming one flesh with the man being the head of his wife as a model and type [prototype] of the living inner self and living outer self forming one flesh with the inner self, made alive through the indwelling of Christ Jesus in the form of His breath [pneuma Christou], being the head of the outer self. This will now make Christ Jesus the Head of the inner self, and will make God the Father the Head of Christ, what Paul wrote (1 Cor 11:3). And if a Christian, especially a teacher, doesn’t understand the most basic of Christian teachings—that the inner self or soul [psuche] of a person is made alive through being born again or born from above, with this being-made-alive coming via receipt of a second breath of life—then the Christian remains of the Adversary as either a bondservant or a son.

The Christian who has truly been born of God knows that he or she has been so born because the indwelling Christ Jesus will cause the Christian to want to keep the Law when the Christian is under no legal or cultural obligation to do so. An ethnic Gentile not born of God will not and indeed cannot keep the Commandments. Even a cultural Jew will not keep the intent of the Law, that is to have love for God, neighbor, and brother.

Until a ransom price—a life—has been individually given, you will remain as you were humanly born; you will remain a son of disobedience, a bondservant of the Adversary, a person unable to keep the Commandments. Regardless of how badly you desire to keep the Commandments, you cannot do so (Rom 8:7). You will transgress them, breaking at least one of them, with this one usually being for Christians the Sabbath Commandment. But because you have not been born-from-above or born again, thereby receiving a second breath of life, you remain spiritually dead, with your lack of indwelling spiritual life covering your transgressions through you having no life in the heavenly realm … in this physical realm, you will die and thus cover your transgressions. And in this sense, you are physically as angels cast into the Abyss are spiritually: you live physically as rebelling angels continue to live spiritually, but you are condemned to physical death as rebelling angels are condemned to spiritual death. You are absolutely certain to die physically, then reappear in the great White Throne Judgment where you will be judged for those things you have done here on earth. And rebelling angels forming the reality for which greater humanity is its shadow and type have already been judged for those things they did in heaven; however, rebelling angels having been cast into the Abyss under individual sentences to death will each receive a second look (analogous to an appellate court hearing) concerning those things each will do during the seven endtime years of tribulation, with heavenly angelic deception then having been weighed and measured through the sudden breaking of the first king, the great horn of the federated demonic king of Greece, as well as through the former anointed guardian cherub being cast from heaven and cast into the creation where he will be given the mind of a man.

Did Adam understand what “death,” or “to die,” meant when the Lord God said to him, “‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Gen 2:16–17)?

How could Adam have understood the absence of life when he had seen nothing die? And how can an angelic son of God understand that he will die, utterly perish, because of his rebellion against God? Certainly, the rebelling angelic son of God hears his condemnation to death and understands that he has been cast into the Abyss, but apparently rebelling angels believe that separation from God equates to death when this is not the case … separation from God as greater Christendom understands death isn’t death at all, but separation, what Gentiles have experienced for millennia. No, “death” comes via the loss of breath. Death means extinguishing the inner fire that sustains life; means the absence of life, not something that can occur in heaven but something sure to occur inside the Creation. Thus, once rebelling angels were cast into the darkness of the Abyss they could no longer see where they were going (see John 12:35). They could not see their fate. But once the Second Passover liberation of Israel occurs and the great horn or first king of the federated king of Greece is suddenly broken (Dan 8:8), with Alexander the Great forming the shadow and type of this demonic first king, rebelling angels will suddenly understand what their death sentence means to each of them.

An appellate-court-type review of angelic death sentences will occur when glorified saints judge angels (1 Cor 6:3) … the idea that saints are not to judge runs counter to what Paul wrote in rebuking the holy ones at Corinth:

When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? (1 Cor 6:1–6 double emphasis added)

There is, however, a problem in applying Paul’s admonition: who are the saints, the holy ones, those that form the Body of Christ? Are they not the ones who have been truly born of spirit? Thus, if a person denies his or her own spiritual birth, the person is not a holy one of God. If a person claims to be born of spirit yet denies Christ through not walking in this world as Jesus walked, the person is not a holy one of God. And in this endtime era, there are few holy ones of God, merely a smattering, barely enough to claim that the Body of Christ lives.

Rebelling angels in the heavenly realm cast as their shadow all of Christendom being filled with spirit following the Second Passover liberation of Israel, then 220 days later rebelling against God in the Apostasy of 2^nd Thessalonians 2:3 … the earthly shadow of this rebellion of spirit-filled Christians occurred at Mount Sinai when Moses [his name meaning <son>] was not with Israel but with the Lord atop the mountain: Israel commanded Aaron to make for the nation gods [elohim] to go before the nation, and Aaron complied with the demands of the people, casting from their earrings a [one or more] gold calf, with this gold being closest to where the voice of the Lord had entered into the people of Israel.

The Adversary remains the prince of this world. He will remain the prince of this world throughout the Affliction, the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years of tribulation; thus, Christians filled with spirit and without indwelling sin and death will be like angels in heaven were. Those Christians who reject God in the Apostasy and go along with the Adversary, thereby returning to their former lawless ways, will be as angels were who succumbed to the Adversary’s broadcast of rebellion against the Host of heaven. Of course these rebelling Christians will argue that they are not under the Law and have no need to keep the Law even though Sabbath observance in the Affliction will “mark” those Christians who are of God … “marking” denotes difference, with Sabbath observance being the sign that signifies the person knows and is known by God (Ex 31:17). Since the majority of humanity doesn’t know God, the majority will not keep the Sabbath but will worship on another day, particularly Friday or Sunday.

Sabbath observance in the Affliction when the Adversary remains the prince of the power of the air is the shadow and copy [the mirror image] of the mark of the beast, the tattoo of the Cross [chi xi stigma], in the Endurance when the single kingdom of this world has been given to the Son of Man, with the tattoo of Christ’s cross denoting difference, designating those human persons who reject Christ as their Lord. And again, marking signifies difference, separation from the norm, so when the majority thinks and behaves in a certain way, the marked person is the one who thinks differently and/or behaves differently, thereby attracting attention to oneself.

When the single kingdom of this world is taken from the Adversary and his angels and given to the Son of Man, Head and Body, on the doubled day 1260 halfway through the seven endtime years of tribulation, the Adversary and his angels will be cast into space-time. But the Adversary will come claiming to be the returning Messiah, therefore usurping authority that rightfully belongs to the Son of Man. This will begin the 1260-day-long Endurance of Jesus (from Rev 1:9) when the surviving third part of humanity is filled with spirit and will en masse rebel against the Adversary … again, in the Affliction, the first 1260 days following the Second Passover liberation of Israel, the majority of greater Christendom will rebel against God, the reality of 2 Thessalonians 2:3; whereas in the Endurance, the 1260 days preceding the coming of the Messiah, the majority of the third part of humanity (from Zech 13:8–9) will rebel against that old serpent, Satan the devil, who has been cast to earth and comes/came claiming to be the Messiah. And because as the shadow of rebelling angels the third part of humanity will rebel against the spiritual king of Babylon when he is cast into space-time, there will be reason for glorified sons of God to review individual angelic death sentences, with those rebelling angels who turned their rebellion against the Adversary and brought forth fruit worthy of repentance [an undefined standard] receiving reconsideration of their death sentence. This is not to say that any angelic death sentence shall be overturned, only that those human persons who were also under the Adversary’s broadcast of rebellion and who rebelled against the Adversary and did what was right, good, and proper according to God shall consider whether angelic death sentences should be executed. I suspect that in most cases, the answer will be, yes, the sentence to death remains valid. But there would be no reason for glorified saints to judge angels if the possibility of overturning a death sentence didn’t exist.

The holy ones are to judge the world (again, 1 Cor 6:2), and if the holy ones of God have the spiritual discernment necessary to forgive or withhold forgiveness of sins (John 20:23), they will have god-like discernment and will be able to serve as figurative spiritual appellate judges.

Every person is humanly born as a son of disobedience: the sons and daughters of truly born of spirit Christians are humanly born as sons of disobedience. These sons and daughters of disciples are in a “sanctified” state (1 Cor 7:14) as ancient Israel was in a sanctified state, but being “holy” or in a sanctified state does not guarantee that any human son or daughter of a spiritual son of God will be drawn from this world by the Father and called by Christ Jesus. If the son or daughter chooses to do what is good and godly, salvation is available to the sanctified son or daughter. But if the son or daughter departs from righteousness and follows the ways of this world, the son or daughter has rejected sanctification, rejected holiness, and is, before Christ, as any other humanly born person even if the son or daughter continues to keep the Sabbath as well as the other Commandments that form one collective whole.

Again, sanctification does not ensure salvation, only access to God, Father and Son. The ancient nation of Israel was sanctified: “‘You [Moses] are to speak to the people of Israel and say, “Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, [YHWH], sanctify you”’” (Ex 31:13). Thus, Sabbath observance is a sign of sanctification, not a sign of salvation. Sabbath observance will get a person heard by the Lord, but not saved. And even then, where there has been prolonged or profound transgressions of the commandments, the Lord will not hear the prayers or words of the sanctified person, but will turn His back to the sanctified person.

In the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of [YHWH], and sat before me. And the word of [YHWH] came to me: "Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and say to them, Thus says the Lord [YHWH], Is it to inquire of me that you come? As I live, declares the Lord [YHWH], I will not be inquired of by you. … “ (Ezek 20:1–3)

If the God of Abraham would not even hear the inquiries of Israel because of the nation’s transgression that caused the nation, both the northern kingdom of Samaria and the southern kingdom of Jerusalem, to go into exile (that is, be separated from God as rebelling angels are presently separated from God), would this same God of Abraham enter His creation to die for human men He had already cast away? This is a question the Apostle Paul asked and answered:

I ask, then, has God rejected His people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? "Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life." But what is God's reply to him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day." And David says, "Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever." So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. (Rom 11:1–11 double emphasis added)

It is the Elect who have been chosen by grace; chosen through receiving the garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness that covers their transgressions of the Law …

By sacrificing Himself, Christ Jesus paid the ransom price for the firstfruits, and the firstfruits when filled with spirit following the Second Passover liberation of Israel [they will then be without indwelling sin, hence truly Christ-like] will with their lives pay the ransom price for the general harvest of humanity in the great White Throne Judgment, which isn’t what Sabbatarian Christendom has traditionally taught. But as the man Jesus, the First of the firstfruits of God, did not and could not take upon Himself the sins of Israel until He received a second breath of life, the breath of God [pneuma Theou] received in the bodily form of a dove, the firstfruits of the harvest of God cannot pay a ransom price for anyone except themselves until they, too, receive a second breath of life, the indwelling breath of God [again, pneuma Theou] in the breath of Christ [pneuma Christou]. And it is for this reason that the souls [psuchas] of already martyred holy ones [born-of-spirit sons of God] now asleep under the altar are told to rest yet a little while until [the number] of their fellow slaves and of their brothers to be killed as they were should be complete (Rev 6:11).

The Elect obtained grace, the covering of Christ’s righteousness, but the minds of the remainder of Israel were hardened as Pharaoh’s mind in the days of Moses [the son] was hardened. Except for a remnant, the Elect, the remainder of Israel could not receive grace in the 1^st-Century nor anytime since; could not understand the spiritual things of God even though they claimed to be able to see, discern spiritual matters. The remainder of Israel could not hear the words of Jesus nor believe the One who sent Him into this world to reveal the Father to the Elect.

Keeping the Sabbath, the reasonable expectation for everyone in the household of God, no longer assures the person that God has sanctified the person. The yardstick of commandment-keeping no longer can be used to determine who is or who isn’t of God; for it is the person who is inwardly circumcised of heart that is a “Jew.” Circumcision of the flesh is of no value: “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 2:28–29). Therefore a son of God can be outwardly male or female, Jew or Greek, free or slave (Gal 3:28) for it is the person who wears the garment of Christ’s righteousness that is a spiritual heir of Abraham.

Jesus didn’t sacrifice Himself for willful sinners and the ungodly, but for His friends who were themselves repentant sinners. And because the preceding introduces a difference from what has traditionally been taught within Sabbatarian Christendom, more of an argument will necessarily be undertaken than Paul made … what has traditionally been taught is that the life of the only Son of the Creator of all things physical was worth more than all of the creation; so by dying inside His creation, Jesus’ death paid the death penalty for the transgressions of all humanity, past, present, and future. But if this were true, there would be no need for anyone to be judged: the death penalty for the person’s transgressions of the Law would have already been paid. There would not be a need for a great White Throne Judgment.

Why will glorified saints judge angels? For the same reason that most of humanity will appear before the Son of Man in the great White Throne Judgment to receive just reward for those things they did while in their first abode, their first habitation. Will there be extenuating circumstances? Yes, according to Paul:

For God shows no partiality. 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. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (Rom 2:11–16 emphasis and double emphasis added)

It is the work of the Law, not the Law, that is of importance, and the work of the Law is the manifestation of love for neighbor and brother (see Matt 25:31–40). Therefore, if fallen angels now in the Abyss and condemned to death can show beyond doubt that the work of the Law is written on their hearts, should they not get their death sentences reviewed? According to Paul’s Gospel, human persons as sons of disobedience, through showing that the work of the Law is written on their hearts, will both be accused of transgressions and excused of those transgressions in the great White Throne Judgment, with God showing no partiality. Thus, should God now show partiality toward humanity when it comes to the work of the Law being written on hearts?

There is both sternness and mercy imbedded in the judgment of God: the person who transgresses the Law but who is and never was under the Law will perish without the Law for it is the doer of the Law who shall be justified. Yet if the work of the Law is written on another person’s heart, thereby causing this other person to practice love for neighbor and brother, feeding the hungry and giving shelter to the homeless, this person shall be saved while the first perishes.

Was Pharaoh a worse sinner than Nebuchadnezzar, the basest of men (Dan 4:17), but who was also an agent of God (Jer 25:9)? Was Pharaoh responsible for not letting Israel go even after his nation was devastated? Not really. Note what Paul wrote,

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." So then He has mercy on whomever He wills, and He hardens whomever He wills. (Rom 9:14–18)

The hearts of Israel, except for a remnant, were hardened in the days of the first disciples (had been hardened since the days of Moses) as Pharaoh’s heart was hardened in the days of Moses. Today, in this endtime era, the hearts of greater Christendom have been hardened so that they cannot see the things of God nor hear the words of the Lord. Christians within traditional ideologies refuse to accept the reality that they have no indwelling life except that with which they were humanly born. These Christians, like Muslims who came after them, continue to insist that have immoral souls when they have no such heavenly life … they have the potential to receive indwelling immortality in the form of the indwelling Christ Jesus, with the indwelling Christ Jesus causing them to walk in this world as the man Jesus walked (cf. 1 Cor 11:1; 1 John 2:6).

Christ Jesus as the First of the firstfruits paid the ransom price for the Elect, those human persons foreknown and predestined by God the Father to be called, justified, and glorified before it is the time to harvest firstfruits. It is only the Elect that will be saved without being judged:

In John’s Gospel, Jesus said,

For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (John 5:21–24 double emphasis added)

If a person does not come under judgment, the person is not sentenced to death. The person has indwelling life with Christ Jesus being the life [zoe‘] of men.

A person not subject to judgment has indwelling life; for the purpose of judgment is to determine whether the person or entity [angel] shall live or die, not how long the entity will be tortured in flames not hot enough to consume the entity.

It is the Elect in this present era who hears the word [’o logos] of Jesus and believes the Father, who is also their Father and their God—believes because the Father has drawn the Elect from this world and given them to Christ Jesus (John 6:44); believes because the Father has foreknown and predestined the Elect (Rom 8:29–30). Thus, it is the Elect that has the indwelling of Christ Jesus as the life and light of men.

Again, if Jesus’ death at Calvary had truly paid the death penalty for all-time transgressions of the Law, all of humanity would pass from death to life without coming into judgment: Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself would have paid for humanity’s transgressions before transgressors were even humanly conceived and born. But New Testament Scripture cannot support what has traditionally been taught about Calvary. In fact, Scripture teaches the opposite message: Jesus’ sacrifice paid the death penalty for only those human persons foreknown by the Father.

In 1^st Peter we find,

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And "If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. (1 Pet 4:15–19)

If the righteous is scarcely saved—salvation isn’t for everyone, but only for the righteous, the person who continuously does good. Salvation isn’t for the meddler, the person who meddles in the affairs of another person. Salvation isn’t for the gossip; isn’t for the adulterer, the fornicator; isn’t for the swindler or the greedy. Salvation isn’t for the liar. Salvation is only for the person who hears the word of Jesus and believes the One who send Jesus into this world to redeem the foreknown and predestined, the nation of Israel that is today circumcised of heart, not in the flesh. The ungodly and the sinner will perish in the lake of fire, the second death that destroys the inner self or soul [psuche] of the person.

The juxtaposition exists between inner and outer selves that is visibly seen between a man and a woman in marriage, with the man [inner self] being the head of the woman [outer self]; hence a wife’s attire reflects what is in her husband’s heart. If righteousness dwells in her husband’s heart, the wife will clothe herself with modest apparel and good works. But if sexual immorality dwells in the heart of the husband, his wife’s attire will reflect this immorality, with this juxtaposition at the core Amos’ curse of Amaziah:

Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said, "'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.'" And Amaziah said to Amos, "O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom." Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, "I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But [YHWH] took me from following the flock, and [YHWH] said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.' Now therefore hear the word of [YHWH]. You say, 'Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.' Therefore thus says [YHWH]: "'Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.'" (Amos 7:10–17)

Because Amaziah’s heart wasn’t pure for Amaziah served another god in another temple [the temple that Jeroboam built] thereby committing adultery against the God of Israel, Amaziah’s wife would prostitute herself in Samaria—

As an aside, note how Amos identified the northern kingdom of Samaria: You say, 'Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.' … It is as the house of Isaac that the royal lineage of the tribes of the northern kingdom (the ancient House of Israel) have historically identified themselves, with this royal lineage forming nations retaining <Sac> in their linguistic identifier. Thus, for those Sabbatarian Christians that espouse a physical two-house-of-Israel theology, Sac or Saxon pertains not to the descendants of the collective northern kingdom known as the House of Israel, but to the wannabe descendants of Samaria’s broken line of royalty.

If a person is not born of spirit, the person has but one life and is as Amaziah was—the man’s wife will reflect what is in the man’s heart, with the man and his wife forming one flesh. But if the person has been born of spirit through the indwelling of the spirit/breath of God in the spirit/breath of Christ, the person has within the person’s fleshly body two lives, one animating the inner self and one animating the outer self, with the outer self now having the inner self as its head and with the inner self having the indwelling Christ Jesus as its head and with Christ having the God the Father has His Head. The outer self will now reflect what is in the figurative heart of the inner self, with the Law being written on the heart of the inner self through the indwelling of Christ. The outer self should and eventually will clothe itself in righteousness; thus, no judgment of the person is needed. The person passes from death [the dead inner self] to life [the glorified inner self] without coming under judgment. This person can only experience the death of the outer self [soma], which will usually be painful and difficult as in the case of the man Jesus’ death, with the person momentarily feeling abandoned by God, especially if the person has taken upon him or herself the sins of others.

How can a mortal human person take upon him or herself the sins of another human person? The answer is, a mortal person cannot. But the glorified inner self of a son of God can choose to sacrifice his or her fleshly body for another person, thereby giving to the other person the greatest gift of love that can be given. To do this, though, the person must truly believe that he or she has been born of spirit and has life in the heavenly realm—not life to be received, but existing heavenly life that will receive a glorified body from the glorified Christ. And again, the sequential order is important: a person lays down his or her physical life for another person before the person receives a glorified body just as Jesus died physically for the transgressions of the Elect before He received a glorified body from the Father.

It is belief by the Elect that they already have indwelling eternal life (that they have already passed from death to life) that will permit them to do what Jesus declared:

This is my [Jesus’] commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. (John 15:12–17 double emphasis added)

Jesus’ disciples are to follow His example, even to laying down their lives for their friends, not just for their brothers in Christ. But if a disciple is to love other disciples as Jesus loved the first disciples, the disciple must necessarily be born of spirit through the indwelling of Christ Jesus.

Now, consider what the glorified Jesus tells ten of His disciple when He breathes on them, thereby imparting to them the holy spirit [pneuma ’agion]: “‘Receive the holy spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld’” (John 20:22–23 double emphasis added).

No person can forgive the sins of another unless that person has the ability to take the other person’s sins upon him or herself, thereby paying the death penalty for the sins forgiven … a death penalty must be paid for the forgiveness of sins. Christ Jesus paid this death penalty for the Elect so that the Elect can pass from death to life without coming under judgment.

Forgiveness of sins will prevent the one forgiven from coming under judgment; therefore, the person doing the forgiving must necessarily pay the penalty that is waved, or at least have the ability to pay this penalty. This person must be truly born of spirit, having received the spirit of God [pneuma Theou] in the spirit of Christ [pneuma Christou] directly from Christ Jesus, not through the laying on of hands of another person but through being called and justified by Christ Jesus. Again, Jesus told His disciples, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.

Decision theology is not of God, Father or Son. You do not, on your own, come to Christ because of any decision you make or made. You come because the Father has drawn you from this world and given you to Christ, and Christ has called you and justified you so that the Father can glorify your inner self, soul.

Death awaits every humanly born person because of the unbelief of Adam, the man of mud. Death is inside the humanly born person in the form of a dead inner self; hence, Matthew’s Jesus said, Permit the dead to bury the dead of themselves (Matt 8:22). However, the Father of the man Jesus was not of the first Adam, but was the Logos, the God [Theos] who created all things physical. The indwelling life that animated the man Jesus’ fleshly body was not, therefore, of the first Adam but was of the Logos. And until the man Jesus voluntarily gave up this “life” through John’s baptism, He had no other indwelling breath of life. It was only after He took judgment upon Himself to fulfill all righteousness that He received a second breath of life, that of God the Father [pneuma Theou].

The significance of what Jesus did in being baptized is too easily glossed over by Sabbatarian Christians … baptism represents real death through taking judgment upon the self, thereby condemning the self to death. This is what Jesus did when He was baptized: He voluntarily took upon Himself judgment even though He was without sin. He did not then, when submerged in the Jordan by John, have any life but that which animated His fleshly body. He was not fully man and fully God, again a heretical teaching of late 1^st and 2^nd Century sons of the Adversary. He was fully man even though His Father wasn’t the first Adam but the God of Abraham. It was only after He rose from baptism that He received a second breath of life, the breath of God the Father, the God of dead ones—

Jesus was dead even though He lived when He took judgment upon Himself: the God of living ones [the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — Matt 22:31–32] no longer spiritually lived either in heaven or on earth through His unique Son, the man Jesus, once Jesus took judgment upon Himself via baptism.

The preceding hasn’t been well understood by Sabbatarian Christians: baptism isn’t for receipt of the holy spirit [pneuma ’agion] but for taking judgment upon the self. If the person never comes under judgment—the person who hears Jesus’ words and believes the One who sent Him into this world—but passes directly from death to life, there is no reason for the person to be baptized into death or judgment. Rather, the disciple is to be baptized into Christ Jesus …

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Rom 6:3–11 double emphasis added)

Until the single kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man (cf. Rev 11:15–18; Dan 7:9–14), all authority in heaven and on earth has NOT been given to Christ Jesus; thus, what Matthew’s glorified Jesus tells His disciples in Matthew 28:18 has not yet occurred. And if the reality of verse 18 hasn’t occurred, then verses 19 and 20 do not yet pertain … Sabbatarian Christians should be baptizing repentant sinners into Christ Jesus, and not baptizing them into judgment or laying hands on them afterwards so that they receive the holy spirit … the Book of Acts is a Sophist novel, not faithful history, so Sabbatarians should not go to Acts 19 for their baptismal example.

We as sons of disobedience are physically alive but spiritually dead prior to being baptized into Christ Jesus. We were not born Israelites; we were not born circumcised either in the flesh or of the heart. Rather we were humanly born as Gentiles. So we were not born under the Law, an important point, for a male Hebrew is not born outwardly circumcised but circumcised on the eighth day and thereby placed under the Law when too young to rebel against what his parents have done to him.

As the Elect, we are spiritually born and circumcised of heart when we are spiritually too young to rebel against what our parent [God the Father] has done to us.

Prior to baptism, the sin that dwells within our fleshly bodies was also dead …

Paul wrote,

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the spirit and not in the old way of the written code. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. (Rom 7:4–10)

When we are baptized into Christ Jesus, we awaken indwelling sin and its passions that will consequentially kill us spiritually if we leave Christ; if we reject Christ, the reality of what Jesus in John’s Gospel told Pharisees:

Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind." Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, "Are we also blind?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains.” (John 9:39–41 double emphasis added)

The unbaptized Christian—the unbaptized person—has not taken judgment upon him or herself and therefore does not claim to see the spiritual things of God, but the baptized Christian is as the Apostle Paul was when sin came alive in him and thereby slew him as it slew ancient Israel at Sinai: “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law” (Rom 5:12–13) … sin is not counted as sin where there is no Law because sin remains dead, unable to harm the person not under the Law. However, again, the sinner not under the Law shall nevertheless perish without the Law (Rom 2:12). It is only those who keep the Commandments that shall live (v. 13), not because they keep the commandments but because they will have demonstrated love for neighbor and brother.

We are humanly born spiritually dead. This is what greater Christendom refuses to accept. And we will remain spiritually dead unless Jesus dies in us while we are still sinners (Rom 5:8) then is resurrected in us, thereby clothing us in His righteousness, with this garmenting in righteousness forming the reality of grace.

Without the indwelling of Christ, we are spiritually dead even though we physically live prior to and after we are baptized. The same pertained to Jesus (whose Father was not of the first Adam) who had within “the man” the indwelling of Christ Jesus through being Christ Jesus; therefore, when He took judgment onto Himself he physically lived prior to and after He was baptized, with the difference being that prior to baptism, He was not under judgment, a redundant way of getting-at the significance of the moment; for the act of Jesus taking judgment upon Himself initiated His ministry that would not be fulfilled in the 1^st-Century CE, but in the 21^st-Century. But beginning with taking judgment upon Himself, Jesus would cast a shadow in this world, a shadow amounting to a written record; so any written record of Jesus prior to His baptism is for a purpose other than historical accuracy.

The Synoptic Gospels do not agree as to what was said when the breath of God [pneuma Theou] descended upon Jesus in the bodily form of a dove:

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." (Matt 3:16–17 emphasis added)

And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."(Mark 1:10–11 emphasis added)

What Luke’s Gospel records was modified in the 4^th or 5^th Century CE to make it agree with Mark’s Gospel, whereas it originally said what is recorded in Hebrew 1:5 and 5:5 … to whom the voice from heaven spoke differs between Matthew’s Gospel and Mark’s Gospel, with the voice speaking to John the Baptist in Matthew but to Jesus, Himself, in Mark. But neither scenario came into existence until long after the voice from heaven spoke.

The differing utterances recorded in the Synoptic Gospels underlay the problem inherent to the Synoptic Gospels: both Mark’s and Matthew’s Gospels are sermons, and Luke’s Gospel is private confirmation that what a particular person, Theophilus, not all lovers of God, was taught was true.

The Beloved of the Father—the Beloved was who had been to the Host of Heaven as a wife is to her husband until He entered His creation as His unique Son—was spiritually dead through being under judgment from when He entered the Jordan until the breath of the Father descended upon Him and entered into Him (Mark 1:10). And the preceding declaration opens the door for Arian Christians, one-godders, who would have the God the Father being the God of Abraham when this is not the case … if the Logos [’o Logos] who was God [Theos] and who was of [pros] the God [ton Theon] in primacy [arche] (from John 1:1) was as a wife is to her husband, the two being one flesh as a model revealing the relationship between the inner and outer self of “one person,” then Arian Christians would have to hold that their spouses are not persons separate from them. And such a holding would deny personhood to the spouse, which is what Arian Christians do to the Logos [’o Logos], thereby creating an awkward heavenly utterance either about or to the man Jesus when raised from baptism; for the structure of the utterance in both Matthew’s and Mark’s Gospels gives to the phrase <the Beloved> [’o ’Agapetos] a sense of preexistence that is missing from English translations.

The Logos [’o Logos] and the Host of heaven or Ancient of Days, together, form one deity identified to Israel by the linguistic determiner, the Tetragrammaton <YHWH>, with the model of marriage requiring consummating the union of two as one not coming at birth but with the “head” of the man initially entering his wife to become her head. This entrance of the breath or spirit of the Father into the man Jesus came immediately after John raised Jesus from the watery grave (see Mark 1:10 in Greek). The two are again one deity, the two not now being as a man and his wife but as a man and his eldest son [his primogenitor]. Thus, Jesus can declare to His disciples that in Him they see the Father:

Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.” (John 14:8–11)

Once the breath of the Father [pneuma Theou] entered into Jesus, the Father was in Jesus in the same way that once Jesus breathed on ten of His disciples (John 20:22), He was through His breath [pneuma Christou] in His disciples, the reality of what it means to be born again or born from above. But here now is where all of this becomes more difficult to understand: Jesus was in Himself prior to when He received the indwelling of God the Father, coming to Him in the bodily form of a dove. Post receipt of the breath of God [pneuma Theou], the breath of God was in Jesus’ psuche, thereby becoming the Head of Jesus, giving to Jesus the commandment He was to speak, words that represented eternal life (John 12:50), with this modeling forming the shadow and copy of the breath of Christ entering the Elect and giving to the Elect the words they are to speak, with the indwelling Jesus being the Head of His Body, the Church, as God the Father was the Head of Jesus throughout His earthly ministry.

During Jesus’ earthly ministry, the Church was no larger than the man Jesus, an individual (one kernel of grain): His disciples were not then His Body, and thus, not of the Church. But with receipt of the breath of Christ, the first disciples grew as grain kernels in a single seed head, with these kernels scattered about by war and persecution. And with the scattering of the first disciples, all sons of light that would have cast no shadow of themselves in this world, the Body of Christ begins to take shape, its form that of Christ Jesus walking in this world.

But Paul wrote (again), “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:6–8).

While we were still weak; while the Church remained a few scattered grain kernels, Christ died for the ungodly … but how did Christ die? He “died” when He was baptized, but He didn’t physically die. He died physically at Calvary, but He didn’t spiritually die. So what death of Christ does Paul address?

Jesus died for the Elect when He took their judgment upon Himself: again, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:3–4).

Christ being raised from the dead by the glory of the Father suggests Jesus’ resurrection from death post Calvary, but the inner self of Jesus didn’t die at Calvary, what Peter declares:

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him. (1 Pet 3:18–22)

Baptism, which corresponds to this—to what? To being brought safely through water, or through death, what befell all of humanity except for the eight persons in the days of Noah … baptism into Christ Jesus equates to passing safely through death; for judgment is not upon the person baptized into Christ. This person has passed from death to life without coming under judgment.

Baptism isn’t for the washing away of dirt; isn’t for washing away sins; but for an appeal to God for a good conscious, the mind of Christ Jesus, with what Peter writes forming part of him feeding the lambs [spiritual infants] of Christ.

The scattered grains, kernels representing 1^st-Century disciples did not all sprout and bring forth seed heads in the 1^st or 2^ndCenturies. Some lay dormant for nearly two millennia, waiting to sprout in the 21^st-Century when new stalks of grain would grow in darkness and grow from depleted soils to grow into the resurrected Body of Christ, spindly, groping for truth, yet hearing the words Jesus left with His first disciples, the commandment that is eternal life. And the following is what has been heard:

At the Second Passover liberation of Israel, uncovered [by the blood of Christ Jesus] and thereby unredeemed firstborns that belong to God through simply being firstborns (see Ex 13:2, 12–15) will be suddenly slain, with this selective death of only firstborns being the determiner that this slaughter of a third part of humanity is of God and is not an otherwise explainable catastrophe … as the Lord slew uncovered Egyptian firstborns (Ex 12:12, 29) of both man and beasts at the first Passover, the Lord will strike down uncovered firstborns on earth and in the Abyss at the Second Passover, with the great horn or first king of the demonic king of Greece being broken (Dan 8:8, 21–22) when this still-future slaughter of uncovered firstborns occurs. This great horn will be broken because he is “first,” his bronze color linking him to the spiritual king of Babylon. And because of color (reflected light), it can reasonably be assumed that this great horn became, in the heavenly rebellion against God, the “firstborn” of the Adversary [common bronze, the 90% Cu 10% Sn alloy, is the same color as 14 carat gold, the 58% Au + 50/50 Ag Cu alloy that is usually recognized as being “gold colored”].

The “breaking” of the great horn of the federated, demonic king of Greece will belie the myth that angels cannot die: those angels that followed the Adversary will then know for certain that death awaits them, a realization that will introduce never-before-seen dynamics into the course of human affairs as some fallen angels attempt to save themselves and some seek vengeance upon all of humanity.

Jesus is, for the Elect, the sacrificed Passover Lamb of God after the pattern of Israel in Egypt sacrificing the selected and penned (on the 10^th day of the first month) lamb at even on the 14^th day of the first month. Israel in Egypt then roasted with fire the Passover, roasted this lamb whole; roasted this lamb without disemboweling it; roasted this lamb with their loins girded, feet shod, and staffs in hand even though they were not to leave their houses until dawn (Ex 12:22).

The symbolism of Israel in Egypt roasting then eating the Passover in their own houses which they couldn’t leave until dawn, but roasting and eating with feet shod and loins girded as if they were about to leave has never been well explored … for a human person truly born of spirit, the fleshly body is an earthly house in which the now-living inner self temporarily dwells (see 2 Cor 5:1–5 in Greek). Thus, the fleshly body for a son of God is analogous to the house of an ancient Israelite in Egypt—and during the one long night of waiting and watching when the Passover was being roasted, no Israelite could leave his house, with the door posts and lintel of this Israelite’s house in the Delta being equivalent to the lips of the born-of-spirit disciple. No son of God, when eating the Passover in a worthy manner, will die during Passover services. But in a larger sense, no spiritual Israelite will receive a glorified new house (an imperishable body) until dawn of the single long day of waiting and watching that began at Calvary …

Roasting a lamb that has not been skinned or dressed takes many hours and gives off no pleasant smell; roasting the Lamb of God with the fiery sins of Israel gives off no savory odors. It is not a “good” thing to do.

In Egypt, many hours of roasting would have been required before the Passover could have been eaten: if this roasting began at sunset, the Passover would have been eaten just about the hour when the death angel passed over the land of Egypt, the midnight hour, when the night is farthest from dusk or dawn. Likewise, Christians have been living through one long night of waiting and watching while “roasting” the Lamb of God with their sins—the symbolism of ancient Israel roasting and eating the Passover with feet shod and loins girded pertains to Christians expecting Christ to return at any time for the past two millennia when if the symbolism of the Passover had been understood, these Christians would have known not to expect the return of Christ until six hours after uncovered firstborns have been suddenly slain (these “hours” being seven months long).

The Lamb of God was slain at Calvary, with that Preparation Day for the great Sabbath of the Sabbath (see John 19:31 in Greek) representing that period about which Paul wrote (again),

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Rom 5:6–10 double emphasis added)

The author of Matthew’s Gospel identifies the Preparation Day as the First Unleavened (see Matt 26:17 in Greek and take out the extra words that translators have added). This First Unleavened represents the entirety of the Christian era, with the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread representing the seven endtime years of tribulation when first, Christians, then all of humanity will be liberated from indwelling sin and death; hence, unleavened.

Christ dies for sinners on the Preparation Day, the First Unleavened, that era or day that began with all firstborn sons of God being sinners regardless of the son of God’s human birth date. I was humanly born as a son of disobedience; you were humanly born as a son of disobedience; the Apostle Paul was humanly born as a son of disobedience:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:1–7 double emphasis added)

The 14^th day of the first month, beginning at even with the sacrifice of the Passover, represents the First Unleavened that is not part of the Feast of Unleavened Bread just as the Last Great Day is not part of the Feast of Tabernacles, with the Feast of Unleavened Bread forming the mirror image of the Feast of Tabernacles … for nearly a century, Sabbatarian disciples not born of God have realized that the Last Great Day represents the great White Throne Judgment, but haven’t recognized that the First Unleavened is the mirror image of the Last Great Day and as such represents the Christian era and the harvest of the Elect, again with the Elect being those disciples truly foreknown by God; predestined by God; drawn from this world by God through Him giving them His spirit [pneuma Theou] in the indwelling of Christ in the form of His spirit [pneuma Christou] while they remained sinners; then called by Christ Jesus; justified by Christ Jesus; and glorified by first the Father [the inner self] and then the Son [the outer self].

When the Elect receive heavenly life through receipt of the breath of the Father [again, pneuma Theou], the inner self of the Elect is “glorified”; hence, the Apostle Paul writes about the fate of disciples in the past tense … those whom the Father has predestined have already been saved even through their inner selves remain in perishable bodies and await their change from perishable flesh to imperishable spirit. It is the inner selves [psuchas] of 1^st-Century disciples that sleep under the heavenly altar. It was about the living inner self of Jesus that Peter wrote what has previously been cited:

For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. (1 Pet 3:17–20)

The eight that will cross from this present evil world to the world tomorrow are spirits, the glorified Christ Jesus and the angels to the seven named churches, with the seven pair of clean animals that boarded the Ark representing the seven named churches [Joshua] and with the single pair of every other species representing those Christians that will—because they have a different spirit about them—join themselves to the Father and the Son [Caleb] during the Affliction.

Today, the Adversary remains the prince of this world: both political progressives and the TEA Party serve the Adversary. President Obama is a principle agent of the Adversary, as is Glenn Beck. The NSA serves the Adversary, who already knows more about you than the NSA can assemble against you … the Adversary appears as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14). His servants appear as ministers of righteousness, with some of his servants being Sabbatarian leaders that as fat sheep, trample the pasture and muddy the water for the lean sheep, the common folk that account for most of spiritual Israel. And it is the common folk that have the most difficulty imagining that Christ truly died for them while they were sinners. They will ask, How can that be, when Christ died in the 1^st-Century and we are now in the 21^st-Century?

How can it be—it can be because of the timeless nature of heaven.

It is in heaven, from the perspective of heaven, the same moment right now as it was when Christ was crucified at Calvary. We are still living in the same day, the Preparation Day (the First Unleavened), when Jesus as the Passover Lamb of God was sacrificed. Certainly some 724,094 days have passed since April 25 (Julian), 31 CE, but those days were here on earth. Those days were denoted by earthly sunsets and sunrises, not by the light of Christ Jesus being absent or present in the creation. Based on the light cast by Christ Jesus, the dark portion of one long day began at Calvary and will go to when the Christ will again stand on the Mount of Olives and this granite monolith will cleave in two, thereby opening up a valley through which saints in Jerusalem can escape on the doubled day 1260, when the single kingdom of this world is taken from its present prince and given to the Son of Man (cf. Rev 11:15–18; Dan 7:9–14).

The dark portion of one day, beginning at Calvary and extending until the single kingdom of this world is taken from the Adversary and given to the Son of Man, will be more than 1900 years long. The light portion of this one day is represented by the 1260 days of the Endurance of Jesus, when those human persons not of Christ will mark themselves with the tattoo of the cross so that they can buy and sell (engage in transactions) for the short while that the Adversary remains loose before being chained in the Abyss for a thousand years. And those who take upon themselves the tattoo of the cross, the mark of the beast, will have marked themselves for death, and for the second death through committing blasphemy against the spirit … when figuratively filled with spirit, there is no room inside the person for sin or death. If the person returns to his or her formerly lawless ways, the person will have to figuratively splash out some spirit, thereby committing blasphemy against the spirit and damning the person to the lake of fire.

It will be sad to see so many “Christians” rebel against Christ 220 days into the seven endtime years—the vast majority of Christendom will rebel—but each of these Christians will be without excuse, and without any covering for their sin but their own life. They will be filled with spirit, but not born of spirit. If they were born of spirit, they would not sin, especially when liberated from indwelling sin. But as ancient Israel rebelled against Moses and the Lord in the wilderness, greater Christendom will rebel against the two witnesses and the Lord in the Affliction. And as the nation of Israel liberated from Egyptian slavery and numbered in the census of the second year (except for Joshua and Caleb) perished in the wilderness, greater Christendom liberated from indwelling sin and death at the Second Passover (except for the seven named churches and those Christians who have about them a different spirit) will perish in the Affliction, especially during the Wrath of the Lamb (Rev 6:12–17).

When the single kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man on the doubled day 1260 of the seven endtime years of tribulation, only a third part of humanity will remain physically alive: a third part, all uncovered firstborns, will be slain at the Second Passover; a fourth part will be given into the hand of Death, the fourth horseman and fourth beast; and a third part of the remaining half of humanity will perish in the Second Woe. But the remaining third part is described in Zech 13:9—“‘And I [the Lord of Hosts] will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The Lord is my God.’”

The person who has not truly been born of God cannot understand spiritual matters. This person is neither saved, nor lost. If this person has genuine love for neighbor and brother, this person will do well in the great White Throne Judgment. If this person, perchance a self-identified Christian, should physically live into the Affliction, this person will be liberated from indwelling sin and death through being filled with spirit. Then the person has no choice about what he or she must do: the person will either walk in this world as Jesus, an observant Jew, walked without sin, or the person will commit blasphemy against the spirit. It will be well within the person’s ability to walk without sin as it was within ancient Israel’s ability to walk out from Egypt. But again, the nation numbered in the census of the second year, except for Joshua and Caleb, did not enter the Promised Land. Rather, this nation perished in the wilderness because of their unbelief (Heb 3:19).

Most of greater Christendom will spiritually perish in the Affliction because of unbelief. Most of Sabbatarian Christendom will also perish though hopefully not spiritually, only physically. But that is up to you.

The Sabbatarian covers the firstborn son of God dwelling in the fleshly house that is the outer self of the Sabbatarian through the Sabbatarian taking the Passover sacraments of bread and wine on the night that Jesus was betrayed, this night being the dark portion of the 14^th day of the first month, the month that begins with the first sighted new moon crescent following the spring equinox, regardless of where the Sabbatarian physically dwells. The Sabbatarian needs to be taking the Passover sacraments prior to death angels passing over all the land at the spiritual midnight hour when humanity can get no farther from God—and humanity is about at this hour, distinguished by the Whitehouse celebrating a bisexual and transgender awareness day, a reasonable indicator of whom Whitehouse officials serve.

The gender-neutral Adversary would have his servants and especially his sons slip out of traditional gender modeling and satisfy sexual desires in a rainbow of ways, a tricky juxtaposition when genuine sons of God will become the Bride of Christ, thereby forming the Body of Christ in the same way that a man’s wife represents his body.

It is in the distinction between the asexuality of a son of God and the sexuality of a son of man where gender-bending becomes perversion.

In ancient Egypt, a woman wearing a beard as a symbol of authority represented a woman wearing what pertained to a man; i.e., to Pharaoh. Likewise, the fleshly body of a son of God exercising authority over the inner self spiritually represents a woman wearing what pertains to a man. It isn’t a woman wearing pants to do work that has traditionally been done by men where spiritual problems lay, but in the fleshly body ruling over the inner self and thereby becoming the head of the inner self, displacing Christ as Head, with the most easily discerned example of the flesh ruling over the inner self being a son of God believing that he or she must work on the Sabbath to provide for the person’s family. With a genuine son of God, this will never be the case. A son of God can experience great difficulties, including genuine hunger, but these difficulties will not justify the son of God deliberately working on the Sabbath to provide those mundane things needed for life. The son of God shall live by faith, with the flesh being in subjection to the inner self.

A neighbor might well prosper through working on the Sabbath, but the son of God should not envy this earthly prosperity, or even desire it. A neighbor might have many sexual encounters with persons not his or her spouse, but the son of God should not seek or partake in such encounters … when the hour of unmasking comes, only the mask should come off if the son of God has practiced righteousness. If more comes off, the son of God should repent bitterly.

A son of God through still having a fleshly body might well desire to participate in ungodly expressions of the person’s humanity, but this desire is momentary—it can be almost overwhelming, but it doesn’t last. It succumbs to the excitement of the flesh, leaving the son of God regretful and usually disgusted by the weakness of the flesh.

For the official organism representing America to celebrate twisted sexuality might well please the Adversary, but such a celebration invites the God of spiritual Israel to step on and squash the Federal Government as if the President and his regime were a tomato hornworm.

Growing up in the American West, I heard a lot of Montana jokes … the environmental direction in which the Whitehouse is headed will soon have sheep on the south lawn.

The sacrifice of a man without sin, Christ Jesus as the Passover Lamb of God, covers the sins of “Israel” [the Elect] in this world and covers but doesn’t pay the death penalty for the sins of Israel in the heavenly realm, where that which has life will always have life for the absence of life and the presence of life cannot co-exist in the same moment. Therefore, Jesus, by having the Father return to Him the glory He had before (“‘And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed’” — John 17:5) cannot die in heaven and would have to reenter the Creation to again die, not something He will do and perhaps not something He can again do; thus, Jesus cannot pay the death penalty for the sins of spiritual Israelites. He can only bear or cover these sins, which means that a disciple truly born of God doesn’t come under judgment in a way traditionally taught within Christendom.

In a citation already quoted but repeated here for emphasis, Jesus said,

In order to truly “hear” Jesus’ words and believe the Father who sent His Beloved into the world, the Father must necessarily have drawn the person from this world and given to the person the earnest of eternal life, that is, the breath of God [pneuma Theou], meaning that the inner self of the drawn person has already been glorified or raised from death, the state in which every person is humanly born. Thus, this person has, by hearing the words of Jesus and believing the Father, passed from death to life without coming into judgment. This, however, is not what Sabbatarian Christendom usually teaches … it should be what is taught, but as Herbert Armstrong declared throughout his ministry, Christians are not yet born of spirit. And who better to know if a person is truly born of spirit than the person him or herself? For it is the person who sees internal changes in the person, who knows his or her own heart that can truly be deceitful, lying to the person about the sort of love the person has for others.

If a person realizes that at some point in the past, the person then believed something that the person now knows wasn’t true, the person should know better than to fully trust his or her heart. Yet, who knows the thoughts of a person except the spirit that is in the person? Who knows that the person used to “kill” others in his or her mind, and now doesn’t have any of those thoughts? Christ knows; the person knows. So what happened to those thoughts? Did they just disappear as the person aged? If that were the case, no elderly person would commit crimes. But the elderly do commit crimes, especially fornication. So for the person who knows that he or she was once a son of disobedience and now realizes that he or she desires to keep the Law and walk in this world as Jesus walked, the internal or mental change is profound. And this sort of change comes through the indwelling of Christ Jesus, who doesn’t judge the person but who left His word in this world as the person’s judge, a word that the person can read and will attempt to perfectly do.

Perfection doesn’t come all at once. But the habit of deciding to walk as Jesus walked begins with one decision to do what is correct, what Jesus would do in the situation, this decision then followed by another such decision, and another. Pretty quick, the person realizes that he or she isn’t who the person once was. The inner self is a new person that wrestles with the fleshly body and its thoughts and desires. And as the fleshly body weakens with age and the inner self strengths with maturity, the person comes ever closer to truly walking as Jesus walked, which is as it should be. The person judges him or herself, realizes when the person comes up short and resolves to do better; for the standard by which the person judges him or herself is ever with the person. This standard is the word of the indwelling Jesus.

The seed that sprouted in the 21^st-Century with a calling to reread prophecy has set forth tillers without really casting a shadow in this world. Sobeit.

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Homer Kizer Ministries

—Understanding Bible Prophecy