That “the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath”, is a truth of general application to all the institutions of God. Upon this principle, man was not made for religion, but religion was made for him. If this be true, then it follows that it was adapted to man as God had formed him. Hence, the institutions of religion, if it be of God, will always be found in harmony with his constitution and not at variance with it. They are devised as a remedy, for certain irregularities which have invaded his intellectual and moral nature; by which, phenomena have been superinduced which are destructive of his being. Now the exact adaptation of the Bible religion to the curative indications suggested by the intellectual, moral, and physical infirmities of human nature, which everyone who understands it cannot fail to perceive, proves that the mind which framed it is divine; and that the religion of the scriptures, and the constitution of man, are the work of one and the same Creator. God is truly the only wise physician, whose practice is based upon perfect knowledge; for He alone (and they to whom He hath revealed it) knows “what is in man”. [(John 2:24-25)]
Hence, no incongruities are discoverable in “His way” when His method of cure is understood.
In medicine, a scientific practice is directed, and founded, upon a knowledge of the structure or mechanism of the body, the motive power thereof, and of the functions which are manifested by the working of this power on its several parts. The absence of this knowledge in a professional, constitutes empiricism*; and is one cause of such vast multitudes “dying”, as it is said, “of the doctor”. Being ignorant of the motive power of the living creature, they are as unsuccessful in correcting its irregularities as a watchmaker, who was ignorant of the principles and laws by which a timepiece was moved, would be in rectifying its errors. Now this may be taken in illustration of the predicament of others who undertake the “cure of souls”. To treat these as “a work-man that needeth not to be ashamed”, a man should be acquainted with “souls” as God hath formed and constituted them. He should know what “a living soul” is; what its condition in a healthy state; what the peculiar morbid affection under which it languishes; what the nature of the cure indicated; and what the divinely appointed means by which the indications may be infallibly fulfilled. An attempt to “cure souls” without understanding the constitution of man as revealed by Him who created him, is mere theological experimentalism; and as bootless, and more fatally destructive than the empiricism of the most ignorant pretenders to the healing art. What! men undertake to “cure souls” and not to know what a soul is; or to imagine it a something, which it is admitted cannot be demonstrated by “the testimony of God”. This is like pretending to repair a timepiece without knowing what constitutes a watch or clock, or while imagining it to be a musical box, or any other conceivable thing.
Seven Souls (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Speculation has assumed that the soul is something in the human body capable of living out of the body, and of eating, drinking, feeling, tasting, smelling, thinking, singing, and so forth; and of the same essence as God Himself. In times past some have busied themselves in calculating how many such souls could stand on the point of a needle; a problem, however, which still remains unsolved. A vast deal is said in “sermons” and systems about this idea; about its supposed nature, its wonderful capacity, its infinite value, its immortality, and its destiny. I shall not, however, trouble the reader with it. We have to do with “the law and the testimony”; and as they are altogether silent about such a supposed existence, we shall not occupy our pages in superadding to the obsolete print concerning its attributes, which has already merged into the oblivion of the past. I allude to so much as this, because it is made the foundation corner-stone, as it were, of those experimental systems of spiritual cure, which are so popular with the world, and so utterly exclusive and proscriptive of the divine method.
Upon the supposition of the existence of this kind of a soul in the human body are based the current notions of heaven, hell, immortality, infant salvation, purgatory, saint-worship, Mariolatry, spiritual millenniumism, metempsychosis*, etc., etc. Its existence both in the body and out of the body being assumed, it is assumed also to be immortal. An immortal disembodied existence requires a dwelling place, because something must be somewhere; and, as it is said to be virtuous or vicious according to its supposed life in the body, and post mortem rewards and punishments are affirmed — this dwelling-place is exhibited as an elysium, or, as an orthodox poet sings, “a place of goblins damn’d”.
– Thomas, D. J. (1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 27–29). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.
*
Notes:
Empiricism: thedoctrinethatallallideasandcategories, knowledge of matters of factderivesfromexperienceandthatthemind is notfurnishedwith a set of concepts in advance of experience or thatknowledgecannotextendbeyondexperience,includingobservation,experiment,andinduction.Compareintuitionism, rationalism
Metempsychosis: [LateLatinmetempsȳchōsis, fromGreekmetempsūkhōsis, frommetempsūkhousthai, to transmigrate : meta-, meta- + empsūkhos, animate (en, in; seepsūkhē in Indo-European roots).] = themigration of a soulfromonebody to another or theentering of a soulafterdeathupon a newcycle of existence in a newbodyeither of human or animalform; thetransmigration of thesoul,esp.thepassage of thesoulafterdeathintothebody of anotherbeing; therebirth of thesoul at death in anotherbody,eitherhuman or animal.Cf.creationism. — metempsychic,metempsychosic,metempsychosical,adj.
In the previous postings we have seen that man had to be reminded to his own choice to be without God as their Commander and because off that choice got a reminder of their mortality.
We by know should see the significance of the introduction of the Sabbathcommands being associated with the provision of manna.
For many people Mosaic law in the Bible can be confusing and often also in Judaic groups we can find lots of debates about certain laws to be followed in what sort of way. Many Christians do not like to talk so much about those laws and which ones we have to follow.
In many religious groups the question is posed which laws we still do have to follow.
According to some
” There are definitely some bizarre statutes, such as not being allowed to mix two kinds of fabric, or not cooking a goat in its mothers milk. There are also all the dietary restrictions of not being allowed to eat certain “unclean” animals such as pigs, not to mention all the sacrificial laws to atone for sin. These things seem drastic and at the very least, unnecessary. Now obviously most Christians don’t follow any of these. So what are we supposed to do with it? We know that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So what has changed? {What are we gonna do with this Torah?}
The fall of man (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In the previous postings we have shown that all relates to mankind’s decision to take a certain attitude to God. We need to understand that because of sin we were not able to relate to God as he intended it. By man’s own choice he became separated from his own Creator. For this reason god made a structure so that they could often enough be reminded of Him Divine Creator.
In the previous writings you could see that God provided physical and spiritual food for man and gave them rules to follow so that they could have an easier life. He also demanded from them to respect Him as the Only One True God and not to make any graven images of Him.
Before the only begottenson of God was placed on the earth, all believers where still in a situation to be compared with God’s people in Egypt. But now we do have Jesus, God’s faithful Son who is called out of Egypt, filling up what was lacking in the first faithless son, Israel.
First Israel, God’s son, broke the covenant and deserved God’s wrath. Like at the beginning in the Garden of Eden, God‘s promise brings the one and only working solution for mankind. It is not by doing certain works that the liberation shall come over us. It is by the Gift of Grace that we receive freedom, but that would not liberate us from following certain orders made by God.
Galatians 4:3-5 NHEBJE So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world. (4) But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, (5) that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children.
Completion of Israel’s designation
God his only begotten SonJesus Christ (Matthew 3:17), whom God loves and with him God is well pleased, is the one who came to complete all that Israel was designed to perform. Some Jews got to see that, but also some non-Jews. Therefore the Jews started wondering if those new converts also had to fulfil all the requirements of the Jewish or Judaic and Mosaic Laws.
Those Jews who had chosen to follow their Master–teacherJeshua as the Messiah had also some who came to compare the old Jews and the new ‘Jews’ or converted goyim, people from all nations and all sorts other religions. The news of the conversion of the Gentiles is received with joy (Acts 15:12). They could see how many thousands of Yehuḏim there had come to be ardent for the Torah.
Torah and morality for man to follow
For generations since Moses the Jews had their preachers in every town, and it was been read aloud in the synagogues every Sabbath how to conduct oneself. As such it was questioned what the new converts had to avoid. Had they to worry about anything that has been contaminated by idols, immorality, the meat of strangled animals, and the tasting of blood?
The Jews had their Mosaic Law as a great bulwark of morality, and there was excuse for wondering whether pagans could keep its moral precepts, without observing it entirely. So this party, which did not represent the church at Jerusalem, (Acts 15:13 ff.), came to Antioch and insisted that circumcision and the Law were necessary for those who wished to enter the Messianic kingdom on earth, and be saved. The Judaizing party had evidently little following outside Jerusalem.
Gentiles, Judaizing Christians and Jews
In Jerusalem many thought that Paul was teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. Therefore they requested the assembly to meet. Concerning the Gentiles who believe, the apostles have written and decided that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. Then Paul took the men, and the next day, having been purified with them, entered the temple to announce the expiration of the days of purification, at which time an offering should be made for each one of them.
Acts 21:17-26 NHEBJE When we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly. (18) The day following, Paul went in with us to James; and all the elders were present. (19) When he had greeted them, he reported one by one the things which God had worked among the Gentiles through his ministry. (20) They, when they heard it, glorified God. They said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Judeans of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law. (21) They have been informed about you, that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children neither to walk after the customs. (22) What then? They will certainly hear that you have come. (23) Therefore do what we tell you. We have four men who have taken a vow. (24) Take them, and purify yourself with them, and pay their expenses for them, that they may shave their heads. Then all will know that there is no truth in the things that they have been informed about you, but that you yourself also walk keeping the Law. (25) But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written our decision that they should keep themselves from food offered to idols, from blood, from strangled things, and from sexual immorality.” (26) Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purified himself and went with them into the temple, declaring the fulfillment of the days of purification, until the offering was offered for every one of them.
An elaborate list of “do” and “don’t” items
A turn was made in history of man when the sent one of God had proven that man could do the Will of God and presented himself as an offering for all sinners. Jesus himself also knew that said that the Sabbath was made for man. (Mark 2:27).
Mark 2:23-28 NHEBJE It happened that he was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields, and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of grain. (24) The Pharisees said to him, “Behold, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?” (25) He said to them, “Did you never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungryhe, and those who were with him? (26) How he entered into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the show bread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?” (27) He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. (28) Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
The Fall of Man (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Jesus reminded the Pharisees about their attitude concerning observing religious rituals; like they declared that joy was more important than observing religious rituals, but could not see how on the Sabbath certain things could be done. The gleaning on the fields by the apostles was not considered stealing according to Deuteronomy 23:2, but the rabbis were more concerned about the day on which it happened and felt it belonged to an act of their elaborate list of “not to do” items relevant to the Sabbath. For them it was a serious violation of one of the items on this list.
When the disciples began to pluck the heads of grain, in the eyes of the religious leaders they were guilty of 4 faults: reaping, threshing, winnowing, preparing food.
At this time, Rabbis filled Judaism with elaborate rituals related to the Sabbath and observance of other laws. Ancient Rabbis taught that on the Sabbath, a man could not carry something in his right hand or in his left hand, across his chest or on his shoulder. But you could carry something with the back of your hand, with your foot, with your elbow, or in your ear, your hair, or in the hem of your shirt, or in your shoe or sandal. Or, on the Sabbath, you were forbidden to tie a knot – except a woman could tie a knot in her girdle. So, if a bucket of water had to be raised from a well, you could not tie a rope to the bucket, but a woman could tie her girdle to the bucket!
{Guzik commentary on the Gospel of Mark}
What they did not understand is that Jeshua never violated the mitzvah or God’s commands in any way. He took time to study God’s Word and did everything to live according to it. Jeshua with his disciples went to different places and wherever they came they took time to worship God and to observe the Sabbath.
For this sent one from God, who did not want to do his own will (which he would have done in case he himself was God, like some think)would not have approved of his disciples violating God’s commands to observe the Sabbath. But for him there was a big difference between the laws of God and the laws made by man. He could see that by time man added rules had come in the Jewish tradition, which had more to do with man made legalistic ways than with God His Ways.
Human need more important than religious ritual
A very often overlooked issue is the one of the needs of man and of the regulations for man in this time of age.
We do live in a world where man can reign, but where man has also many needs. People do have to eat and to be taken care for, every day and not just one day of the week not. When people would not be treated one day in the week it could well be that they would die that day, because of not having had the right treatment. But not only for life matters it was important to recognise that man could and should be able to do certain things which he would or would not do on the other days of the week. It could be for relaxation, for entertainment, or for making himself wiser, etc..
Also people had to take care for others, and our of love should also sometimes do things which would demand work.
Can you imagine those who do believe in God and do find we do have to keep Sabbath, but take a taxi or public transport, watch television, want to have shops open for getting what they want, want to go to the theatre and have people working for them, so you could say they are not concerned that those people then would do something against the Will of God and would loose their life? This would be very unloving and very selfish.
Sabbath from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset
Those who say Christians do have to keep to the Sabbath Law should then keep Sabbath from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset and should abstain of any form of work but also of any relaxation which would have others working, like watching television, going on the internet, wanting medical care, etc.
Those who say the Sabbath is Sunday should look at Jeshua which day he kept. That was the Jewish Sabbath and not what they call the Lord’s Day. God’s Day of rest was from what we now call Friday-night until the time sun goes down on Saturday and not when the clock strikes 12 on Saturday night until Sunday 12 pm..
It is not by days that we can be separated from God, but by our acts of doing wrong. It is sin which alienates us from God not the keeping of one or an other day in a different way than the other days.
To remind our position in the universe of God
God had given the Law to Moses so that people could be reminded of their Creator and of their position in the creation. God’s law shows us that we are not able to attain righteousness through laws, but by making our own right choices like the sent one from God made the right choices from his own, not pushed by any other person.
The first Adam did not keep to God His Wishes and his descendants were not better. Though the descendant of the tribe of David, showed he also had could reason to be a beloved son of God. As the second Adam he also could not attain righteousness through the law. He like any man could sin, something only God can not, but he always made the right choices, following not his own will but the Will of God.
Because of being infected by the fall of man we are unable to be without spot. For us week human beings it is difficult to keep to God’s standards. His ordinances may be set apart from the human rules, but that does not yet mean that we can’t be able to become set-apart our selves (being holy).
Fulfiller of Law
By only doing God’s Will and not the one of his own, Jesus proofed to God and to mankind that man is able to keep to God’s Will. By his way of living and giving himself for mankind he opened the way for a restored relationship between God and mankind.
For centuries man had tried to live according to God’s regulations, but did not seem to succeed. Now there was this Nazarene man who succeeded. By doing so he fulfilled the law and liberated all others from the Old Ordinances bringing them under a New Covenant, a New Regulation. By the sealing of his death a start was given to a New World.
Jesus died as a perfect payment for all the past, present, and future sins of all people. Though now people do have to recognise that sacrificial offering and have to come to see that Jesus is the Way to God now.
Matthew 5:17 NHEBJE “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
In a certain way do we not need the Mosaic Law any more, when we accept Jesus as our new law giver. God gave him authority to teach the world and to judge the world. We are by Christ Jesus Justified by faith. So it is up to people to follow Jesus or either to ignore him like many ignore Jesus his heavenly Father, the Only One God.
Through Christ Jesus righteousness is granted to us, and not any more by the Mosaic Law. He nailed the law and its consequences unto the stake. Through Jesus the sacrificial laws have been nullified and the temple curtain has been torn to allow all who know God to come to him, unrestricted, through the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 2:8-16 NHEBJE (8) for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, (9) not of works, that no one would boast. (10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them. (11) Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision,” (in the flesh, made by hands); (12) that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. (13) But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. (14) For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition, (15) having abolished in the flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace; (16) and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby.
Ordering works and ways of living
From the Jews there were ordered works of Torah, but those who came to Christianity should have to see that Jesus nailed the Old Covenant to the stake and as such did not have to keep to certain laws of food and customs.
Paul had also come to see that certain Jews did more live like gentiles and therefore questioned a.o. Cephas how he who lived not like a Jew, could force the Gentiles to live like Jews.
The Jews by birth who followed Jeshua understood that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. Jeshua’s followers believed in the Nazarene man to be the Messiah, the promised sent one from God. They were convinced that by works of the law no one will be justified.
From the 1° Adam onwards all man had been with sin except Christ Jesus. Jeshua did not become a servant of sin. Those converts to the teachings of Jeshua died to the Mosaic Law so that they might live to God. They should walk and live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us all.
Galatians 2:14-21 NHEBJE (14) But when I saw that they did not walk uprightly according to the truth of the Good News, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live as the Gentiles do, and not as the Jews do, how can you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do? (15) “We, being Jews by birth, and not Gentile sinners, (16) yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law. (17) But if, while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not! (18) For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker. (19) For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God. (20) I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. (21) I do not make void the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”
False teachings unsettling minds and burdens
In the early times of Christianity already false teachers could be found and people who disturbed others by their teaching and unsettled others their minds. The assembled meeting of Jewish brethren unanimously resolved to select representatives and send them to the ecclesiae so that they could hear how the view was made under the direction of the Holy Spirit after prayer and wise consult. By word of mouth the message was given to the other ecclesia. They agreed that it was for the Holy Spirit and their meeting that had decided not to lay upon others any burden but this indispensable one, that they had to avoid whatever has been sacrificed to idols, the tasting of blood and of the meat of animals that have been strangled, and immorality. They in first instance had to keep themselves free from these things.
Acts 15:24-29 NHEBJE Because we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, to whom we gave no commandment; (25) it seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose out men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, (26) men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (27) We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who themselves will also tell you the same things by word of mouth. (28) For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay no greater burden on you than these necessary things: (29) that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality, from which if you keep yourselves, it will be well with you. Farewell.”
As such old customs like bringing certain offers, tithing, were not necessary any more, because even by the Jews there were ones who did not like it and tried to escape from it.
From several parables and sayings form Jeshua, Jesus Christ, we do know that it is much more important to live according to the spirit of the Law, be it Mosaic or any other law, than to the letter.
End of the law
Those people who say they are Christian should follow the teachings of the master-teacher, rabbi Jeshua, and should accept his words about himself, his heavenly Father and about how we do have to live.
He also gave a golden rule which should guide us through our life and be our goal to love God and God His creation, like Jesus loved us we should love ourself and one another.
John 13:34-35 NHEBJE A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also must love one another. (35) By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 15:12-13 NHEBJE “This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. (13) Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
John 14:21 NHEBJE One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.”
Romans 10:4 NHEBJE For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Colossians 2:6-17 NHEBJE (6) As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him, (7) rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving. (8) Be careful that you do not let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ. (9) For in him all the fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily, (10) and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power; (11) in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; (12) having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. (13) You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, (14) wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross; (15) having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. (16) Let no man therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day, (17) which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.
Shabbat Nachamu (thejc.com)
The Shabbat after Tishah b’Av is called Shabbat Nachamu, meaning the Shabbat of comfort. It is named after the first words of the haftarah from Isaiah 40, “Comfort, comfort my people”.
After the deepening mourning of the three weeks for the Temples’ destruction leading up to Tishah b’Av, (culminating in not eating meat or bathing in the days preceding the fast), this Shabbat brings comfort and relief.
Parsha Emor: Is There A Shabbat In Other Realms? (jewishpress.com)
In our Torah reading for holidays, we not only recite the laws of holidays, we include Shabbat, and oddest of all, some laws about sacrificing animals. What do all these laws have to do with one another? In this video, Rabbi Fohrman makes a fascinating argument about how Shabbat works and shows that there are shabbatot in different realms.
Shabbat Chol Hamo’ed Pesach (thejc.com)
In general, it is fair to characterise the Torah commentators of the Middle Ages such as Rashi, Avraham ibn Ezra or Ramban as looking to provide the real meaning of the text.
This contrasts with the Chasidic writers of the last 300 years, who often afford themselves considerable latitude and allow the words of the Torah to soar and lead us to a truth and meaning well beyond the original context. Such interpretations may not obviously explain the literal meaning of the words but can be powerful insights into our spiritual lives.
The Early Christians of Philippi (catholicexchange.com)
Lydia was a business woman who dealt in purple cloth – she is therefore sometimes referred to as “Lydia Purpuraria” – Lydia the Purple-Seller. She evidently had roots in Asia Minor (Turkey) for she was said to be of Thyatira … an ancient city there (in a region curiously called “Lydia”). After being baptized, Lydia generously let her home in Philippi be
Note on the Physical Land of Israel: Who Inherits the Land of Israel – Christian or Jew? (ilyston.wordpress.com)
This irrevocable promise to the seed of Abraham has been expanded. It is no longer bound to the land of Palestine. In Romans 4:13, we find that Paul states that Abraham is the “heir of the world.” This is also stated in Psalms 25:13: “His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth” (Cf. Psalm 37:9, 11, 27). Thus, it would seem that the promise of the land has extended to the entire world.
This is not merely a Pauline distinctive. We also find this idea in Jewish intertestamental writings.
At a certain time in history of the universe the Divine Creator made “from the dust of the ground” a human being. Just with dust man would be nothing so there had to be a spark or something special to bring the material to live. The “essence” of the being for man came from God Who is the “Supreme Being” Itself.
Michelangelo’s painting of the sin of Adam and Eve (the Fall of Man) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Eternal SpiritWho IsWho He is the Being in Itself made man in His own image by His Voice and by “a spark”, or particle, scintillated from His Divine Nature, giving the being life, having intelligent faculty and existence independently of the substantial organism with which it is associated.
The Merneptah stele. While alternative translations exist, the majority of biblical archaeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs as “Israel“, representing the first instance of the name Israel in the historical record.
They too came to understand the days of God and how they should honour Him and respect His creation. For them the seventh day was also a day of rest where they could show how much they loved their Creator. We do not know whether the earth’s first population organised themselves by means of a seven day week. Whereas other periods of time or various calender unitsbased on thetimetheearthtakes to revolveoncearoundthesun (the day, month and year) are based upon observable movements of stars and planets, the seven day week has no such basis-that can be found only in the explanation in Genesis. As the time passed days, month and years got names. A Rosh Chodashim (head of the months) came to exist next to a month of the salvation or Chodesh ha Yeshuah, a month of redemption or Chodesh hageulah, a year of recompense and many others.
From beginning the stars, planets and man’s being may have been very complex and not understandable for man. Darkness and light made a difference for him giving him an idea of a time element. But the things man did not know seemed to worry them. Also the matter that That Holy Spirit they could not be seen made their mind weary. They started wondering how This Spirit could order days and demand them to take rest or have period of inactivity,relaxation, or sleep, on a certain day and not to eat from a certain fruit-tree, calling it the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, which was going to bring life and death over man.
Organisation of days and food provision
In case man had decided to organise his living according to periods of seven days nowhere can we find proof that God said they would be punished for not resting on the seventh day. They had total freedom of choice about this. In fact, God gave no instructions about how the seventh day should be spent until after the nation of Israel had been brought out of Egypt (the Shemoth) and led miraculously through the Red Sea into the wilderness of Sinai. Being a large community, they needed a good and regular supply of food and water, but in desert conditions these were very scarce. The people soon complained, and wished they were back in Egypt. A further miracle brought them their food. Each morning around their camp
“there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as the hoarfrost on the ground” (Exodus 16:14).
The food was called “manna“, and could be collected for six days each week.
This was literally food which could be eaten. On the first five days each week any manna not eaten that day, but kept overnight “bred worms, and became foul”.
On the sixth day, if a double portion was collected, it would keep fresh for use on the seventh day when no manna was available. Moses asked them to eat that manna that day for that seventh day is a Sabbath to Jehovah God. Therefore they could not find any manna in the field. Take attention that Moshe or Moses says it was a ‘day of rest for Jehovah’ and not ‘day of rest for man’.
In this way the pattern of work and rest was enforced for the nation of Israel:
Exodus 16:25-26 NHEBJE Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Jehovah. Today you shall not find it in the field. (26) Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath. In it there shall be none.”
Six days of gathering and one day of rest: God’s activity in Creation thus became the example for His nation. For the first time in the Bible, the word “Sabbath” is used. It means simply ‘to cease‘ ( to bring or come to an end), and is used to describe the day when the mannadiscontinued falling down from heaven and the Israelites rested from their labours, as God had from His.
Laws to control the activity of the nation
In those days of Moses and his people shortly after the manna was first provided, it also was the moment in time that God gave through Moses laws to control the activity of the nation. Today those written rules are mostly known as the Ten Commandments by which people where told to have only OneTrueEternal Spirit God of Whom no graven images where to be made. Of the people was also demanded in the fourth commandment to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy or sanctified, which means to have it been kept apart, not being it the same as other days. Also it was told they could work six days but the seventh day they should take a Sabbath to the Lord their God. In it they had not to do any work .
Exodus 20:8-12 NHEBJE “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. (9) You shall labor six days, and do all your work, (10) but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; (11) for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy. (12) “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Jehovah your God gives you.
As for the manna, so for all of Israel’s activities the pattern would be six days of labour followed by one day of rest. We may not forget for man to be able to stay alive he had to work hard. Everything had to be done by hand. Labour was at first not a physicaltoildoneforwages, but was a necessary act for providing food. In the early days in the Garden of Eden there did not exist a difficult or arduouswork or effort. they had not to strive or workhardforsomething, but when then opposed God, Adam and Eve had been disobedientto God‘s commandments, Jehovah sentenced them and their descendants to hard toil in order to produce their necessary food.
We also can find the Psalmist referring to such work which was done until the evening (Psalm 104:23). From the fall of man onwards the daily work he had to do became a constant reminder of his mortality; the certainty that he is “dust, and to dust (he) shall return” (Genesis 3:19).
Significance of introduction of Sabbath commands
God’s people experienced many wonders by God and by them they could survive. God freely provided their dailyfood, but they had to work to gather it, except on the seventh day. The difficulty of walking through the dessert and gathering food was to make them conscience of the punishments brought upon the world as a result of Adam‘s disobedience.
The day they had not to gather the food from heaven, they had to remember what they had received the previous days. That day of not to provide for their food they could contemplate and take more time to think about God. That day of rest, on the Sabbath, would give man time to meditate on God’s works and to let him identify himself with God, and with the completion of His creation, when He was able to review
“everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).
Measures to bring man back to God
Though man could see all the wonders of God and they had received brains to create things themselves as well, they wanted more. God had given their mind to think and to make their own decisions. At one point in time they choose to go their own way, against the Will of God, and throughout history many times they went astray, but God always came back to them to help them out.
It was from that moment when Adam and Eve had revolted against their Maker that God had to take measures to bring them back to their senses and back to AlmightyGod, the Most High.
When Adam and Eve where expelled from the Garden of Eden and had created a family, their descendants also could not always follow the Way of God, wherefore the Elohim gave them more rules and regulations so that they could keep themselves on the safe path.
Man choose to create their own regulations and wanted to create their own calendars and wanted to say what to do what they ever wanted on whatever day. But for God not all actions of man were acceptable. He clearly told them what would be appropriate for man to do and what would be an abomination in the eyes of God.
Showing willingness to come to God
Throughout the ages lots went wrong and often God came back into the picture to guide His people back onto the right track. Already from the beginning of the fall of man God provided a solution for their sin, but first they also had to show they where willing to come to God again. Every individual has now the own choice to choose either to be for God or against Him, to follow His ordinances or to refuse the right to God to demand certain things from man.
In later writings we shall come to see how the promises of God for the solution against the fall of man became a reality which took away the many chains the people had gotten over them by the years.
In subsequent readings you shall, hopefully, come to see how a Nazarene man, called Jeshua, today better known as Jesus became the man who brought salvation and who is the embodiment of Israel. Those who follow that Nazarene man and call themselves Christian should know who that man is and what his teachings are, but also keep to his teachings, so that they can be part of the Body of Christ and be part of the (new or renewed) true and faithful Israel.
Finding difficulties to keep to God’s Laws
It took many centuries but God’s peopleIsrael bounded to the Mosaic Laws often found it a burden, therefore the loving God foresaw also an abrogation of many laws. Jesus namely was to come to install the New Covenant between God and man, which would do awaywith, or annul,especially by authority given to Christ Jesus, several Judaic Laws.
Those who would embrace the faith of Abraham could make their choice for God sealed, not by worldly proofs, but by spiritual proofs. They would not have to have a real body circumcision but should be circumcised by putting on Christ in baptism, thus partaking imputatively of the literal circumcision of which Christ was subject under the law, becoming the children of Abraham, and heirs of the promises made to him.
Saul of Tarsus was called by Christ and became an apostle who taught the gospel of Christ and founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe in the first-century world of the common era.
The Jew Saul of Tarsus took some time to come to understand God’s new ordinances but by the new light having come he made a testimony that we can face a world where there is neither Jew (believing descendant from Abraham’s tribe) nor Greek, Roman, or Goyim (gentile; a non-Jewish person or an unbeliever), but that all have the free choice to go their way. There would neither be a servant nor freeman, neither male nor female, or no distinction in the eyes of God, all being made equal and all having to make their own choice. And those baptised into Christ should all be one in Christ Jesus, liberated by him.
Galatians 3:27-29 NHEBJE (27) For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (28) There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (29) If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise.
Children of promise made free
United in ChristChristians should not be barren any more having broken forth knowing they are brethren and sisters and as Isaac was, being children of promise. Though still being born according to the flesh the mind we received can be used to come to knowledge and with the right insight making us to make the right choices. Those who choose to follow Christ Jesus are children of the free: by the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free.
Galatians 4:27-31 NHEBJE (27) For it is written, “Rejoice, you barren who do not bear. Break forth and shout, you that do not travail. For more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband.” (28) Now you, brothers, as Isaac was, are children of promise. (29) But as then, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. (30) However what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the handmaid and her son, for the son of the handmaid will not inherit with the son of the free woman.” (31) So then, brothers, we are not children of a handmaid, but of the free woman.
Those liberated by Christ should not take up the old burdens but should face the Saviour Jesus who is the new Genesis (New World), by who’s life we can see the embodiment of the new Exodus.
We should come to see that Jesus is fulfilling Israel’s history and bringing it to a climax.
Goy to the World Magazine article from: Moment …nations shall be of thee.” The Hebrew word God uses for “nations” is goyim. Yes, you ‘”tad right: God refers to the nation of Israel as goyim. The meaning of goyim, like the people it originally described, has come tar since those clays..
Goy/Goi/Goyim/Goyym/Gentile/Gens/Gentilis: nation or people, commonly applied to non-Jews or stranger, whether merely a visitor (“ger”) or a resident (“ger toshab”), or proselyte
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“Gentile” corresponds to the late Hebrew “goi,” a synonym for “nokri,” signifying “stranger,” “non-Jew.” In the Hebrew of the Bible “goi” and its plural “goyyim” originally meant “nation,” and were applied both to Israelites and to non-Israelites (Gen. xii. 2, xvii. 20; Ex. xiii. 3, xxxii. 10; Deut. iv. 7; viii. 9, 14; Num. xiv. 12; Isa. i. 4, lx. 22; Jer. vii. 28). “Goi” and “goyyim,” however, are employed in many passages to designate nations that are politically distinct from Israel (Deut. xv. 6; xxviii. 12, 36; Josh. xxiii. 4). From this use is derived the meaning “stranger” (Deut. xxix. 24; comp. II Chron. vi. 32 =”‘amme ha-‘areẓ”). As the non-Israelite and the nokri were “heathens,” “goi” came to denote a “heathen,” like the later “‘akkum,” which, in strict construction, is not applicable to Christians or Mohammedans (see below). In its most comprehensive sense “goi” corresponds to the other late term, “ummot ha-‘olam” (the peoples of the world). {Jewish encyclopedia article 6841 – goy}
The Hi-Tech Shabbos Goy Magazine article from: Moment …centuries, the controversy took new form, when Jews hired “Shabbos goys” to perform tasks that were forbidden on Shabbat. While some…their heads in disapproval, others were too busy scouting out goys-for-hire for themselves. They also updated the halakhic..
Non-Jewish Immigrants Forcing Israel to Choose between Being a “Jewish” State… Magazine article from: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs …tubes, you’re going to have five million goyim sitting in Eretz Yisrael. There’s no…about because these Jews will have a lot of goyim in their families — and boy, are we talking about a lot of goyim — and they’ll all end up in Israel..
Israeli Religious Intolerance and Rejection of the Peace Process Alienating… Magazine article from: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs …considered Jewish by halakah and cannot be married at all.GOYIM AND SHIKSASZe’ev Chafets, associate editor of The Jerusalem…consider `Kike’ and `Hymie’ fighting words, talk about `goyim’ and `shiksas’ with blithe indifference. They assume that..
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Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.
As I have shown, the observanceof theseventh clay was obligatory only upon the Israelites so long as the Mosaic code was in force, being “a sign” between God and them. The sabbaths belong to the land and people of Israel, and can be only kept according to the law while they reside in the country. This will appear from the fact that the law requires that “two lambs of the first year without spot” should be offered with other things “as the burnt-offering of every sabbath”; an offering which, like all the offerings, etc., must be offered in a temple in Jerusalem where the Lord has placed His name, and not in the dwelling places of Jacob. Israel must therefore be restored to their own country before even they can keep the sabbath. Then, when
“the throne is established in mercy; and he (the Lord Jesus) shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness”, (Isaiah 16:5)
then, I say
“shall the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord God: and they shall hallow my sabbaths.” (Ezechiël 44:15, 24.)
But these sabbaths will be no longer celebrated on the seventh day. They will be changed from the seventh to the eighth, or first day of the week, which are the same. The “dispensation of the fulness of times”, (Ephesians 1:10) popularly styled the Millennium, will be the antitype, or substance, of the Mosaic feast of tabernacles which was “a shadow of things to come”.
Eph 1:3-14 The Scriptures 1998+ (3) Blessed be the Elohim and Father of our Master יהושע {Jeshua} Messiah, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Messiah, (4) even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be set-apart and blameless before Him in love,1 Footnote: 12 Thess. 2:13. (5) having previously ordained us to adoption as sons through יהושע {Jeshua} Messiah to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His desire, (6) to the praise of the esteem of His favour with which He favoured us in the Beloved, (7) in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of trespasses, according to the riches of His favour, (8) which He has lavished on us in all wisdom and insight, (9) having made known to us the secret of His desire, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him, (10) to administer at the completion of time, to gather together in one all in Messiah, both which are in the heavens and which are on earth, in Him, (11) in whom also we did obtain an inheritance, being previously ordained according to the purpose of Him working all matters according to the counsel of His desire, (12) for us to be the praise of His esteem – those having first trusted in Messiah, (13) in whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your deliverance, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Set-apart Spirit of promise, (14) who is the pledge of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His esteem.
In this type, or pattern, Israel were to rejoice before the Lord for seven days, beginning
“on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when they had gathered the fruit of the land”. In relation to the first day of the seven, the law says, “
it shall be a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein”. This was what we call Sunday. The statute then continues, “on the eighth day”, also Sunday,
“shall be a holy convocation unto you, and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein”.
Again,
“on the first day shall be a sabbath and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath” ( Levites 23:34–43)
Lev 23:34-43 The Scriptures 1998+ (34) “Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl saying, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Festival of Booths for seven days to יהוה {Jehovah}. (35) ‘On the first day is a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work. (36) ‘For seven days you bring an offering made by fire to יהוה {Jehovah}. On the eighth day there shall be a set-apart gathering for you, and you shall bring an offering made by fire to יהוה {Jehovah}. It is a closing festival, you do no servile work. (37) ‘These are the appointed times of יהוה {Jehovah} which you proclaim as set-apart gatherings, to bring an offering made by fire to יהוה {Jehovah}, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a slaughtering and drink offerings, as commanded for every day – (38) besides the Sabbaths of יהוה {Jehovah}, and besides your gifts, and besides all your vows, and besides all your voluntary offerings which you give to יהוה {Jehovah}. (39) ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you gather in the fruit of the land, observe the festival of יהוה {Jehovah} for seven days. On the first day is a rest, and on the eighth day a rest. (40) ‘And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of good trees, branches of palm trees, twigs of leafy trees, and willows of the stream, and shall rejoice before יהוה {Jehovah} your Elohim for seven days. (41) ‘And you shall observe it as a festival to יהוה {Jehovah} for seven days in the year – a law forever in your generations. Observe it in the seventh month. (42) ‘Dwell in booths for seven days; all who are native Yisra’ĕlites dwell in booths, (43) so that your generations know that I made the children of Yisra’ĕl dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Mitsrayim. I am יהוה {Jehovah} your Elohim.’ ”
External aerial view of Sukkah booths where Jewish families eat their meals and sleep throughout the Sukkot holiday
Thus, in this “pattern of things in the heavens”, the first and eighth days are constituted holy days in which no work was to be done. It also represents the palm-bearing or victorious ingathering of the twelve tribes of Israel from their present dispersion to the land of their fathers, “when the Lord shall set his hand a second time to recover the remnant of his people”
Isa 11:11 The Scriptures 1998+ (11) And it shall be in that day that יהוה {Jehovah} sets His hand again a second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left, from Ashshur and from Mitsrayim, from Pathros and from Kush, from Ěylam and from Shinʽar, from Ḥamath and from the islands of the sea.
Three times in four verses does Zechariah style the yearly going up of the Gentiles to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, there, the keeping of the feast of tabernacles; (Zechariah 14:16–19) an event which is consequent upon the destruction of the dominion represented by Nebuchadnezzar’s image, and the re-establishment of the kingdom and throne of David.
Zec 14:16-19 The Scriptures 1998+ (16) And it shall be that all who are left from all the gentiles which came up against Yerushalayim, shall go up from year to year to bow themselves to the Sovereign, יהוה {Jehovah} of hosts, and to observe the Festival of Booths. (17) And it shall be, that if anyone of the clans of the earth does not come up to Yerushalayim to bow himself to the Sovereign, יהוה {Jehovah} of hosts, on them there is to be no rain. (18) And if the clan of Mitsrayim does not come up and enter in, then there is no rain. On them is the plague with which יהוה {Jehovah} plagues the gentiles who do not come up to observe the Festival of Booths. (19) This is the punishment of Mitsrayim and the punishment of all the gentiles that do not come up to observe the Festival of Booths.
This national confluence of the Gentiles to Jerusalem is characteristic of Messiah’s times; and of the true or real festival tabernacles, when he will “confess to God among the Gentiles, and sing unto his name”, and “they shall rejoice with his people”, Israel.
Rom 15:9-10 The Scriptures 1998+ (9) and for the gentiles to praise Elohim for His compassion, as it has been written, “Because of this I shall confess to You among the gentiles, and I shall sing to Your Name.” (10) And again it says, “Rejoice, O gentiles, with His people!”
Referring to this time, the Lord says,
“the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name shall the House of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places.… They have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger. Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever”. (Ezechiël 43:7–9)
This is clearly a prophecy of what shall be hereafter, because the House of Israel still continues to defile God’s holy name by their abominations; but when this comes to pass they shall defile it “no more”.
After the declaration of these things, Ezekiel is commanded to show them the description of the temple which is destined to be “the house of prayer for all nations”, with the ordinances, forms, and laws thereof. The Lord God then declares,
“the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it”,
and when the Levites of the seed of Zadok shall approach unto Him. The “cleansing of the altar”, and the consecration of the priests, is then effected by the offerings of seven days.
“And when these days are expired, it shall be that upon the eighth day, and So Forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you (O Israel), saith the Lord,” (Ezechiël 43:27 27)
Thus, the day of the Lord’s resurrection from his seventh-day incarceration in the tomb, becomes the sabbath day of the future age which shall be hallowed by the priests of Israel, and be observed by all nations as a day of holy convocation in which they shall rejoice, and do no manner of servile work at all.
– Thomas, D. J. (1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 21–23). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.
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Note:
The phrase “They will be changed from the seventh to the eighth, or first day of the week, which are the same” could give the impression we believe the Sunday came in the place of the Sabbath, which is not.
We want to remind our readers that “Elpis Israel – An Exposition of the Kingdom of God” (commonly called “Elpis Israel” (English transliteration of Greek for “the hope of Israel”, taken from Acts28:20)) is a theological book written by John Thomas, founder of the Christadelphians, in 1848-1849 and published in 1849. It predated the coining of the name “Christadelphian” by a decade and a half, but sets out in a logical manner the distinctive and fundamental beliefs that the Brotherhood, all these years afterwards, still upholds.
The original manuscript was essentially the substance of a lecture series delivered by Brother Thomas during a visit to the United Kingdom from the USA in 1848. After being encouraged by many who heard these lectures to put them into a more permanent form, Brother Thomas stayed for a time in London, and in a feverish period of activity centred mainly on six weeks when – to use his own description – he oscillated like a pendulum between his desk and his bed, he produced this important work.
Before the author’s death in 1871, the work went through four editions, the last of these incorporating some changes, mostly in the third and last part. As he explained in the Preface to that edition, he was agreeably surprised that so few changes were necessary: less than a dozen altogether in the first two parts of the book. Those in the last section were occasioned mainly by developing international events, but also by a more detailed consideration of the subject of resurrection.
In the light of changing times and modern discoveries, especially in the field of textual knowledge, several visions got changed. Where there is some doubt regarding the scriptural support for any point, this has generally been covered by a footnote in the later editions, and not by amending the text.
At first you could receive the impression Dr. John Thomas is for the replacement of the Sabbath with the Sunday, but as you will see later and in texts of his works he first stated what he got to see in his time, wanting to observe a Judaized Lord’s day (p. 23). For him it was a voluntarily inflicted case and restriction upon themselves, bringing on them selfinflicted limitations or pains and penalties to which they may be entitled for its “profanation”. Later the vision on Sunday as observance day became much more clear and the new light or insight on the Sabbaths made it clear that we do not have to have Sunday as the specific day of worship for God. Any day of the week can be used. The same for work and rest, each person can work on any day or night and take some rest on whatever day of the week, as long as he provides enough rest for himself to recuperate from his duties.
You may find more about the Sabbath and Sunday in later writings on this site (a.o. when we shall discuss Jesus’ saying on this subject.) or in previous writings on our other sites. Please do find also our article: Sabbath according to the Scriptures.
The ordinances of the law of Moses are styled by Paul “the rudiments”, or “elements of the world”, which, in Galatians, he also terms “weak and beggarly elements, whereunto they desired again to be in bondage”. They evinced this desire by “observing days, and months, and times, and years”;(Galatians 4:3, 5, 9, 10) not being satisfied with the things of Christ, but seeking to combine the Mosaic institutions with the gospel.
Gal 4:3-5 The Scriptures 1998+ (3) So we also, when we were children, were under the elementary matters of the world, being enslaved. (4) But when the completion of the time came, Elohim sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under Torah, (5) to redeem those who were under Torah, in order to receive the adoption as sons.
Gal 4:9-10 The Scriptures 1998+ (9) But now after you have known Elohim, or rather are known by Elohim, how do you turn again to the weak and poor elementary matters,1 to which you wish to be enslaved again? Footnote: 1See v.3, Col. 2:8 & 20. (10) You observe days and months and seasons and years.
This was Judaizing, and the first step to that awful apostasy by which the world has been cursed for so many ages. When the Mosaic constitution, as “the representation of the knowledge and the truth”, had “waxed old” by the manifestation of the substance to a sufficient extent to nullify it, it “vanished away” by being “cast down to the ground” by the Romanpower, and with it the law of the seventh day.
The Disciples Eat Wheat on the Sabbath (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Even before its abolition, Paul expressed his fear of the Galatians, “lest he should have bestowed labour upon them in vain”, seeing that they were becoming zealous of the ordinances of the law. They seemed not to understand that the Mosaic economy was only a temporary constitution of things, “added because of transgressions, till the seed should come”; that when he came, “he redeemed them from the curse of the law, being made a curse for them”; and that therefore they had nothing to fear, nor to hope for from keeping, or transgressing its methods. They had got it into their heads that “except they were circumcised and kept the law of Moses”, as well as believed and obeyed the gospel of the kingdom, they could not be saved.
Mat 12:5 The Scriptures 1998+ (5) “Or did you not read in the Torah that on the Sabbath the priests in the Set-apart Place profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?
Therefore they “desired to be under the law”, and began to busy themselves about “keeping the sabbath”, and doing other works which Moses had enjoined upon Israel. Paul was very much distressed at this, and describes himself as “travailing in birth again until Christ be formed in them”. They had been delivered from “the yoke of bondage”, by putting on Christ; but by seeking to renew their connexion with Moses’ law, they were selling their birth-right for a mess of pottage.
“I say unto you”,
saith Paul,
“that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace”.
A partial observance of the law can do no one any good. If he kept the sabbath in the most approved manner, but neglected the sacrifices, or ate swine’s flesh, he was as accursed as a thief or a robber; for to one under the law it saith,
“Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which axe written in the book of the law to do them”;
hence even the sinless Jesus was cursed by it, because he was crucified; for it is written,
“Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree”
Gal 3:4 The Scriptures 1998+ (4) Have you suffered so much in vain – if indeed in vain?
Gal 5:4 The Scriptures 1998+ (4) You who are declared right by Torah have severed yourselves from Messiah, you have fallen from favour.
What hope then is there for Jew or Gentile of escaping the curseof the law, seeing that from the very nature of things connected with the present state of Jerusalem it is impossible to observe it, save in the few particulars of “meat and drink, or in respect of the sabbath” partially, etc. The observance of the seventh day was regulated by the Mosaic law, and the penalties due to its “desecration”, or “profanation”, are pronounced by it alone; but it is dear that the law being taken out of the way, or abolished, by Jesus, who nailed it to his cross, there remain no more retributions for the non-observance of its appointments; and therefore there is no transgression in working or pleasure-taking, or in speaking one’s own words on the seventh day.
On the first day of the creation-week God said,
“Let there be light, and there was light”;
so on the first day of the week “The True Light” came forth from the darkness of the tomb “like dew from the womb of the morning”. It is a day to be much remembered by his people, because it assures them of their justification “in him”, of their own resurrection to life, and of the certainty of his ruling or “judging the world in righteousness” as Jehovah’s king, when they shall also reign with him as kings and priests to God.
Rom 4:22-25 The Scriptures 1998+ (22) Therefore also “it was reckoned to him for righteousness.” (23) And not because of him alone was it written that it was reckoned to him, (24) but also because of us, to whom it shall be reckoned, to us who believe in Him who raised up יהושע {Jeshua} our Master from the dead, (25) who was delivered up because of our trespasses, and was raised for us to be declared right.
Rom 8:11 The Scriptures 1998+ (11) And if the Spirit of Him who raised יהושע {Jeshua} from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Messiah from the dead shall also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit dwelling in you.
1Co 15:14 The Scriptures 1998+ (14) And if Messiah has not been raised, then our proclaiming is empty, and your belief also empty,
1Co 15:20 The Scriptures 1998+ (20) But now Messiah has been raised from the dead, and has become the first-fruit of those having fallen asleep.
Act 17:31 The Scriptures 1998+ (31) because He has set a day on which He is going to judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed,1 having given proof of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” Footnote: 1See 10:42.
Rev 5:9-10 The Scriptures 1998+ (9) And they sang a renewed song, saying, “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals, because You were slain, and have redeemed us to Elohim by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, (10) and made us sovereigns and priests to our Elohim, and we shall reign upon the earth.”1 Footnote: 1Dan. 7:18-27.
This day is also notable on account of the special interviews which occurred between Jesus and his disciples after his resurrection.
Joh 20:19 The Scriptures 1998+ (19) When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week,and when the doors were shut where the taught ones met, for fear of the Yehuḏim, יהושע {Jehsua} came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace to you.”
Joh 20:26 The Scriptures 1998+ (26) And after eight days His taught ones were again inside, and T’oma with them. יהושע {Jehsua} came, the doors having been shut, and He stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!”
He ascended to heaven on this day, even the forty-third from his crucifixion; and seven days after, that is the fiftieth, being “the day of Pentecost”, the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the apostles, and the gospel of the kingdom preached for the first time in his name.
Power being in the hands of their enemies, the Christians of the Hebrew nation still continued to observe the seventh day according to the custom. Hence we find the apostles frequenting the synagogues on the sabbath days and reasoning with the people out of the scriptures.
Act 17:2 The Scriptures 1998+ (2) And according to his practice, Sha’ul went in unto them, and for three Sabbaths was reasoning with them from the Scriptures,
Act 17:17 The Scriptures 1998+ (17) Therefore, indeed, he was reasoning in the congregation with the Yehuḏim and with the gentile worshippers, and in the market-place daily with those who met there.
Act 18:4 The Scriptures 1998+ (4) And he was reasoning in the congregation every Sabbath, and won over both Yehuḏim and Greeks.
Act 19:8 The Scriptures 1998+ (8) And having gone into the congregation he spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the reign of Elohim.
To have done otherwise would have been to create an unnecessary prejudice, and to let slip one of the best opportunities of introducing the gospel to the attention of the Jewish public. They did not forsake the synagogues until they were expelled. While they frequented these, however, on the seventh day, they assembled themselves together with the disciples whose assemblies constituted the churches of the saints and of God. They ordained elders over these societies, and “taught them to observe all things whatsoever Jesus had commanded them”.
Mat 28:20 The Scriptures 1998+ (20) teaching them to guard all that I have commanded you. And see, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Amĕn.
Act 2:42 The Scriptures 1998+ (42) And they were continuing steadfastly in the teaching of the emissaries, and in the fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers.
Act 14:21-23 The Scriptures 1998+ (21) And having brought the Good News to that city, and having made many taught ones, they returned to Lustra, and Ikonion, and Antioch, (22) strengthening the beings of the taught ones, encouraging them to continue in the belief, and that through many pressures we have to enter the reign of Elohim. (23) And having appointed elders in every assembly, having prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Master in whom they had believed.
In his letter to the Hebrew Christians, Paul exhorts them “not to forsake the assembling of themselves together”
Heb 10:19-25 The Scriptures 1998+ (19) So, brothers, having boldness to enter into the Set-apart Place by the blood of יהושע {Jeshua}, (20) by a new and living way which He instituted for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, (21) and having a High Priest over the House of Elohim, (22) let us draw near with a true heart in completeness of belief, having our hearts sprinkled from a wicked conscience and our bodies washed with clean water. (23) Let us hold fast the confession of our expectation without yielding, for He who promised is trustworthy. (24) And let us be concerned for one another in order to stir up love and good works,1 Footnote: 1Mt. 16:27. (25) not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging, and so much more as you see the Day coming near.
Such an exhortation as this implies a stated time and place of assembly. On what day, then, did the churches of the saints meet to exhort one another so as to provoke to love and to good works ? Certainly not on the seventh day, for then the apostles were in the synagogues. What day then more appropriate than the first day of the week ? Now it cannot be affirmed that the saints were commanded to meet on this day, because there is no testimony to that effect in the New Testament. But it is beyond dispute that they did assemble themselves together on the first day of the week, and the most reasonable inference is that they did so in obedience to the instruction of the apostles, from whose teaching they derived all their faith and practice, which constituted them the disciples of Jesus.
To keep the first day of the week to the Lord is possible only for the saints. There is no law, except the emperor Constantine’s, that commands sinners to keep holy the first, or eighth, day, or Sunday, as the Gentiles term it. For a sinner to keep this day unto the Lord he must become one of the Lord’s people. He must believe the gospel of the kingdom and name of Christ, and become obedient to it, before any religious service he can offer will be accepted. He must come under law to Christ by putting on Christ before he can keep the Lord’s day. Having become a Christian, if he would keep the day to the Lord, he must assemble with a congregation of New Testament saints, and assist in edifying and provoking them to love and good works, in showing forth the death of Jesus, in giving thanks to the Father, in celebrating the resurrection of Christ, and in praising and blessing God. Under the gospel, or “law of liberty”, he is subjected to no “yoke of bondage” concerning a sabbath day. It is his delight when an opportunity presents, to celebrate in this way the day of the resurrection. He requires no penal statutes to compel him to a formal and disagreeable self-denial, or “duty”; for it is his meat and drink to do the will of his Father who is in heaven.
Thomas, D. J. (1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 17–20). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.
The earth before the creation of Adam the habitation of the angels who kept not their first estate — A geological error corrected — The Sabbath day and the Lord’s day— The formation of man and woman — The “great mystery” of her formation out of man explained — Eden — The Garden of Eden — The original and future paradises considered — Man’s primitive dominion confined to the inferior creatures and his own immediate family — Of the two trees of the garden — And man in his original estate.
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The general account of the work of the six days is contained in the first chapter of Genesis; while in the second is presented among other things, a more particular narrative of the work of the sixth day in the formation of the first human pair.
Let the reader peruse the history of the creation as a revelation to himself as an inhabitant of the earth. It informs him of the order in which the things narrated would have developed themselves to his view, had he been placed on some projecting rock, the spectator of the events detailed. He must remember this. The Mosaic account is not a revelation to the inhabitants of other orbs remote from the earth of the formation of the boundless universe; but to man, as a constituent of the terrestrial system. This will explain why light is said to have been created four days before the sun, moon, and stars. To an observer on the earth this was the order of their appearance; and in relation to him a primary creation, though absolutely pre-existent for millions of ages before the Adamic era.
The duration of the earth’s revolutions round the sun previous to the work of the first day is not revealed: but the evidences produced by the strata of our globe show that the period was long continued. There are indeed hints, casually dropped in the scriptures, which would seem to indicate that our planet was inhabited by a race of beings anterior to the formation of man.
The Creation, beginning of the antediluvian (i.e., pre-Flood) world. (Artist’s rendition by James Tissot)Lot and his daughters flee from Sodom, his wife turned to salt behind them, and the burning cities, Albrecht Dürer
The apostle Peter, speaking of the “false teachers” that would arise among Christians “by reason of whom the way of truth would be evil spoken of” illustrates the certainty of their “damnation” by citing three cases in point; namely, that of certain angels; that of the antediluvian world; and that of SodomandGomorrah. Now the earth, we know, was the place of judgment to the contemporaries of Noah and Lot, and seeing that these three are warnings to inhabitants of earth, it is probable that they are all related to things pertaining to our globe in the order of their enumeration — first, judgment upon its pre-Adamic inhabitants; secondly, upon the antediluvian world, which succeeded them; and thirdly, upon Sodom after the flood.
Peter says that “the Angels”, or pre-Adamic inhabitants of the Earth, “sinned”; and Jude, in speaking of the same subject, reveals to us the nature of their transgression. He says, verse 6,
“the angels maintained not their original state, but forsook their own habitation”.
From which it would appear that they had the ability to leave their dwelling if they pleased; secondly, that they were sometimes employed as messengers to other parts of the universe; this their name (ἄγγελος, angelos, one sent) implies; thirdly, that they were forbidden to leave their habitation without special command to do so; and fourthly, that they violated this injunction and left it. Having transgressed the divine law, God would not forgive them; “but casting them down”, or driving them back, “he committed them to everlasting chains of intense darkness to be reserved for judgment”. Hence, it is clear, when they were driven back to their habitation, some further catastrophe befell them by which their committal to darkness was effected. This probably consisted in the total wreck of their abode, and their entire submergence, with all the mammoths of their estate, under the waters of an overwhelming flood. Reduced to this extremity, the earth became “without form and empty; and darkness overspread the deep waters”. Its mountains, hills, valleys, plains, seas, rivers, and fountains of waters, which gave diversity of “form” to the surface of our globe, all disappeared; and it became “void”, or empty, no living creatures, angels, quadrupeds, birds, or fishes, being found any more upon it.
Fragments, however, of the wreck of this pre-Adamic world have been brought to light by geological research, to the records of which we refer the reader, for a detailed account of its discoveries, with this remark, that its organic remains, coal fields, and strata, belong to the ages before the formation of man, rather than to the era of the creation, or the Noachic flood. This view of the matter will remove a host of difficulties, which have hitherto disturbed the harmony between the conclusions of geologists and the Mosaic account of the physical constitution of our globe.
Geologists have endeavoured to extend the six days into six thousand years. But this, with the scriptural data we have adduced, is quite unnecessary. Instead of six thousand, they can avail themselves of sixty thousand; for the scriptures reveal no length of time during which the terrene angels dwelt upon our globe. The six days of Genesis were unquestionably six diurnal revolutions of the earth upon its axis. This is clear from the tenor of the sabbath law.
“Six days shalt thou labour (O Israel) and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Would it be any fit reason that, because the Lord worked six periods of a thousand or more years each, and had ceased about two thousand until the giving of the law, therefore the Israelites were to work six periods of twelve hours, and do no work on a seventh period or day of like duration? Would any Israelite or Gentile, unspoiled by vain philosophy, come to the conclusion of the geologists by reading the sabbath law? We believe not. Six days of ordinary length were ample time for Omnipotence, with all the power of the universe at command, to re-form the earth, and to place the few animals upon it necessary for the beginning of a new order of things upon the globe.
– Thomas, D. J. (1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 10–12). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.
Glycon was considered to also be a snake god in satirical form as mentioned by the satirist Lucian, and was said to be the incarnation of Asklepios in the mysteries of Alexander of Abonutichus, a pagan philosopher of the 2nd century.
In Orphic mythology, the serpent was sometimes linked with the primordial egg from which all things emerged and is shown entwined around the egg. Epiphanius in The Panarion discusses the doctrines of the Epicureans who believed that the universe was formed by chance rather than providence:
Originally the entire universe was like an egg and the spirit was then coiled snakewise round the egg, and bound nature tightly like a wreath or girdle. (3) At one time it wanted to squeeze the entire matter, or nature, of all things more forcibly, and so divided all that existed into the two hemispheres and then, as the result of this, the atoms were separated. (4) For the light, finer parts of all nature—light, aether and the finest parts of the spirit—floated up on top. But the parts which were heaviest and like dregs have sunk downwards. This means earth—that is, anything dry—and the moist substance of the waters. (5) The whole moves of itself and by its own momentum with the revolution of the pole and stars, as though all things were still being driven by the snake like spirit. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)
That the world goes in circles and time repeats itself is also brought forward by the circular symbol of the serpent eating its own tail, known as the Ouroboros, the primal being who said,
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last (Rev. 22:13).
Rivera reminds us that the serpent is also seen in the Syriac Hymn of the Pearl as it depicts the soul’s descent into the world, forgetting his mission but eventually roused by the call on high to remind him of his original nature and duty, his glorious rising again into the Kingdom of the Father.
It was that passion of egotism, the deep longing to have everything for oneself that made Eve testing her Creator. She had a craving to become as wise as He is. The yearning came also over the 1° Adam by listening to his wife. The female partner was much stronger than the male and could convince him that it would not heart. Their aching to possess as much wisdom and power as God made them to disobey their Maker.
In several man made stories we do find such evil thoughts of jealousy coming into the picture and destroying a relationship. Often such thoughts creep into our mind as a serpent and as such it is pictured.
Epiphanius of Salamis (church father, ca. 310–20 – 403), fresco at Gracanica monastery, near Lipljan in Kosovo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Typical to Jewish and Christian tradition, another negative portrayal of serpent imagery was used by the Church Father Epiphanius in his closing comments in the Panarion to high-light the “evil nature” of Simon Magus as being like a snake, asp and a viper. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)
We also find acquisitiveness coming into life of many, bringing wrong actions and evil thoughts. The embodiment of greed brings also pictures of extra terrestial figures of angels (fallen angels) or devils. When we look at the Targum Psuedo-Jonathan we do find the Serpent with the fallen angel Samael, the “Blind One” who was a originally a great prince in heaven, descended to earth and rode upon the serpent to deceive Eve and seduce her. The fruit of his seduction, as the same text claims (like the Gospel of Philip) was Cain, being the son of the Devil.
And the woman saw Sammael, the angel of death, and she was afraid, and she knew that the tree was good for food.
Rivera tells about Rabbi Isaac who in The Treatise of the Left Emanation, also compared Samael and Lilith as husband and wife, much like Adam and Eve — an inverted, “Satanic” power, a concept which is featured later in the Zohar and Jewish myth concerning evil. Samael acts as an evil doppelganger of the first man that came into being with the first human transgression:
The first prince and accuser, the commander of Jealousy and Enmity…he is called ‘evil’ not because of his nature but because he desires to unite and intimately mingle with an emanation not of his nature… it is made clear that Samael and Lilith were born as one, similar to the form of Adam and Eve who were also born as one, reflecting what is above. This is the account of Lilith which was received by the Sages in the Secret Knowledge of the Palaces. The Matron Lilith is the mate of Samael. Both of them were born at the same hour in the image of Adam and Eve, intertwined in each other. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)
He continues:
As this passage suggests, Jewish mysticism contains a dialectic notion of “evil”; all things emanate from God, so Samael is one of God’s “severe agents,” yet he grows beyond the attenuated form God intended because he feeds upon the evils of the world. The Zohar builds upon the image of Samael found in Rabbi Isaac’s text as the demon king and consort of Lilith; together they are the evil counterparts of Adam and Eve. Samael is the tempting angel from who “copulates” with Lilith as the male and female principles of the “left side emanation”, united and achieve their full potential by spawning demons. Samael is in effect the evil left-side counterpart of Tiferet in the Sefirotic system of the Tree of Life. In the Apocryphon of John, Samael also happens to be one of the alternative names for Ialdabaoth, the Satanic creator god. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)
Also the mind, the thinking or the being of a person got out of a seed but was also like a serpent.
The Ophites connected the eternal principle, Nous, “mind”, with Naas, the Greek word for serpent—stating that the serpent in the Garden of Eden was actually Nous in serpent form. Accordingly, the Demiurge tried to prevent Adam and Eve from acquiring knowledge, and it was the serpent who persuade them to disobey the Demiurge and taste of the fruit. This was the origin of gnosis. Because the serpent frustrated Jehovah’s designs, the serpent was cursed (Gen. 3:14). The Naasenes also agreed with the sentiments expressed in the Gospel of Philip, in that the separation of sexes marked the beginning of death and evil when they claimed that sex was “…man’s fatal effort to become one without recognizing that the only real unity was spiritual.” {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)
In Church-history we find peculiar ideas about the relationship with the seed, the serpent, man and Jesus.
According to the Church Fathers, the Ophites had a peculiar ritual meal involving a snake. The Ophites made a distinction between Christ the Savior, and Jesus, the man. Christ equated the serpent with the Son of Man (John 3:14), whereas Jesus equated serpents with scorpions, and spoke of the serpent as the “enemy” (Luke 10:19). For this reason some Ophite sects vilified Jesus. Origen in Contra Celsum records that the Ophites cursed Jesus, and wanted converts to do the same. St. Paul’s reference to those who curse Jesus (1 Cor. 12:3) may point to these snake-worshipers. The Ophites also happened to believe that Adam and Eve were originally beings of light, according to Irenaeus in Against Heresies, I, 30.9:
Adam and Eve previously had light, and clear, and as it were spiritual bodies, such as they were at their creation; but when they came to this world, these changed into bodies more opaque, and gross, and sluggish. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)
No surprise Rivera wants to make the link also to some titles which we can find in Christianity, like “Lord of Hosts” as a reference to יהוה YHWH Jehovah/Yehowah/Yahuwah/Yahweh. which can be found in some translations at 1Samuel 1:3,11; 4:4; 15:2; 17:45; 2 Samuel 6:2,18; 7:8,26-27 and James 5:4 for example.
2Sa 7:26-27 NET so you may gain lasting fame,43 as people say,44 ‘The LORD of hosts is God over Israel!’ The dynasty45 of your servant David will be established before you, (27) for you, O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have told46 your servant, ‘I will build you a dynastic house.’47 That is why your servant has had the courage48 to pray this prayer to you.
2Sa 7:26-27 MKJV And let Your name be magnified forever, saying, The Jehovah of Hosts is the God over Israel. And let the house of Your servant David be established before You. (27) For You, O Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, have revealed to Your servant, saying, I will build you a house. Therefore Your servant has found in his heart to pray this prayer to You.
Several Christians do want to believe it than relies to Jesus but it is all about יהוה The ElohimHashemJehovah to Whom belongs the victory.
Clarke wants us even to believe:
“It having pleased God that, between the time of a Messiah being promised and the time of his coming, there should be delivered by the prophets a variety of marks by which the Messiah was to be known, and distinguished from every other man; it was impossible for any one to prove himself the Messiah, whose character did not answer to these marks; and of course it was necessary that all these criteria, thus Divinely foretold, should be fulfilled in the character of Jesus Christ.
But in those passages of the Lord of Hosts is not spoken about the Messiah but about the bringer of the messiah, Jehovah God.
Clarke agrees that God declares himself the Father of the Son.
God declares himself the Father of the Son here meant; (see also Heb_1:5); and promises that, even amidst the sufferings of this Son, (as they would be for the sins of others, not for his own), his mercy should still attend him: nor should his favor be ever removed from this king, as it had been from Saul. And thus (as it follows) thine house (O David) and thy kingdom shall, in Messiah, be established for ever before Me: (before God): thy throne shall be established for ever. Thus the angel, delivering his message to the virgin mother, Luk_1:32, Luk_1:33, speaks as if he was quoting from this very prophecy: The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob For Ever: and of his kingdom there shall be no end. In 2Sa_7:16, לפניך lephaneycha, is rendered as לפני lephanai, on the authority of three Hebrew MSS., with the Greek and Syriac versions; and, indeed, nothing could be established for ever in the presence of David, but in the presence of God only.
It shall be the Divine Creator Who makes everything and Who is the Father of everything and Host for all things and beings, who shall provide in His House the seed of peace and the seed for a new paradise, the Kingdom of God with the Garden of God once again here on earth. And for that Garden Jehovah God shall provide a gardener from the seed of Adam bringing the seed of Abraham, continuing the line with bringing seed to King David by which the offspring shall be the seed long awaited which shall bring the offering like the seed which formed the bush and got burning, the world shall have to see a burning light and bright morning star. to that seed Jehovah shall be a Host and He shall take him to sit at his right hand to become a mediatorbetween God and man.
Rev 7:9-12 MKJV After these things I looked, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palms in their hands. (10) And they cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God sitting on the throne, and to the Lamb. (11) And all the angels stood around the throne, and the elders, and the four living creatures, and they fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped God, (12) saying, Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.
Act 7:55-56 MKJV But being full of the Holy Spirit, looking up intently into Heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. (56) And he said, Behold, I see Heaven opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.
Heb 10:12-17 MKJV But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right of God, (13) from then on expecting until His enemies are made His footstool. (14) For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified. (15) The Holy Spirit also is a witness to us; for after He had said before, (16) “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put My Laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” (17) also He adds, “their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more.”
1Ti 2:5-6 MKJV For God is one, and there is one Mediator of God and of men, the Man Christ Jesus, (6) who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
Rivera writes:
Interestingly, the Alexandrian Gnostic teacher, Basilides called the demiurge “the Seven” which could have been a reference to the seventh planet, Saturn, which rules the rest. The Hebrew name of the planet Saturn is Shabbathai, clearly transcribed in the form “Sabbataios” in Gnostic verbal play on the term “Lord of Hosts” as a reference to YHWH. Tacitus in Histories 5,4 associates the Jewish God with Saturn. Saturn is naturally also honored on the same day by the Pagans that the Jews did with Jehovah on Sabbath. Since the Jews worshiped on Saturday, the Graeco-Roman world in which Basilides lived in tended to identify Jehovah with Saturn. Saturn is the Graeco-Roman sky-god so consumed with fear of being overthrown that he devours all his children, missing only Jupiter (Zeus), who does later overthrow him. In Rome the overthrow of the old year by the new, the hunched-up old man by the babe, was celebrated in the Saturnalia. Similarly, for Gnostics, the Christ child replaced the tribal god Jehovah. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)
Today we still find the majority of Christian believers not willing to accept Jesus to be a man of flesh and blood who had really enough reasons to be afraid of death. They still make Jesus into a god, because they think no human being would ever be able to keep to God His commandments. They forget that they make a very cruel Creator of this Most High God, having Him made immature imperfect beings to which He demands the impossible. For those Binarian and TrinitarianChristians the human beings where deficient from the beginning, not able to keep to God’s Wishes.
Michelangelo Bounarotti – The Fall and Expulsion of Adam and Eve – detail (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We do not believe in such a cruel God, who than after the Fall would have waited so long before to intervene and Who keeps us still waiting so many years before He stops us to let us suffer. For us it is more acceptable that God created a perfect universe in which He gave the human beings a free will. They were perfect and could have stayed faultless.
To stay without fault people had to make the right choices. Eve got tempted by her own greed, her willing to be even more like God. She had the breath of God blown in her nostrils and as such got the ‘soul‘, the ‘being’ ‘life’ in her. Those refusing that life itself was the essence given by God Himself wanted as in the different creation myths see their other gods providing that life, and as such used the figure Jesus as that bringer of life and bringer of love and eros.
As Irenaeus relates in his Against Heresies, Ialdabaoth is the eldest of seven rulers born of Lower Wisdom (See the Secret Book of John for this story). Ialdabaoth is depicted as a grotesque mutant—a lion-headed serpent which fits with Plato’s distinction of the “rational soul” part from the lion and the many headed beast portions of the soul in the Republic along with the Orphic Phanes or Eros. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)
11. Babylonian Talmud of the Pharisee & the Zohar (12160.info)
the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the law of Moses; and for that reason it is that the Sadducees reject them and say that we are to esteem those observances to be obligatory which are in the written word, but are not to observe what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers.
Gospel, 3rd Sunday in Lent, Year B (jessicahof.wordpress.com)
Origen comments that our souls are the Temples of Christ, and he has especial solicitude for them, and here is driving from us impure thoughts and things which drag us down. Augustine sees the same symbolism. The Church, the Temple of Christ, has within in those who buy and sell holy things, and they need to be driven out too.
All the Fathers see the reference to Jesus being the Temple and being raised on the third day. It is the Father who raised Him up after He was obedient, unto death, even death upon the Cross. Augustine and St Cyril both comment on his caution in entrusting himself fully to those not yet born again of the Spirit.
The Blame Game Again (supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com)
The societal sins are merely those made individually by unique persons choosing the wrong way over and over and over and over. The sins of a culture or civilization are not some types of sins which just happen, but sins done repeatedly by those persons in that culture or civilization.
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There would be no weak men without Adam, and the long line of couch potatoes, sports idolizing , game obsessed men who have given up all responsibility for their families and eschew commitment. Individuals sin and make movements.Just because the men are nameless, does not mean it is not yet another “movement” of weakness changing the culture one decision at a time.
To blame a “movement” is to push blame onto nothing….some amorphous event in history. Of course, men and women decide to choose good or evil, thus creating the course of their own lives, that of their families and even nations.
A Life Bearing Fruit (therealdaniel.com)
The greatest commandment that so many reject is to love God with all our hearts, soul, mind and strength, and the second commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves. When self becomes god as Satan is all too familiar with then a separation from the Creator of all things good is inevitable.
Cleo and her asp. (barrywax.wordpress.com)
According to Plutarch (quoted by Ussher), Cleopatra tested various deadly poisons on condemned persons and concluded that the bite of the asp (from aspis – Egyptian cobra, not European asp) was the least terrible way to die; the venom brought sleepiness and heaviness without spasms of pain. The asp is perhaps most famous for its alleged role in Cleopatra’s suicide
Messiah For All 