No one was commanded a Sabbath edict observance until Moses received same from Elohim in Exodus 16. There is an absence of documentation concerning anyone observing a Sabbath until Moses received the command and relevant observance instructions in The Exodus.
The Sabbath is a civil-ceremonial edict of no consequence for anyone not under the Law Covenant. For those who belong to the Father via faith in Messiah Jesus, the Holy Spirit sanctified the First-Day at Pentecost for the New Covenant Church (Acts 2); therefore, if you choose a specific day to gather in corporate worship, the Holy Spirit prefers you gather on Sunday but you’re free to honor any day or every day in the New Covenant (Romans 14; Colossians 2:16).
Spiritual Law v. Sinai
The spiritual law written upon the heart of humanity (Romans 2:14-15) has been extant as an arbiter of free will subsequent the creation of the angels. The written code given Israel at Sinai was NOTHING new or novel, simply a reiteration of the spiritual law with an addition of ceremonial laws via Moses given for tribal cohesiveness, Temple protocol and the thwarting of paganism among the people. Nine of the Ten-commandments given at Sinai are moral law drawn from the spiritual law emanating from eternity past and these laws are relevant for all of humanity, eternally.
The 4th-Commandment is a civil-ceremonial law given solely to Israel and sojourners with them, exclusively.
This obsession with days, diets, traditions, codes, ordinances, pagan tongues, is a spiritual sickness among Jews, Israelite’s, Hebrew Roots fanatics, Islam, cult factions of Pentecostalism and the SDA and various other “religions”…those who refuse to enter covenant with the Father by faith in the Son, exclusively, and live in obedience to the indwelling Holy Spirit in intimacy and simplicity thereby forming a loving relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit during daily sanctification…a relationship of “peace.”
Intimacy with our Creator is NOT manifest through your works and self-righteousness, your obsession with days, diets and traditions and tongues but through faith-trust and humbleness of spirit acknowledging your need for Messiah as your Savior and giving thanks for same. Your religion and your self-righteousness wearies our Lord and insults His suffering for your sin and your unworthiness.
What is the difference between baptism of the Holy Spirit and baptism in the Holy Spirit?
Christian response,
No difference. When one is born again by faith in Jesus as Messiah, they receive the indwelling Holy Spirit as the Guarantor of that covenant with the Father, forever (John 3; Ephesians 1:13-14). At the moment one truly believes in Jesus as Messiah who died to pay their sin-debt, the Holy Spirit takes-up residence within them and begins a good work through them via the daily process of sanctification; this, via the redeemed conscience (Galatians 5:16; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 12:2).
At the moment one believes in Jesus as Messiah, they receive every ounce, an unlimited access to the anointing of the Holy Spirit, they will ever receive from that point forward; therefore, the power and strength and anointing of the Spirit’s work in one’s life is not contingent upon some form of “baptism” or laying-on of hands but the Spirit’s power and strength in one’s life is contingent upon how much one’s self they’re willing to surrender, to sacrifice, to the Spirit’s work and leadership; that is, the more one honors the Spirit in obedience, the more they grow in their anointing and strength of the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not parceled-out in segments or portions or baptisms or ceremonies of men, but the Holy Spirit indwells the redeemed in His fullness at the initiation of a New Covenant by faith and His fullness is realized and made applicable in one’s life through daily obedience and sacrifice to the Father’s will. The more one gives of them self to the Kingdom’s work, the more the Spirit’s anointing is applied to that obedient life for the Kingdom’s sake and the Father’s eschatological plan for Time and Eternity.
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
Apostasy in Religious Charismata – Tongues – a works doctrine based in paganism that weakens faith and subverts the Gospel…
Heresy debated in a religious forum…the premise: “POWER OF THE SPIRIT – You will know when you are sealed with the Spirit. You will begin to speak in tongues!” True or False?
Christian response,
Not true. The Gift of Tongues was given by the Holy Spirit at the initiation of the New Covenant Church at Pentecost as a sign to unbelieving Jews that the Holy Spirit, a promise of the New Covenant, had indeed manifest through Messiah and Tongues (actual languages and dialects not previously studied) assisted in initiating the Great Commission, the teaching of the Gospel message to the known World as mandated by Messiah Jesus (Acts 2; Matthew 28:16-20).
The Biblical “sign” of salvation, redemption, a Spirit-filled life,
That actual “sign” that one has received the Holy Spirit as Guarantor and Seal of New Covenant promise with the Father is a changed life, a redeemed life manifesting in changed behavior, a new desire for the interests of the Father and His Kingdom, a sincere pursuit of righteousness in obedience to the daily sanctifying work of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Jesus said you will know them by their “fruit” (Matthew 7:15-20); that is, the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23).
Foundational scriptural error,
Some charismatic legalists will cite Mark 16:17 as bedrock doctrine for tongues today while these charismatic leaders don’t realize that Mark 16:9-20 does NOT appear in early manuscripts and is therefore contested as inspired Scripture; therefore, the foundation for charismatic legalism relevant to tongues today is absent in our best and most reliable transcripts. The absence of Mark 16:9-20 in our early manuscripts is why the better translations bracket these verses with a relevant notation.
Today’s tongues as a stumbling block,
Suggesting that Tongues is a sign of the Holy Spirit’s work in the life of the redeemed is a stumbling block to new believers who are immature in their faith and knowledge and believe such charismatic nonsense and when they honestly evaluate their daily walk and honestly KNOW they don’t speak in a tongue, this immature believer enters into doubt, worry, fret, feelings of doom and unworthiness, doubt concerning the legitimacy of their salvation, all of which are completely unnecessary and the result of charismatic legalism, false doctrine teaching that Biblical Tongues remain relevant today.
A brief history of pagan tongues,
The “tongues” in Churches of Charismata today (the unknown tongue) are pagan in origin finding their genesis in the pagan temple at Delphi adjacent Corinth in the First-Century. These Delphic Oracles were intoxicated oriented prophecies delivered by a temple priestess having inhaled an intoxicating burning substance below her throne…prophetic utterances of unintelligible gibberish that far too often left the awaiting patrons more confused than when they entered the temple seeking guidance and enlightenment.
This pagan nonsense ultimately carried over into the nearby Corinthian Church and caused much consternation for Paul who ultimately demanded that women remain silent in Church services (1 Corinthians 14:34); apparently, women desiring to be theologically relevant and garner attention to themselves, much like the adoration of the Delphic pagan priestess by her subjects, were speaking out of turn, disrupting services in the Corinthian Church; this pagan nonsense led to much confusion as do pagan tongues in Pentecostalism and other Churches of Charisma today. Charismatic “Tongues,” a false doctrine of pride and arrogance has manifest into a works doctrine, a pagan ritual celebrated by the deceived under the guise of Christianity. Runaway!
Truth is,
The Father desires intimacy with YOU…YOU being YOU with authenticity and faithfulness concerning His will for your life. The Father does not NEED your gibberish, your self-ingratiating “tongues” in order to communicate with you. The Father simply desires your heart, your love, your intimacy, your thankfulness for His presence in your life. Just be honest with the Father, talk to Him, love Him, honor Jesus with thankfulness and adoration and obey the Holy Spirit in sanctification, you will do well.
1 Corinthians 14:33 for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
Jewish-Israelite Apostasy in Scriptural, Spiritual, Obfuscation…
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. Hosea 4:6 (ESV)
Jews and Israelite’s are perishing daily and are being relegated to Hades-Torments awaiting the Judgement of the Condemned and the “second death” in Hell as these deniers of Messiah Yeshua falsely believe, some simply obfuscate their self-righteousness in Torah Law, demanding that all one must do is repent of their sin in order to ingratiate themselves with the Father and earn eternal life. This is Judaic wilful ignorance, Rabbinical deception, and death to the soul in Hell.
Self-righteous Jews and Israelite’s actually believe that an Intercessor for sin, a Holy Mediator between humanity and the Father, is a ridiculous and absurd religious superstition.
Foundational Scripture for Judaic Apostasy – Denial of Yeshua…
Ezekiel 18:21-32 AMPC
But if the wicked man turns from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all My statutes and does that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of his transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; for his righteousness which he has executed [for his moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relation], he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?
First of all,
Ecclesiastes 7:20 (AMP)
Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who always does good and who never sins.
Every Jew, every Israelite, every Gentile, has sinned and fallen short of the Father’s righteous mandates (Romans 3:23)…this includes you. If it were possible that a man or woman could keep, in mandated perfection, all of Elohim’s statutes it would not have been necessary for Messiah Yeshua to enter Time in flesh and suffer and die for your sin (James 2:10; Galatians 2:21). You are guilty of disobedience before our Holy and Righteous Creator (Romans 3:9-11; Romans 1:18-32).
Second,
What you do not understand is the divine mandate concerning entrance into the Kingdom of Elohim subsequent death of the body in Time, a Kingdom where “nothing impure is allowed to enter” (John 3; Revelation 21:27).
It is true that faith, repentance being an active form of faith, engendered covenant, righteousness (a right standing) with the Father for those in the Adamic, Noahic, Law, Covenants, but though the Old Testament saints had entered into a righteous covenant with Elohim by sincere faith (Hebrews 11) they could not enter the Kingdom subsequent death of their body because the acceptable blood atonement for sin as per Leviticus 17:11 had not yet manifest; therefore, these Old Testament saints, subsequent death of their body in the Realm of Time, were relegated to the region known in the Hebrew as Sheol or Hades-Paradise in the Greek.
A Mediator is mandated,
It is in Sheol-Paradise that the Old Testament saints awaited Messiah’s atoning sacrifice at Golgotha and the Holy Spirit teaches that while Messiah’s body lie in the tomb subsequent His murder on a Roman Cross, Messiah descended into Hades-Paradise and preached liberty i.e. the Gospel to the captives there and subsequently led them into the Kingdom as acceptable atonement had manifest through Messiah’s faithfulness and shed blood (Luke 16; Ephesians 4:7-10; 1 Peter 3:18-20). Messiah Yeshua was their Mediator and Messiah Yeshua is our Mediator today (1 Timothy 2:5). It is the atoning blood sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua that fulfills the promise of forgiveness of sin as per the New Covenant.
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. Hebrews 8:12 (ESV)
Today, in the New Covenant, when one passes from this life into the Eternal Realm subsequent death of the body and they are redeemed by faith in Messiah Yeshua, these covenant children of the Father are immediately translated into the presence of our Lord as Sheol-Paradise is now empty while Sheol-Torments (Hades) continues as a repository for all who die rejecting covenant with the Father by faith in the Son, Yeshua Messiah, for the remission of sin (2 Corinthians 5:8; Luke 16; Revelation 20:11-15).
Finally,
If you desire life in the Kingdom of God when you exit this fallen World via the portal of bodily death, you’ll have to agree with the Father in this Age of Grace concerning His Gospel and your place in the New Covenant, a New Covenant established in Messiah’s blood (John 3; Luke 22:20).
If you desire life in the Kingdom of God you must place your faith in Messiah Yeshua as your Mediator for sin believing with a sincere heart that Yeshua died for you to pay a sin-debt owed the Father that you could never pay yourself (John 3; John 14:6).
You must believe that Yeshua is our Mediator for sin and receive Yeshua’s imputed righteousness, a gifted righteousness earned for you by Yeshua through His perfect obedience to the Father’s will; otherwise, you will perish in the “second death” in Hell (John 3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Revelation 20:11-15).
Jews/Israelite’s question the validity and application of Apostle Paul’s eschatological pronouncement and interpretation of Isaiah 10:22 via Romans 9:27. What is the Truth?
The Apostle Paul, in Romans 9:27, uses the language, application, of Isaiah 10:22, in an eschatological rendering concerning the hardness of heart and judgment of Israel’s children post Crucifixion. Only a “remnant” of Israel’s children will escape the “second death” in Hell due to their rebellion, their unbelief, their rejection of the New Covenant, their rejection of the Great Commission; their rejection of Yeshua as Messiah, their murder of Messiah, their forefather’s demands that Messiah’s blood be upon them and their children (Matthew 27:25; Luke 13:31-35; Matthew 28:16-20). Post Crucifixion Israel is under Judgment (Romans 11:25).
Israel’s children, save a minuscule faction of Messianic Jews, continue in their unbelief/blasphemy of the Spirit to this very day; Jews and Israelite’s stubbornly continue in their apostasy, their self-righteousness in law, their arrogance toward the Christian Gentile; Jews and Israelite’s continue to mock the Gospel and the suffering of Yeshua and they will certainly reap what they have sown in unbelief and unwarranted pride and arrogance.
That Jewish “remnant” entering the Millennial Kingdom and the New Jerusalem will be overwhelmingly represented by Tribulation Era Jews and Israelite’s proselytized by the 144,000 sanctified Jewish witnesses and those who observe Messiah’s 2nd-Advent to Mount Olivet, a period of Jewish repentance and salvation manifesting toward the final chapter of Tribulation horror; this, while the Father patiently waits for the children of Israel to leave the far country and return to Him by faith in Messiah Yeshua (Revelation 7&14; John 19:37; Zechariah 12:10; Revelation 1:7; Psalm 22:16; Luke 15:11-32).
Question was asked in a religious forum: “Why do Jews have more respect for Islam than Christianity? Why is a Jew allegedly welcomed in a Mosque while Christians are forbidden?”
Christian response,
Christianity is Truth…the fulfillment of Torah but the Jew, the Israelite, is under Judgment for having denied the Messiah, having murdered Him upon a tree and demanding that Messiah’s blood be upon them and their children; therefore, Israel’s children cannot see, they cannot hear, they cannot discern (Matthew 27:25; Romans 10).
Judaism, like Islam, is a religion of works and self-sufficiency-arrogance and self-righteousness. Islam is demonically rooted in Satan whose “Allah” masquerades as an angel of light via the Arabic moon god (2 Corinthians 11:14). Islam’s false prophet, Muhammad, is a 7th-Century demon possessed murdering pedophile – a nomadic thief that plagiarized the Torah to construct the Quran.
Judaism is also under the sway of Satan as only a “remnant” of Israel’s children will escape the 2nd-death in Hell due to rejection of Messiah Yeshua (Isaiah 10:22; Romans 9:27).
Islam and Judaism have become “two-peas in a pod” in apostasy, arrogance, self-righteousness. Christianity honors and serves the Living God, Jesus Christ, the Father and the Holy Spirit. Islam and Judaism serve Satan in unbelief; therefore, dissension, hate, is expected and realized as attributes of anyone who serves the Devil.
Christianity honors the Father through faith in the Son; Islam – Judaism honor a World system that honors the god of this World – Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4).
How and Why did Elohim create the Heavens and the Earth?
The Father, in response to Satan’s rebellion, commissioned the Son (John 3:35; John 1; Hebrews 1; Colossians 1) to take elements from the unseen Spiritual Realm and fashion those elements into matter (Hebrews 11:3) that can be apprehended by a life form constrained by Time, physics, flesh; a life form created in His spiritual image (Genesis 1:26-28).
The Great War in the Kingdom was then removed from the Kingdom where “nothing impure” is permitted to exist (Revelation 21:27) and placed upon this Earth and this Kingdom War is presently partially constrained by Time and physics as the primary reason Elohim entered the Realm of Time in flesh was “to destroy the works of the Devil” (1 John 3:8b) via selfless love as per the Gospel that was initiated as a battle strategy “before Time began” (2 Timothy 1:8-10), that battle strategy was ultimately fulfilled with Messiah’s words at Golgotha, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
Jesus Christ is our Creator, Warrior, King, Messiah, Judge, who personally observed the extrication of Satan from the Kingdom (Luke 10:18) and Satan’s placement in Eden (Genesis 3) where the cosmic battle between the Son and Satan was proclaimed in Genesis 3:15 and the battle strategy to defeat Satan pictured in Genesis 3:21 (the Gospel); that is, the shedding of innocent blood to clothe humanity in an imputed-gifted “robe of righteousness” apart from the works of man’s hands, man’s efforts (fig leaves) to conceal and cover his own iniquity (2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 2:8-9).
The entirety of Scripture is Elohim’s explanation and detailed progression relevant to His eschatological plan to restore peace and holiness and justice to His eternal Kingdom, a Kingdom defiled by the sin of covetousness and violence before Time began. The travails of humanity, the horrors of disobedience within the Realm of Time will act as a bulwark against future rebellion in the Kingdom where free will exists by necessity.
Concerning the Biblical Trinity and your salvation,
Elohim (Genesis 1:1) has introduced Himself, the Holy Spirit (Genesis 1:2) has clearly articulated the truism, that our God, Elohim, is One-God in essence; that is, possessing all attributes of divinity which is represented within the Realm of Time in three-distinct-unique Persons possessing individual will and specific eschatological purpose.
To deny this truism, the Trinity, that denial is either rooted in religious prejudice, spiritual ignorance or demonic deception; in fact, if you do not see and acknowledge the necessity for Messiah’s deity you do not possess the Holy Spirit as Guarantor of Covenant (Ephesians 1:13-14); therefore, you remain in your sin and you will perish in the “second death” in the Lake of Fire (John 8:24; Revelation 20:11-15).
The eternal differentiating truism, the eternal chasm existing between those deceived by a religion and those truly redeemed by faith in Jesus Christ via the Gospel via the New Covenant is the knowledge, confession, assurance, that Jesus is “I AM” eternally (Exodus 3:14; John 8:24).
Questions for the Christian who compromises with alcohol, THC-Cannabis…
If you advocate the consumption of alcohol, THC-cannabis, in the life of a Christian, a Christian’s daily life whose sanctification via the Holy Spirit is wholly dependent upon the redeemed conscience employed BY the Spirit for holiness and obedience….where even the thought life is subject judgment impeding intimacy with our Creator….
1) At what point in your consumption of a depressant e.g. alcohol, THC, is your discernment, your wisdom, your ability to discern the will of the Holy Spirit thwarted?
2) At what point does your consumption of an intoxicating depressant or stimulant become adversity, disobedience, to the word of God and therefore sin?
3) How will you know or what physiological – psychological sign or indicator warns you of approaching compromise and disobedience as you consume these substances?
Christianity and the consumption of Alcohol, THC, Tobacco-Nicotine, and other regulated, non-regulated narcotics…
Subsequent my OP titled “Is it wise for a Christian to consume alcohol,” I’ve received some serious “push-back” and worldly inspired attempts to justify Christian compromise with mind/conscience altering behavior. Let me be clear and explain why alcohol and other such drugs are a NO GO for the Christian who sincerely seeks to please the Father through obedience to the Holy Spirit via sanctification.
Alcohol for the Christian is a compromise with the World, a fallen and evil World that hates our God and glorifies the Devil. Alcohol, a depressant, lowers inhibitions and manipulates the human conscience, the human conscience which is employed by the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant to sanctify, guide, the redeemed in Jesus in holiness, righteousness, obedience, via the daily process of sanctification as the Holy Spirit prepares the redeemed for service in the New Jerusalem; therefore, ingesting, consuming, that which alters and manipulates the conscience apart from the Spirit is negating the Father’s will for your life and mocking the suffering of Messiah who gave Himself for your redemption, a redemption that makes sanctification by the Spirit possible.
Why consume that which gives place for the Devil in your life and grieves the Holy Spirit given you as Guarantor of Covenant with the Father (Ephesians 1:13-14)? Why consume that which thwarts the eternally relevant work of the Holy Spirit in your life?
Christians have no business ingesting, smoking, consuming, alcohol, THC-cannabis, nicotine-tobacco or any illicit narcotic or drug (other than legitimate medical prescriptions) that alters the conscience and consequently wars against the Holy Spirit’s leadership, tutelage, anointing, sanctification. You injure your walk and your testimony when you seek to justify your compromise with the Devil.
Ephesians 4:27-30,
27 Neither give place to the devil.
28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
"RickeyD" Holtsclaw 