Sabbatarian asked: “If the Sabbath was kept in the Old Testament and it will be kept in the Millennial Kingdom, why do Christians say the Sabbath is not relevant in the New Covenant?”
The Sabbath that will be celebrated in the Millennial Kingdom is the Sabbath given Israel’s children beginning in Exodus 16 i.e., the OLD Covenant. The Millennial Kingdom will host elements of the Old Covenant’s sacrificial requirements as the Millennial Kingdom will glorify our resurrected Messiah as He will be given the Kingdom denied Him at His First Advent.
Neither the Old Covenant or its celebration and fulfillment in the Millennial Kingdom are relevant concerning the New Covenant of Grace. In the New Covenant, those redeemed by faith in Jesus, are not under law, days, diets, traditions, clothing mandates, but the “law” in the New Covenant is the spiritual law (Romans 2:14-15) that has been written upon the heart of human kind beginning on Day 6 of Creation as human kind is created in the spiritual image of Elohim and thereby received certain divine communicable attributes from Elohim that separated Adam from the beasts of the field.
This spiritual law, in the New Covenant, is enlivened by the indwelling Holy Spirit who walks the redeemed in Jesus in daily Christian sanctification and through His anointing, He produces divine fruit (Galatians 5:15-23) through the redeemed and this fruit fulfills all law; both, codified and spiritual, and this fruit pleases the Father and proves one to be a faithful disciple of Jesus (John 15:8).
In the New Covenant, the redeemed are not under the laws, days, diets, traditions, of Sinai or Moses (Romans 6:14) and in the New Covenant, the redeemed honor the Sabbath’s intent through faith in Jesus who is the fulfillment of all the Sabbath Day foreshadowed.
Snake Oil sales pitch: “Faith that saves includes obedience.”
Incorrect. Faith saves through grace (unmerited favor), a gift that even obedience cannot earn. Once faith, belief, is established in Jesus and redemption is present via the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14), the redeemed having been “born again” (John 3; 2 Corinthians 5:17) they naturally begin to produce divine (Galatians 5:16-23) fruit via the anointing and sanctification of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
This production of fruit (Galatians 5:16-23) is what pleases the Father and proves one to be a disciple of Jesus (John 15:8), but obedience is NOT an element of salvation, faith/grace are.
Obedience that pleases the Father is the production of divine fruit via the anointing of the indwelling Holy Spirit that FOLLOWS salvation by faith, alone. When your faith “includes” obedience for salvation, you’re a religious cult as you negate the sufficiency of Jesus’ blood to atone for your sin apart from works/obedience. Your selling snake oil, I’m not buying.
In closing, it’s very important to remember that your works, your obedience, as strategies to please the Father and earn your forgiveness, this is self-righteousness and the Father considers your works for self-righteousness as a “filthy garment” (or in the Hebrew – a bloody menstrual cloth) (Isaiah 64:6).
We don’t work, strive to keep laws, be obedient, to be saved, it’s a gift of grace (unmerited favor) from the Father earned for us by Jesus at Golgotha. A Christian works because the indwelling Holy Spirit arbitrates the spiritual law written upon their heart during daily Christian sanctification and thereby produces fruit through them, this is Christian obedience in the New Covenant and that divine fruit fulfills all law that governs obedience.
Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,
Theological conundrum? No one but the Father knows the Day of the end of the Age of Grace? Why not the Son or the Spirit? Are they not all coequal in deific attributes?
The Father is the Administrator of the Trinity and the Creation narrative and its reason for being; therefore, the Son and the Spirit honor the Father’s authority concerning that Day, why?
That Day, the end of the age of grace, remains fluid as free will remains essential in this temporary Realm of Time as it has always been essential and integral in the Spiritual Realm.
The Father desires that “all men be saved and come to a knowledge of the Truth” (1 Timothy 2:4) and the Father has a predetermined number of men and women who will come to faith in the Son, not a predestination of individuals or choice, but a free will inspired number of men and women who will come to faith in the Gospel and when that particular number is fulfilled, the end of this age of grace will have been fulfilled…the Father is patiently awaiting for that number of redeemed to enter into New Covenant relationship with Him via faith in the Son; this specific number can be theorized to equate to the number of angelic creatures who followed Satan in the great Rebellion; this, as we know our creation abhors a vacuum and there is a consistent striving for a vacuum/void to return to a state of stasis; therefore, when the number of fallen angelic beings has been replenished by the redeemed in Jesus, the end of this age of grace will reach a conclusion and a unique dispensation of works and grace will manifest in the Millennial Kingdom; an era of personal and corporate sacrifice and adoration given the resurrected Son who will receive the Kingdom denied Him at His first Advent; this, as the Evil One is placed in custody and denied access to Human Kind for 1000-years.
Finally, concerning the signs of the end of the age of grace prefacing the Millennial Kingdom?
Elohim has repeatedly told His faithful that if one desires to know where He is positoned concerning eschatology, always watch His people, the children of Jacob, in the Land that He has granted them through Abraham, the Land of Israel.
It is relevant for the faithful to understand that before that Day will manifest, there will be nuclear proliferation in the Middle East via the efforts of Islam and Islam’s allies; namely, Russian and China.
There will be an exponential increase in anti-Semitism, with an emphasis of Jewish/Israeli hatred in the West; ultimately, Israel will be perceived as the genesis and causation of the World’s woes and problems. The West will have been made impotent militarily, ethically and monetarily due compromise with Satan’s Marxist perversions.
Representatives of the Axis of Evil, Islam-Russia-China, will stage outside of the City of Jerusalem and a limited nuclear event will manifest; that nuclear event pictured in Jesus’ Revelation to John; this will trigger Messiah’s return to Mount Olivette. It is at that Time that the Nations who have warred against Israel will be destroyed. The entirety of Israel’s children will see their Messiah and believe. Our Messiah will enter through the currently walled-off Eastern Gate and initiate His Millennial Reign from the City of Jerusalem. MARANATHA!
Satan bound for 1000-years prefacing the Millennial Kingdom of Elohim the Son?
Satan’s incarceration during the Millennial Kingdom is relevant for a number of reasons but primarily to demonstrate to the faithful angelic creation, those who did not follow Satan in the Great Rebellion, that this fallen anointed cherub is obviously the causation for the previous 6000-years of unconscionable suffering within the Realm of Time.
The stark comparison/contrast between 6000-years of horror v. 1000 years of blissful peace will be undeniable. The final rebellion of Satan subsequent his release at the culmination of the Millennium will leave no doubt as to the culprit who has spawned such anarchy in the Kingdom and in human history.
Elohim will be glorified for His strategic battle strategy, the Gospel, by which Elohim, Himself, defeated Satan at Golgotha via selfless love demonstrated by Elohim the Son.
Also, the faithful angelic creation will fully understand and concur with Elohim the Father as Satan is adjudicated guilty for atrocities against Elohim, the Kingdom, humanity, and ultimately interned in Hell for Eternity (Revelation 20:10). Elohim will be seen as a Just and Righteous Judge.
Lastly (for the sake of time), the necessity for free will remains relevant in the New Jerusalem, the eternal Kingdom of Elohim the Son, our resurrected Messiah. The 7000-year history of rebellious, unconscionably destructive, fallen angels, the ramification of disobedience prefacing The Flood, will act as a powerful bulwark against rebellion in the New Jerusalem and a repeat of Elohim’s striving to restore holiness and order to a Kingdom ravaged by war prefaced by sin/disobedience. Peace through obedience to Elohim’s will reigns paramount, eternally for both resurrected Saints and the faithful angelic creation serving Elohim.
The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Your spiritual misunderstanding is mind boggling considering that your rejection of Jesus as God, Deity, proclaims your status as unredeemed, remaining in your sin (John 8:24).
I don’t suggest that understanding the necessity for Messiah’s deity is an element of salvation but I will profess that once one is redeemed by faith in Jesus and has received the indwelling Holy Spirit as Guarantor and the Seal of New Covenant promise (Ephesians 1:13-14), they will KNOW and they will openly confess that Jesus is God/Elohim who is Creator, Warrior, Messiah and Judge; this, because the Spirit of Truth (John 16:13-15) testifies of Jesus’ Deity and the necessity for same.
“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am “He,” you will die in your sins.” John 8:24 (NASB)
In John 8:24, the word “he” is added by translators. While English Bibles (like the NIV or KJV) use “I am he,” the original Greek simply says “I am” (egō eimi). This directly mirrors the divine name used in the Old Testament (Exodus 3:14), with Jesus claiming equality with God.
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” John 8:58 (NASB)
Again: the original Greek says “I am” (egō eimi). This directly mirrors the divine name used in the Old Testament (Exodus 3:14), with Jesus claiming equality with God.
The Jewish audience and their religious leadership clearly understood Jesus’ proclamation of Deity and sought to murder Jesus by stoning; ultimately, charging Jesus with “blasphemy” and handing Him over to Pilate, Herod, for execution.
Your initial error is failing to understand the context upon which Hebrews 1, John 1, Colossians 1, are based; that is, Jesus in His hypostatic union as fully man and fully Elohim. Jesus has enjoyed coequal glory and omnipotence and omnipresence with the Father and the Spirit from Eternity past; this, before the World was created (John 17:5). When the Father speaks of the Son as the “firstborn” and “begotten” and having been “appointed” and “sit at my right hand”…the Father is speaking of the unique position of the eternal God-Man, Jesus our Messiah, unique to all of Eternity and Jesus will continue in this unique positioning as the “firstfruits” of those resurrected from the dead with a glorified body…the same type of body the saints in Jesus will receive at the resurrection of the righteous.
The Father is speaking in terms of a resurrected Messiah who had previously set aside many of His deific attributes in order to take on flesh, subject Himself to the constraints of Time and physics and rely solely upon the Holy Spirit for power and miracles and conquering Satan at Golgotha (Luke 4:1; 1 John 3:8). It is this same Jesus that the Father is glorifying for OUR benefit demonstrating the power of obedience and honor and dignity displayed by the Son who will reign King forevermore. King in the Millennial Kingdom and the Eternal Kingdom, the New Jerusalem.
You assume that the Father’s delineation of authority somehow suggests Jesus is a lesser being than the Father but this is not true or accurate. Jesus has never been a lesser Deity than the Father as Jesus is the same yesterday, today, forever (Hebrews 13:8). I’m not sure what cult or sect you’ve involved yourself in, perhaps the cult of the Jehovah’s Witness, but you are far from the Kingdom. You might have a nice little religion but you and yours don’t know Jesus.
What is “Substitutionary Atonement” provided by Jesus our Messiah?
Substitutionary Atonement is first pictured for human kind in Genesis 3:21 subsequent Adam’s compromise with evil, disobedience, at the behest of his wife, Eve.
Elohim, Himself, shed innocent blood and clothed Adam and his wife, Eve, the representatives of human kind, in an imputed, gifted, robe of righteousness in order to cover their sin and shame while Elohim simultaneously rejected Adam’s vain attempt at self-righteousness, works, to cover his own shame via the application of fig leaves. This is the first picture of the Gospel of Grace in Scripture.
Genesis 3:15 prophesies that One would come from the seed of the woman, not the seed of the man which carries and passes the Adamic sin-nature (Romans 5:12), and this anointed One would enter into conflict with Satan and defeat Satan. Genesis 3:21, as noted above, was to be the “battle strategy” by which the Anointed One, born of the seed of the woman, would defeat the works of Satan; that is, shedding innocent blood and thereby providing blood atonement for the covering of sin for all who would believe that Messiah had accomplished this divine imperative.
The Mosaic Law of blood sacrifices (Leviticus 17:11) modeled this prophecy where a spotless lamb would be slain for the sins of Israel’s children in recognition of the “Passover” where the blood of a lamb was painted on the door posts and lintel signaling to the “death angel” to “pass over” that home and spare the first born child which essentially freed the Hebrew slaves in Egypt.
These prophecies all came to fruition 4000-years subsequent Genesis 3:21 outside the Gates of Jerusalem in a place called “Golgotha” or “the place of the skull.” It was here that Jesus, “the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World” (John 1:29) offered Himself as a substitutionary “blood atonement” for the sin of mankind (Matthew 26:27-28).
The focus of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that anyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah who died, who shed His innocent blood, for the atonement of their sin, the forgiveness of their sin, the one so believing receives eternal life (John 3:16)
We know that “nothing impure is permitted to enter the Kingdom of God” (Revelation 21:27) and we are commanded to be perfect as the Father in Heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). We also know that no one can be perfected by vain attempts to keep the Laws or traditions or days or diets of the Old Covenant because one violation of the Law makes the transgressor guilty of violating all Law (James 2:10); therefore, how does one born of Adam’s sin-nature (Romans 5:12) find “perfection” and acceptance by God/Elohim the Father?
Answer: Substitutionary Atonement
The Holy Spirit explains how one attains perfection in the Father’s eyes in Paul’s letter to the Church at Corinth (2 Corinthians 5:21). When one believes that Jesus is Messiah who died for them, the Father imputes, gifts, the righteousness and perfection of Jesus over their life, eternally, and the Father agrees by New Covenant promise (Hebrews 8:12) to remember their sins no more; in other words, the Father promises to not see the sins of those who have trusted in Jesus as Messiah, the Spotless Lamb without sin, but the Father only sees the Son’s perfection over them and the Father declares them “not guilty” and welcomes them into the Family of Elohim while Sealing and Guaranteeing this divine promise through the gifting of the indwelling Holy Spirit, forever (Ephesians 1:13-14).
Christians, believers in Jesus as Messiah, are gifted the righteousness of Jesus over their life by Covenant promise thereby making the believer positionally “perfect” in the Father’s eyes, not by works, or efforts, strivings, of the Christian but as a Gift of Grace through Faith in the divine, spotless Lamb of God, Jesus Christ our Messiah (1 Peter 1:18-19).
Innocent substitute. Replaced fig leave of human righteousness.
James teaches that saving faith, once established by faith in Jesus as Messiah, will demonstrate its legitimacy through the production of divine fruit that is produced via obedience to the indwelling Holy Spirit gifted to all who believe that Jesus is Messiah (Ephesians 1:13-14; John 15:8; Galatians 5:16-23). New Covenant Relationship with the Father through faith in Jesus as Messiah is established first, works or the production of divine fruit that follows divine relationship verifies the legitimacy of one’s faith.
Paul via the Spirit’s inspiration, teaches that salvation, righteousness, or a right standing with the Father, are NOT acquired through works or human effort but by faith alone (Romans 4:4-5). Paul is NOT suggesting that obedience or works that follow salvation are irrelevant but that relationship through faith must be established first then the works done through the Spirit will follow.
No one is saved from the 2nd death in Hell by works or self righteous efforts to please the Father (Galatians 2:16); only the imputed, gifted, righteousness of Jesus over your life by faith in Him as your Messiah will allow you to enter into New Covenant forgiveness with the Father (2 Corinthians 5:21; John 14:6; Hebrews 8:12).
Jesus provides an example,
Jesus emphasized the divine relevance of “relationship” with the Father through faith in the Son, FIRST, in Matthew 7:21-23. The works of those condemned in Jesus’ teaching were not evil but the honorable works were rejected and the workers condemned because the workers had not first established “New Covenant” relationship with the Father by faith in the Son. The works done were done through human effort, the flesh, and were therefore rejected as a filthy garment (Isaiah 64:6). Jesus likewise responded “Depart from me you workers of iniquity, I never knew you.” Our works are meaningless lest we are members of the Father’s family first through faith in the Son, Jesus our Messiah!
Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,
The Sinai Commandments were but a mere fraction of Elohim’s moral law, a Spiritual Law that was infused within Adam on Day 6 of creation as Adam was created in the spiritual image of our divine Law Giver, Jesus Christ (Genesis 1:26-28; John 1; Hebrews 1; Colossians 1). The Sinai Commandments were given specifically to Israel’s children and those who sought refuge in that Theocracy. The Commandments were codified in stone by Elohim for Israel in preparation for their journey through pagan lands inundated with pagan tribes, demonically rooted pagan tribes who would make every attempt to turn Israel’s children away from Elohim’s prophetic plan concerning the Nation of Israel and the prophesied Messiah, Messiah Jesus who would ultimately emanate from the Trible of Judah.
There were other written codes and texts prior to the Mosaic Law such as the “Code of Hammurabi” that provided laws and structure for adjudicative order in a society of Adam’s descendants.
All moral and ethical law that has been codified by human kind from Adam forward finds their origin in the divine Spiritual Law that is written upon the heart of every human being at conception (Romans 2:14-15). The Spiritual Law is essential as a bulwark against societal implosion in unrestrained narcissism and it is the divine gift of the human conscience, wisdom, discernment, that arbitrates the Spiritual Law within the heart of human kind.
The Spiritual Law written upon the human heart by Elohim within the human species created in His own spiritual image is also eternally essential as an arbiter of free will and arbiter of divine judgment as “where there is no law there is no sin” (Romans 4:15; 5:13); in other words, there exists no culpability in the absence of law, nor does culpability exist among a transgressor where insufficient cognitive ability to understand the repercussions of violating a law or edict exists, insufficient cognitive acuity due immaturity or retardation, mental illness.
The Spiritual Law is eternal and essential for Elohim’s righteousness to be defined and judgment to be adjudicated fairly and responsibly in that Day (Revelation 20:11-15). It is the divine Spiritual Law that judged unto death and extinction save eight the Adamic and Noahic generations via The Flood. It is also notable that the eternal Spiritual Law judged Satan of covetousness and initiated Satan’s extrication from the Kingdom thereby initiating the Genesis creation narrative, the Gospel, Golgotha; in fact, it is Satan’s defiance of the Spiritual Law that initiated Messiah’s introduction into the temporary, created, Realm of Time as Messiah’s primary objective was “to destroy the works of the Devil” (1 John 3:8b); that is, destroy the works of Satan as a demonic evil seeking to deceive all of humanity through the enticement to violate the Spiritual Law of Elohim.
Salvation, a “right standing” with our Creator is attained by: 1) Works, keeping laws, rules? 2) Works, keeping laws, rules + faith? 3) Faith alone?
What is the Biblical Truth?
Works, keeping laws, obeying rules, play no role in salvation.
Christian works, the production of divine fruit (Galatians 5:16-23), manifest SUBSEQUENT salvation and are the resultant of the anointing of the indwelling Holy Spirit working through the “new creation” (the new person) in Jesus (John 15:8; Galatians 5:16-23; 2 Corinthians 5:17).
Works or striving to keep laws for righteousness, a right standing with the Father, are theologically equivalent to the odor of a bloody menstrual cloth in the nose of the Father (Isaiah 64:6); the “work of God” that opens the door to salvation is “to believe in the One the Father has sent into the World” to provide blood atonement for your sin (John 6:29); that is, believe with a sincere heart that Jesus is our Messiah who died to pay your sin-debt owed the Father, a debt you cannot pay yourself through striving after obedience to laws, rules, customs, days, traditions (John 14:6). Salvation being a divine gift of “grace” (unmerited favor you cannot earn) through faith (trusting-believing that Jesus is Messiah).
Works, fruit, SUBSEQUENT salvation are a sign of legitimate saving faith (James 2:17-26) but those works/fruit are NOT causative (Ephesians 2:8-9; Galatians 2:16). Works, in the pursuit of righteousness-salvation, do not honor the Father lest they’re performed through you by the indwelling Holy Spirit which can only manifest subsequent salvation as the Spirit is the Guarantor and Seal of New Covenant relationship given to all who believe Jesus is Messiah (Ephesians 1:13-14).
Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,
Theological question: “Since Jesus is God why didn’t he know the time of His coming as put [stated] in Matthew 24:36.”
Consider this,
The Day of the Second Advent is fluid, wholly dependent upon free will choices made by human men and women in authority and those to whom the Gospel is given; that is, there is a certain specified, ordained, number of redeemed in Jesus that must be attained before the 2nd-Advent. The Father, as the Administrator of the Trinity, decides when that number of redeemed has been fulfilled.
Know that the Holy Spirit has told us there was one-third of the angelic creation that followed Lucifer/Satan in the Great Rebellion, that Rebellion being causation for the Creation Narrative. As physics will testify, our World, our atmosphere, hates a vacuum; that is, remove a certain volume of fluid from a particular entity and all of nature seeks to fill that void; no difference concerning the “void” left in the Spiritual Realm by those who allied with Satan’s covetousness resulting in their banishment from the Kingdom; that void will be replaced, restored, in number, a specific number, and the 2nd-Advent, the initiation of the Millennial Kingdom, will NOT manifest until said number has been attained; that is, until such “Time” a corresponding number of human kind responds to the Gospel and is prepared to enter the Kingdom for service, the end will not manifest and the Father will determine when that specific number has been attained; by divine authority, that number remains the sole property of the Father while the Son and the Spirit respect the Father’s discernment as the Administrator of all things concerning Time and Eternity and the New Jerusalem, order, holiness, peace.
1) Father – Administrator 2) Jesus – Son, Creator, Warrior, Messiah, Judge 3) Holy Spirit – Logistics
Satan’s rebellion and its horrific aftermath, having been played-out within the Realm of Time for the previous 6000-years, will be completely righted, corrected, healed, made whole, holiness – order restored, by the Father’s divine plan we know as “The Gospel” which was ordained as Elohim’s battle strategy “before Time began” (2 Timothy 1:8-9); in fact, the primary reason Jesus entered the temporary Realm of Time was “to destroy the works of the Devil” (1 John 3:8).
Destroying Satan’s works includes restoring all that Satan has destroyed and stolen, that one-third of the rebellious angelic creation will be restored by redeemed human kind, though redeemed humanity will not be angelic in origin, those restored through the Gospel will be dedicated resurrected servants of Jesus our Messiah in the New Jerusalem thereby closely duplicating the responsibilities of the angelic creation that chose via free will to leave their assigned responsibilities in the Kingdom; again, that specific number of redeemed subject to free will choices made within the Realm of Time belongs to the Father, the divine Administrator of Heaven, Earth, the eternal Kingdom. The Son and the Spirit honor and respect the Father’s eschatological will.
"RickeyD" Holtsclaw 