Sabbath Message 27/03/35/120 - 16 June 2012

Dear Friends,

We have recently completed the Passover and Pentecost Holy Days which are the Feasts of the Lord’s first harvest, and have observed them outside our towns and cities where we resided in temporary dwellings away from our daily work for both the entire eight days of Passover, and the two day Sabbath-Sunday Pentecost as commanded by the Scriptures. Let us now pause for a moment and consider an important aspect of the Lord’s Supper which relates to the fallen Host.

There is a specific reason and purpose why the Messiah allowed Judas Iscariot to participate in the Lord’s Supper the night before he was murdered. Jesus Christ washed Judas’ feet and allowed him to take of the bread which symbolizes his body, the bread of life, and the wine symbolizing his shed blood for the forgiveness of sins.

Modern Christianity is unable to comprehend and understand why Jesus Christ allowed Judas’ participation in this momentous event because they do not understand the depth of God’s love and the depth of His plan of reconciliation for all of His creation. They will hold in absolute derision and utter contempt anyone who would suggest or discuss what is revealed in the Scriptures regarding the truth of this aspect of the Lord’s Supper, as they do not understand the extent of God’s reconciliation granted through Christ’s shed blood.

Jesus Christ allowed Judas Iscariot to participate in the Lord’s Supper on the evening before his death, and allowed him to be in the intimate confines of the other eleven disciples and himself during the course of the evening knowing that Judas was under the power of Satan, and was actually possessed by him. Why is this? Considering that the Messiah knew Judas Iscariot had an unclean spirit and would betray him, he could have prevented Judas from participating in this extremely important event of the Lord’s Supper when Christ instituted the New Covenant symbols. Judas not only had his feet washed by Christ, but he was also permitted to partake in the symbolism of the bread and wine which points to the totality of God’s plan of reconciliation for His entire creation.

The Scriptures are clear that Judas Iscariot was of an unclean spirit. In Luke 22:1-6 it states:

1) Now the feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover.
2) And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death; for they feared the people.
3) Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve;
4) he went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them.
5) And they were glad, and engaged to give him money.
6) So he agreed, and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of the multitude. (RSV)

In his discourse with his disciples, the Messiah states the following as it is recorded in John 6:68-71:

68) Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life;
69) and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."
70) Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"
71) He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was to betray him. (RSV)

During the course of the Lord’s Supper after the Messiah washed his disciple’s feet, including Judas Iscariot’s feet, he states:

John 13:10-11
10) Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but he is clean all over; and you are clean, but not every one of you."
11) For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, "You are not all clean." (RSV)

Why did the Messiah choose Judas Iscariot knowing he had an unclean spirit?

The answer is evident as we come to understand the depth of reconciliation that God accomplished through the Messiah’s sacrifice. The lack of understanding in today’s Christianity can be demonstrated by their failure to comprehend the message the apostle Paul is conveying in Colossians 1:19-22:

19) For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
20) and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
21) And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
22) he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him— (NRSV)

What is it in heaven, or from heaven (vs. 20) that would require reconciliation if it is not the fallen Host? Is God a respecter of persons by not extending repentance and reconciliation to His spirit-sons who sinned, but will extend it to only sinful man? Does He love sinning mankind more than His sinning spirit-sons? The plain truth is God is not a respecter of persons, and His love is so great that He extends reconciliation to all of His created sons, both spirit and physical.

Through Christ’s shed blood, there is now the reconciliation on earth and in heaven. Does not the apostle Paul tell us that in the name of the Messiah: “every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth” (Phil. 2:10 - KJV).

“Under the earth”, in verse 10 of Philippians 2, is in reference not only to those physical beings in the grave awaiting the resurrection, but it is also in reference to the fallen sons of God now subject to the ministry of the Messiah and who are confined to the abyss awaiting their judgment (cf. Luke 8:30-31, Rev. 9:11, 20:1). Bullinger’s notes to this verse state, “under the earth – These are the dead who shall yet be raised to give glory to Him, Rev.5:13; and the angels and demons of the abyss”.

Another important Scripture to understand is recorded by the apostle Peter in 1Peter 3:18-22.

18) For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19) By which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison;
20) Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
21) The like figure whereunto even baptism does also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ):
22) Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him. (KJV)

After his resurrection and upon his sacrifice being accepted by his Father, the Messiah was seated at God’s right hand with the angels now being made subject to him. It was then the Messiah had the authority to make a proclamation to the spirits in prison. It was victory over death that he proclaimed, and he proclaimed that they are now subject to him as their High Priest in the Temple of God. The Apostle Paul states that God, through the Messiah’s sacrifice, reconciled all on earth and in heaven. Peace was made within God’s entire family through the Messiah’s shed blood (Col. 1:20 cited above).

It is a matter of logic that those who are preached to are also necessarily the object of salvation. Thus the Fallen Host can be saved as they were (and are) subject to the ministry of Jesus Christ (verse 19, 1Peter 3).

The word “preached” in this verse is k¢rússœ, SGD #2784, and means to proclaim, announce publicly, in the sense of to publish abroad, announce publicly, especially to preach, publish, or announce religious truth, the gospel with its attendant privileges and obligations. Synonyms include: ‎to proclaim the good news, evangelize, ‎to proclaim, promulgate, declare, to testify thoroughly, to speak or preach boldly, to herald thoroughly, signify (from The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament © 1992 by AMG International, Inc. Revised Edition, 1993).

God has designated the Messiah’s sacrifice to be all-encompassing to include the fallen Host upon their acceptance of the Messiah’s ministry and upon their repentance from sinning. They will either repent and acknowledge the Messiah and bend their knee before him as physical beings in the 2nd resurrection when they are reduced to being in the physical form of a man, as the Messiah was in the form of a man while incarnate on earth, or they will perish as any physical non-repentant man will perish in death. If they do not repent, they will simply be allowed to die after the Great White Throne judgment period when there will be no resurrection. For a detailed biblical explanation, see the study paper The Judgment of the Demons (No. 80).

Judas Iscariot, being of an unclean spirit, symbolically represented the fallen Hosts and was allowed by the Messiah to participate in the Lord’s Supper for that purpose. Symbolically, Judas’ presence and participation in the Lord’s Supper was a sign that repentance and salvation was being offered to the sinning spirit sons of God. It was also a sign to the fallen Host that they will have their immortality removed from them, and that they will be reduced to human form and “die like men, and fall like any prince" as Psalm 82:7 states.

God, through the Messiah’s sacrifice, was pleased to offer reconciliation to all of His created sons, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the shed blood of His Messiah, as the apostle Paul states.

Being omnipotent, God is in control of His creation as He states in Isaiah 46:8-10.

8) "Remember this and consider, recall it to mind, you transgressors,
9) remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
10) declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,' (RSV)

As the Messiah was hanging nailed on the stake and dying with his life’s blood draining from him, he was taunted not only by his human enemies, but undoubtedly he was also taunted foolishly by the demons in their attempt to get him to give up and fail. But in his excruciating pain and suffering, Jesus Christ held fast in faith in his God and Father to save him by the resurrection. The Messiah exhibited the depth of his Father’s love to the degree that he was willing to die even for the salvation of the fallen Host. No greater love can be evident than the willingness of one to give up his life for another, including one’s enemies.

This depth of God’s love as exhibited through the life of the Messiah is not fully understood or appreciated by modern Christianity.

For further reading, see study papers The City of God (No. 180) at http://www.ccg.org/english/s/p180.html and The Fallacy of the Third Resurrection (No. 166) at http://www.ccg.org/english/s/p166.html

As we witness the morals and values in society collapsing around us, hold fast to the love that the Almighty Lord God Eloah extends to us through the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Hold fast to the faith and truth once delivered to the saints.

Tom Schardt
Coordinator, Southern California