Sabbath 12/09/42/120

Dear Friends,

Recently in Australia there was quite a serious slanging match about a footballer who was a Sunday worshipping Pacific Islander named Israel Folau who decided that homosexuals were all going to hell as his denomination taught. He was stood down by Rugby Australia for denigrating same sex people.  He then sued them and they were forced to settle for a significant sum.
 
The extraordinary thing about the Folau saga is that he and they have no idea of the Bible plan and laws.  He does not understand that hell is where they used to bury their potatoes.  It means the grave or sheol, and no one is going to heaven or hell. In the First and Second Century CE we could tell fake Christians because they said that when they died they went to heaven (or hell) (cf. Justin Martyr, Dial. LXXX).  Yes, the Bible teaches that sodomites and lesbians sin.  They will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  They will go to the Second Resurrection and the Great White Throne Judgment (No. 143B) (cf. Rev. Ch. 20) for retraining under Judgment but so does everyone who sins and does not enter the First Resurrection (No. 143A) and that means everyone like Folau that does not observe the Laws of God and keeps Sunday, Christmas and Easter (cf. Origins of Christmas and Easter (No. 235) instead of the Sabbaths, New Moons and Feasts of the Bible texts. So also do liars, thieves, idolaters, gluttons and slanderers.

Observe the context of the following texts:
1Cor. 6:9-10 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.

So also do we see in Galatians when Paul refers to the Second Great Commandment (No. 257) in dealing with this aspect:
Gal 5:14-21  For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 15  But if you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed by one another. 16  But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. 18  But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. 19  Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20  idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, 21  envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Within the Law of God (L1) the First Great Commandment (No. 252) deals with the First Four Commandments which include the Sabbaths of God as the sign of the elect (Distribution of the Sabbath-keeping Churches (No. 122); 122B; and 122C; 122D; and Role of the Fourth Commandment in the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God (No. 170). So also we see the Covenant of God (No. 152) and its role in both Christianity and Islam in the Covenant of God (No. 096C).

If we walk in the Spirit we are guided by grace and are not subject to sin under the law (cf. No. 082).  However, if we do not follow the Spirit we sin and fall under the judgment of the law and are consigned to the Second Resurrection. The very act of playing Rugby Union on the Sabbath is of itself sin and those that do such things must repent or go to the Second Resurrection for retraining; so also everyone who sins against the law.

Wade Cox
Coordinator General