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Monthly Studies

Study for the Month of February 2010:
THE PHYSICAL AND NATURAL LAWS (Page 2)

The Ceremonial Law and the Physical Laws

The physical laws must be differentiated from the ceremonial law for though the former were included in the practice of the typical services, “cleanliness” and all that it comprehends physically and spiritually, is “next to godliness” and is based on the truth that the human body was created to be the temple of the living God, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Thus the physical and natural laws are as old as creation itself, which was but six thousand years ago, according to the divine reckoning and inspired pen.

For instance, many teach that God’s specifications on what foods are clean or unclean belong to the ceremonial law that was “done away with at the cross.” Nothing is farther from the truth for even nature testifies that the beasts, fowls, sea animals, and insects that are classified as unclean are the carnivores, scavengers, or bottom-feeders, etc. But even if one can advance all the reasons such as they are now “farm-raised and fed nothing but healthy and organic feed,” etc., none of these excuses nullify God’s Word and wisdom that defines such as unclean. For one to continue doing so after being enlightened, is rebellion “and stubbornness which is as idolatry.” Thus the physical and Biblical health laws are but part of the natural law which are part of the principles of God’s moral law which govern the whole person—mind, soul, and body.

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Monthly Studies

Study for the Month of February 2010:
THE PHYSICAL AND NATURAL LAWS

Study for the Month of February, 2010

THE PHYSICAL AND NATURAL LAWS

By Nathaniel Fajardo
Email: [email protected]

Introduction
The Moral Law and the Ceremonial Laws. — Although the author of both the moral and ceremonial laws is God Creator himself for “there is only one lawgiver” (James 4:12), the main differences between the two, which the majority of mainstream Christianity strangely fail to consider, much less emphasize, is that the former existed forever. The latter, which included circumcision of the prepuce of the male organ, were instituted by God “were added because of transgressions” (Gal. 3:19). By these the gospel was taught in types and symbols on how sins could be forgiven and overcome, which included the system of sacrifices, feasts and festivals, and the earthly priesthood that ministered to the earthy tabernacle. All were abolished when type met antitype at the cross.

Satan has continued his rebellion against God’s authority and law begun in heaven. Long after causing Adam and Eve to transgress God’s law in Eden, it is he, who, in our modern times of boasted intellectual advancement introduced the theory of evolution. Satan knows only too well that the moral law was already in existence before the earth and man were created. It was this law that he, together with a third of the angels whom he deceived, transgressed in heaven resulting in his rebellion, defeat, and being cast out of their “first abode.” God rehearsed this law to Adam and Eve, speaking to them face to face for sin had not yet created that great gulf between creature and Creator.

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STUDY FOR THE MONTH JANUARY 2010
SPIRITUAL LESSONS FROM NUMBER TWO PART III(PAGE 12)

The Two and Three Witnesses of Christ’s Transfiguration:

Upon the mount was represented the future kingdom of glory.

The witness of the three disciples: Peter, James, and John at Christ’s  transfiguration. See Matt. 17: 1-8; Mark 9: 2-8; Luke 9: 28-36. :

     “Not all, even of the twelve, can receive the revelation He desired to give. Only the three who are to witness His anguish in Gethsemane have been chosen to be with Him on the mount. Now the burden of His prayer is that they may be given a manifestation of the glory that He had with the Father before the world was, that His kingdom may be revealed to human eyes, and that His disciples might be strengthened to behold it. He pleads that they may witness a manifestation of His divinity that will comfort them in the hour of His supreme agony with a knowledge that He is of a surety the Son of God and that His shameful death is a part of the plan of redemption.” – Desire of Ages, pp. 420-1.

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STUDY FOR THE MONTH JANUARY 2010
SPIRITUAL LESSONS FROM NUMBER TWO PART III(PAGE 11)

overflowing.” An Historical Sketch of the Protestant Church of France, pp. 530-32 by J.G. Lorimer, 1841, from Bible Source, p. 614.

              “And after three days and a half  the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.”

      A well-respected historian wrote: “On the 17th of June, Camille Jordan, in the Council of Five Hundred, brought up the memorable report on the Revision of the laws relative to the freedom of religious worship. . . . The Bible had been slain in France from November 1793 till June 1797. . . . and the Bible so long sternly repressed before, was placed in honor, and was openly the book of Protestantism.” – The Apocalypse of St. John, pp. 181-183 by George Croly, 1828, quoted in Source Book, pp. 615-6.

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STUDY FOR THE MONTH JANUARY 2010
SPIRITUAL LESSONS FROM NUMBER TWO PART III(PAGE 10)

culminated in the ‘reign of terror’ of 1793, when France discarded the Bible and denied the existence of Deity.

     A modern historian thus describes this great religious change:            

           “Certain members of the Convention, too, had been the first to attempt to replace Christian worship in the provinces by civic ceremonial, in the autumn of 1793.  At Abbeville, Dumont, having informed the populace that the priests were ‘harlequins’ and clowns in black garments, who showed off marionettes,’ had set up the Worship of Reason, and, with not an uncommon inconsistency, organized a ‘marionette show’ of his own of a most imposing description, with dances in the cathedral of every decadi, and civic festivals of the ‘observance’ of which he greatly insisted. Fouchi was the next who abolished Christian worship; speaking from the pulpit of the Cathedral of Nevers he formally erased all spiritualism from the republican programme, promulgated the famous order which declared ‘death an eternal slumber,’  and thus turned the key on heaven and hell alike. . . . In his congratulatory address to the ex-bishop, the president declared that as the Supreme Being ‘desire no worship other than the worship of Reason, that should in future be the national religion.’ Lous Madellin, The French Revolution, pp. 387, 388.

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STUDY FOR THE MONTH JANUARY 2010
SPIRITUAL LESSONS FROM NUMBER TWO PART III(PAGE 9)

              Verse 5  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

    “To hurt the word of God is to oppose, corrupt, or pervert its testimony, and turn people away from it. Against those who do this work, fire proceedeth out of their mouth to devour them, that is, judgment of fire is pronounced in that word against such. It declares that they will have their punishment in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. (Malachi 4: 1; Rev. 20: 15; 22: 18, 19).

             Verse 6  These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

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STUDY FOR THE MONTH JANUARY 2010
SPIRITUAL LESSONS FROM NUMBER TWO PART III(PAGE 8)

the false prophets that have and will continue to arise, causing confusion, assuring salvation in sin, and causing shipwreck of faith. But it is not difficult to know if a message is from above: if it exposes the true nature of sin, reveals the perfect righteousness of Christ, and slays it in the heart of the convicted sinner.

      “In His Word, God has committed to men the knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy Scriptures [the Bible] are to be accepted as an authoritative, infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the revealer of doctrines, and the test of experience.

          Yet the fact that God has revealed His will to men through His Word, has not rendered needless the continued presence and guiding of the Holy Spirit. . . .

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STUDY FOR THE MONTH JANUARY 2010
SPIRITUAL LESSONS FROM NUMBER TWO PART III(PAGE 7)

     It is therefore difficult to understand how those who claim to be “New Testament Christians” say that there is no judgment in open contradiction to this passage, among others, that so clearly warn of God’s righteous judgments and its nature.

    We read in Matthew 17: 1-7 and Mark 9:2-8 that after six days (the number of man), Jesus was transfigured. He first takes with Him to the mount three witnesses—Peter, James and John. These three disciples, in turn, also witness two other living witnesses who represent the two classes of people who will enter heaven: Moses, “the meekest of all men” (Num. 12: 3, 7) who first tasted the first death because of one sin (Num. 20:10, 11; Deut. 32: 48-52; 34: 1-50, but was resurrected, and Elijah, who was translated to heaven without tasting death. Both Enoch, the seventh patriarch from Adam and Elijah represent the 144,000–who will be formed when the last of all tests upon mankind will be given in the enforcement of the mark of the beast before probation closes,  and will be similarly translated.

The Two Witnesses of the Holy Scriptures

   In Revelation 11: 2-12 Jesus revealed to John at Patmos His “two witnesses”—the Old and the New Testaments which were also shown in vision to the prophet Zechariah as the two olive trees and the two candlesticks. The Old Testament, comprised of “the law and the prophets,” Jesus referred to as “the