False Trinity and Sabbath

This morning I read a devotional about the story of Jesus dealing with the Pharisees over the Sabbath issue. This was not an infrequent encounter but was always very instructive. Actually, now that I think of it, the very fact that Jesus spent so much time trying to realign our thinking as to how to keep the Sabbath properly and get us to realize the true purpose of the Sabbath is strong evidence that He never intended for the Sabbath to be ignored after His resurrection but was preparing His believers to be empowered by it throughout future times.

I heard someone very recently point out something I had not noticed before about the Sabbath. There were times when Jesus healed people that He insisted that they keep quiet about their healing. Often it was to no avail and they couldn't seem to help themselves from running their mouth about what He had done for them. Sometimes this caused so much tension for Him in that area that He consequently had to leave and go elsewhere to minister for awhile.

But it was pointed out the whenever Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath – and He almost always seemed to do so very intentionally – he never told them to keep quiet about it but told them to broadcast it very publicly. It was almost as if He wanted to stir up trouble with the authorities, and that is certainly the affect that it had. The story used in today's reading was just one of those stories.

But as I went to my Bible to look at the story for myself I noticed something very interesting about this particular passage. It very clearly included all three of the false foundations that have been set up in what we call civilization and that we often take for granted as being part of God's government as well. Sometimes I have referred to them as the false trinity. I was alerted to them by a very insightful professor, Jean Sheldon who has helped me see some important aspects of the bigger picture of what is really going on in reality and has also helped dramatically improve my perceptions about God. I have written extensively on these issues in the past but I find it interesting that Jesus included them and even confronted them in this encounter with the Pharisees.

The three false foundations that were incorporated very early in the development of civilization were: Economics, Kingship (or what I sometimes prefer to call hierarchy) and Law. This comes as a surprise and even a shock to many people and at first it did to me as well. But the more I have considered this and pondered the enormous amount of evidence I am convinced of the truth that these are indeed counterfeits. God's government and ways of dealing with His creation is far superior and more loving than this counterfeit system ever allows. Take a look at these verses and see how Jesus addressed these issues.

But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath." (Matthew 12:2)

"But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. "But if you had known what this means, 'I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,' you would not have condemned the innocent. "For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." (Matthew 12:6-8)

And He said to them, "What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? "How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." (Matthew 12:11-12)

For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; (Romans 13:3)

This last verse is one that I have been looking at for some time now in my study of Romans. As I pointed out some time ago in my meditations on this verse, Jesus' relationship with the authorities in His day reveal a great deal of truth that can easily be obscured if we only use this passage in isolation. In fact this chapter has often been abusively used to try to force people to comply with evil agendas on the part of authorities. Christians are pressured to conform with popular movements through supposed obedience to Scripture. Many have felt the pressure of others to make them feel guilty for not obeying the “plain Word of God” to cooperate with “God-appointed authorities” when their conscience was directing them to do something different.

This has been a point of tension for thousands of years and continues to be. In fact, it will become a weapon against any who refuse to engage or cooperate with the manipulative system that rises out of the “false trinity”, the legal maneuverings of those in these last days who want control over others and use God's name to further their own objectives. This is very clearly spiritual abuse but it goes on all the time. It is not even restricted to Christians but is also easy to see in the practice of Islam which uses very similar tactics to control and intimidate millions of people.

The Pharisees were engaged in the same type of operation against Jesus. They were used to controlling the people under their influence with guilt, shame and fear to keep themselves in power. They had perverted the instructions and laws of the Old Testament to their advantage and had poisoned people's perceptions of God so terribly that the truth about God had almost been completely lost in the hearts of most people. That is the reason that Jesus came to this earth – to undo and reverse the tragic effects of the lies about God that have become all-pervasive.

The way that Jesus related to authorities is extremely enlightening for me as I struggle to absorb the real meaning and purpose of Romans 13. In this story I see that Jesus had zero tolerance for the abusive lies and manipulations of the leaders of His day and yet He still did not engage in improper resistance that is warned against in Romans 13. This is an amazing and sometimes confusing concept to me that I still have a great deal to learn about, especially at the heart level. I know that I have to have the Spirit of God within me or this will never be my own experience.

But I am now seeing that part of the confusion is the deep integration of the false assumptions inherent in these arguments presented by authorities for obedience to their multitude of rules and regulations. I see the very same logic used today to elicit compliance and conformity which is often billed as creating unity. But true unity is something that happens at the heart level and can never be accomplished by external regulation or the use of force. Fear and force are never the tools of God's governance but they are the central focus of Satan's

God's ways are centered around relationships and heart-bonding with genuine love flowing through each life connected to the heart of their Creator. Romans 12 describes the family-style relationship that is so close that it is described as something like a physical body it is so interdependent. The end of chapter 13 returns to this theme as it emphasizes that only with true, selfless love can this ever be accomplished in our lives. It is not something that can be imposed on us from the outside through the use of hierarchy and the power of force which is the basis of most earthly-type authorities. True authority is based on a relationship of the heart, not threats and intimidation and violence.

Jesus also addressed the issue of economics in this story and the baleful influence that it also has on our thinking and relationships. Economics has warped our thinking so badly that it is seen that we value things and objects of monetary worth more than we do our relationships with others. He put His finger directly on that sensitive fault when He exposed the Pharisee's preference for saving a sheep – a monetary object in that day – over blessing a person whom they viewed as not worthy of their attention.

Worst of all, these counterfeits were being promoted by people who claimed to be representing God to the world. In putting artificial values above relationships, legal codes and regulations above internal character qualities, and contrived positions of power and authority above integrity and maturity, they had successfully obscured the truth about God in the minds and hearts of nearly everyone on planet earth. And nothing has changed a great deal even today.

The more I have become aware of the pervasive presence of these counterfeits the more I see what the freedom of the gospel really offers. While God has been forced to relate to mankind for centuries within the context of these counterfeits, He does not intend to incorporate them into His own kingdom. God's ways are not man's ways and the counterfeit will someday have to give way to the real. The true purpose of the Sabbath was to protect and promote the intimacy that God desires to have with all of His children. That has never changed and never will. The Sabbath is the very heart of the 10 Words of God given on Mount Sinai which were simply a description of His own character.

The Sabbath is not an arbitrary command given by God to see if people are willing to be obedient by doing something that makes no sense as I have sometimes heard taught and preached. The Sabbath is the heart of the true gospel which is the restoration of the closeness and beautiful unity that God designed for us to live in with Him and with all of His children.

I want to understand and experience the reality and original purpose of the Sabbath much more. I know that doing so will enable me to draw much closer to the heart of God that is bursting with enormous passion to draw me into intimacy with Him. It will also connect me much closer to others who likewise are seeking to draw close to God, but it will also put me at odds more and more with those who choose to live in preference to external religion.

God, teach me much more about what You designed for me in the Sabbath. Teach and help me to let go of all resistance so that I can come much closer to you without discomfort. You have provided the Sabbath as the primary opportunity through which our relationship and intimacy can deepen and our hearts can be intertwined with love and permanent bonds of affection. All other options are counterfeits and I ask You to keep me from being deceived by them. Make me a channel of blessing and life today for Your name's sake.

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