Dear Friends,
It is Sabbath once again and we are all very glad to have the time again to
contemplate our relationship with our Father who is God and Lord of all and
our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ whom God sent that we might have
eternal life.
It is only two weeks now to the New Moon and the New Year. We then begin the
process of the Sanctification of the Temple which Temple we are. So whilst the
church through Jesus Christ is Sanctified, we as a church extend that process
through Christ in the Holy Spirit to all mankind. To do that we have to get
ourselves in order and correct our own sins and faults and prepare to take the
Passover in all submission and humility.
I am often struck by the faulty reasoning of the Churches of God in the twentieth
century due to the brainwashing that occurred in the churches under the Armstrong
administration and the other Churches of God that had been penetrated by the
Trinitarian apologists. Since the early seventies a strange and absurd doctrine
has entered the churches which declares that God and Christ were two co-eternal
Gods that existed forever and that one decided to become the son of the other.
Now this blasphemous nonsense is sprouted by the Armstrongite ministry and they
seem to be unaware that they have been punished for this idolatrous polytheism
and scattered as a church for that reason being first among many.
Paul tells us of the view of the faith that makes such ditheism absurd when
he says:
"I beg you, then, I who am a prisoner for the Lord's sake, to live lives
worthy of the call which you have received. Always be humble, gentle and patient.
Show your love by being tolerant with one another. The Spirit has made you one.
Try your best to preserve that unity by living peacefully together with one
another. There is only one body and one Spirit, just as when God called you
it was to share one common hope; there is only one lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, who is over all, works through all, and is present
in all (Eph. 4:1-6)" (Translators New Testament)
Now a child would recognise that the one God who is Father of all cannot be
that which was the son. Christ recognises Him as his God and Father (Jn. 20:17).
The Spirit is the glue that makes us all one; both Christ and His church and
also the Sons of God among the host. Christ is one with God because God gave
Him His holy Spirit so that he may be one and so also he gave the Spirit to
us that we also may be one as Christ and He are one.
The mentality that wants two co-eternal Gods is the same mentality that wants
to grasp equality with God and is that which lives in the sons of disobedience.
Christ did not seek to grasp equality with God but being in the form of God
made himself of no account and humbled himself and assumed the form of a man.
He became obedient unto death even death on the stake (cf Phil. 2:5-8).
The logic of these statements is very clear. There is one True God and Jesus
Christ whom He sent (Jn 17:3).
There are not two Gods from eternity. There is only one True God. Jesus Christ
was in His form but he was not the one true God. He gave up that form and assumed
the form of a man and died on the stake being crucified for our sins that we
might also have the relationship with God through being given the Holy Spirit.
It is for that reason that we also give of ourselves in this period of the Sanctification
so that we might pray and fast for our brethren and our people so that they
might also be given the opportunity to come before God through His son Jesus
Christ. The prayers of a righteous man avails much we are told. It is through
these prayers that God hears us and turns many to righteousness and intervenes
in the affairs of men.
When we take the Passover we are prepared and worthy having sanctified ourselves
as the Temple of God and we are washed from the sins of the world gathered in
the previous year. From this act of footwashing we then take of the body and
blood of Christ as the church and go on to extend our positions to the families
of Israel in the Night of the Passover when our children are with us and ask
the question as to why we keep that evening. The previous evening at the Lord's
Supper there are no children and no unbaptised there.
The failure of the Armstrong system to correctly understand the time and sequence
of the Passover led them to misunderstand the activities of the Night of Observation
and turned it into a party called the Night To Be Much Observed in which no
Bible discussion took place contrary to the express direction of the Law of
God.
We are all called to the glory of God's Light and the power of His Holy Spirit.
From his obedience and faith in God, Christ was able to give to us a due portion,
a special gift. That is why Scripture says:
When he ascended to the heights taking a host of captives with him, he gave
gifts to men (Ps. 68:18; Eph. 4:8).
There are those that would make Christ the second of two true Gods contrary
to Scripture and there are also those that seek to do away with the Law Christ
gave to us through Moses at Sinai when he appeared to Moses as messenger for
the One True God whom no man has seen or ever can see (Jn. 1:18; 1 Thes. 6:16).
They declare he did not exist except as an idea in the mind of God before Mariam's
womb. This latter view is a radical form of Unitarianism which is contrary to
the Bible in gross error.
For as the Father is the source of Life so he has granted the son to be the
source of life. Moreover He has given him authority to carry out the process
of Judgment , because he is the Son of Man (Jn. 5:26-27).
It is this process of judgment that the one True God extended to Christ when
he extended to him the power to become the source of life due to his obedience
that we seek to appease by appealing to Christ as judge and intercessor on behalf
of all of our people. The argument is not that we seek to do Christ's job but
rather we seek to appeal to God through Christ as head of the Church that our
brothers not yet called are not destroyed through ignorance and a lack of knowledge.
We seek to expunge the error from among our people and from among the elect.
What does Sanctification mean? Sanctify according to the Oxford Universal Dictionary
means to: Set apart religiously for an office or function; to consecrate [a
king], 2. to honour as holy, to ascribe holiness to, b. to manifest as holy
3. to consecrate (a thing), to set apart as holy or sacred. 4. To make (a person)
holy; to cause to undergo sanctification. 6. To impart real or apparent sacredness
to; to give a colour of morality or innocence to; to justify or sanction, now
rare or obs. 1606. 7. To make productive of or conducive to holiness or spiritual
blessing.
So has the meaning always been in the English language. To suggest otherwise
runs contrary to the plain meaning of language and the understanding of our
people.
So we prepare for the Cleansing of the Temple and the Sanctification of the
Simple and the Erroneous. There are two Sabbaths left before we commence the
procedures of the New Year and the Passover. Be grateful that we have been given
the understanding to restore this ancient practice that has fallen into disuse
among the church in the latter days. Because we have given our ways to God He
has established our thoughts. Follow that which is law and understanding will
follow together with the Holy Spirit in power.
Remember that Jesus Christ ascended as a son of God in power through his resurrection
from the dead (Rom. 1:4). He died in obedience and so might we lay down our
own lives in obedience to God.
Keep the faith and Love one another
Wade Cox
Coordinator General
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