Christian Churches of God

Sabbath Message by Wade Cox

Friends,

I have to ask for your prayers as I was not well this week and had to have a check up. I have a virus-induced vertigo that is affecting my health.

I was asked today about the Mysteries of God and what I meant when I said that there were things that were able to be said and things that were not appropriate to be said to different people not of the church.

Friends, we are stewards of the Mysteries of God. I explained that the Holy Spirit makes us stewards and limits what we are able to say in some circles.

There are many things that we are given to know, but we are not always allowed to speak them publicly until the time is right to say those things.

The Holy Spirit gave me understanding of a great many things but would not allow me to convey that understanding to others even within the church for sometimes many years. For example, I was given understanding of the Sign of Jonah and its function in prophecy until the times of the end decades ago. However, I was not allowed to tell people about it for many years. I was able to convey the understanding to some elders but never to the elect as a whole for some seven odd years.

My wife listened to me commence to tell some people and be diverted and never actually tell them. This happened several times. Finally I was allowed to tell people and then the paper was written. When eventually I was allowed to complete the explanation she said to me that I had finally told people about it. I realised what had happened and then that I was able to release the information generally.

Many things that have to be said have been released in an ordered way, and the direction and work of the last days is ordered and carried out in progression as released by God through the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes we get people who come to us professing to be prophets or speaking through the direction of God. The test is always the Law and the Testimony. If they speak not according to the Law and the Testimony, there is no light in them (Isa. 8:20). No person purporting to be a prophet of God can speak except as the Testimony of the Torah and the Gospel dictate.

This goes to another matter at the heart of the Law, and that is circumcision. The prophets have said that we are to circumcise our minds or hearts and not our foreskins. That is the real heart of the law. There appears to be a problem in some circles that asks for the circumcision of males in the church and for prophecy. I was asked if I was circumcised and if my sons were circumcised as though that was to count for some aspect or credential in doing the work of God. It does not do any such thing in my view. I refused to answer them because they had a problem and they would have applied my answer to each of the ministry in turn and overturned the decision of the Acts conference. It was decided years ago to admit Gentiles into the Church as the nation of Israel and thus salvation was extended to the Gentiles. To that end, Christ came and died. Thus, the requirement to be Israelite and of the circumcision was overturned by the body of the Church under direction of the Holy Spirit. Thus, males who entered the Church of the nations are not required to be circumcised, but children born into the Church as the body of Israel are to be so circumcised. This aspect is covered in the paper Purification and Circumcision (No. 251) at www.ccg.org/english/s/p251.html

I was given this understanding in reflecting on an incident from my childhood and in studying the history of the Church. I was circumcised as a child on the eighth day as required by law and so, from my understanding of the requirements of the faith, on the birth of my sons I had my sons circumcised also on the eighth day according to law and they were brought up in the understanding of the law. What I did not know was that my father, who had not been circumcised, did not require it and that there had been no intention that I be so circumcised. God, however, made it impossible not to circumcise me. Just prior to the eighth day, a blemish appeared on my foreskin and the nurses, on changing me, drew it to the attention of my mother and the doctors who took the decision to circumcise me. The eighth day is the correct day for the child's blood to allow clotting agents to form thus allowing circumcision. My mother told me this many years later and long after the birth of my sons. This event was a direction that had set me apart and thus influenced me in my views as to this matter. Later, on reflection of the incident, I could see what God had done to show me how the doctrine was implemented from the Acts conference, and how it was necessary to be done also historically, as the Church had done for centuries, with the babies born in the Church but not requiring circumcision of the converted adult males of the nations coming into the Church.

We now know that it is necessary for the control and prevention of disease and that it is a major factor in the survival of women and children borne into nations practicing it. It has been seen to be a limiting factor in the spread of disease in African tribes and limits the transmission of infection. These details have been placed on the web for the information of all, now that there is an anti-circumcision lobby trying to suppress the medical information about circumcision and the practice of it in our people.

God sets us apart before we are formed in the womb and ordains our works. He did this with the prophet Jeremiah and sanctified him in the womb and ordained him a prophet (Jer. 1:5). Each of us have been set apart from the foundation of the world, and God has predestined us to be called into the elect and to be part of the body of Christ (Rom. 8:28-30), and later a steward of the mysteries of God.

In our walk with God we are given gradual understanding usually revealed through the elders and apostles and prophets of the Church, but not always when they are apostate. In these last days, God is allowing the full release of the mysteries of God and the final story of how He will deal with a rebellious and Satan-defiled mankind. Gradually there will be a massive relocation and adjustment of people as they all come to grips with the full power of God and the transmission of rulership of this planet from Satan to Christ. In the millennial system, there will be no nation left alive that does not worship God and keep His Sabbaths, New Moons and Holy Days. Each nation will send their representatives to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, or they will receive no rain in due season and they will suffer the plagues of Egypt and will literally obey or die. I once said this at a conference and a Sabbath-keeping minister began to revile me as a Hitler who wanted people to die. I said to Him that I did not write the Bible. God spoke it through the mouths of His prophets. He reviled me denying that fact of the prophecy. I rebuked him for it and he was struck down by a stroke. To my knowledge, he has not given another sermon. Scripture cannot be broken. The words of these texts will come to pass.

Once, years ago, I was told by a minister's wife that she wanted another baby and if I kept saying these things she would not be able to have another baby, as though there was some nexus between my uttering the words and their eventuality. Since then, we have gone on having children and I have been presented with four grandchildren since she uttered the words. If I do not speak as directed, the stones will cry out. If we do not do as we are told, the stones will cry out in our place. The penalty is that we will not be in the first resurrection and whoever does the tasks and overcomes will be there. The "shoot the messenger" mentality exists in the entire world. The ignorant think because we say it, we cause it, and if they kill us it will not happen and come true. That attitude has caused the death of many of us, but it will not stop us from speaking or the plan of God from happening. God is bringing into His system many nations into one nation under Jesus Christ, as King of Kings and over David of Israel. It is our destiny to become elohim with the angel of Yahovah at our head (Zech. 12:8).

We have a task to do and we have a responsibility to speak the words of the Testaments. We have to witness to Islam, and Judaism, and Christianity showing the falsehood in each system, and how the words of the Bible and Koran have been misrepresented by Talmudic Judaism, Hadithic Islam, and Trinitarian Christianity. Each is a function of Satan and the means of destroying the planet through ignorance and hostility.

Much has been said since the Sign of Jonah was released and much more has yet to be said, but the plan is there and anyone with the wit to see it now realises the time frame of the activities and Plan of God.

Study and prepare for the coming of the Messiah. Never lose sight of the love of God and love one another. He will never leave us or forsake us.


Wade Cox

Coordinator General

 

© Copyright 2002 Christian Churches of God, All Rights Reserved