1/11/25/120
This New Moon of the Eleventh Month I think it appropriate to look forward to the New Moon of Abib and deal with the instructions of the Lord regarding that month, and also the erroneous view that the New Moons are not mentioned in the Law regarding the Feast seasons because they are not mentioned in Leviticus 23.
The text in Deuteronomy 16 is acknowledged by Judaism as a repeat of the feast injunctions of Leviticus 23 (see the fn. to Soncino Commentary on Deuteronomy 16:1). The text is translated by Judaism and those following them as: "Observe the Month of Abib and keep the Passover unto the Lord thy God; for in the Month of Abib the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night." The LXX renders the text: "Observe the month of New Corn." The use of the word means both New Moon and Month. The New Thayers (p. 412) says of the term that: "it is the 'time of New Moon' and 'New Moon' following the Hebrew term" [Hodesh] "which denotes both a 'month' and a 'new moon' as in Numbers 28:11; 29:1; Gal. 4:10 [Bp. Lightft. Compares Isa. 66:23] (The first day of each month when the new moon appeared was a festival among the Hebrews; cf. Lev. 23:24; Num. 28:11; Ps. (80 (81) 4)." This New Moon was the conjunction, as we know from Philo, and was calculated in the astronomical schools.
There is no doubt whatsoever in the mind of any expert that the New Moons were a festival in ancient Israel and kept as a Sabbath with no trade and labour being performed. In the near future we will deal with the views of a Jewish writer on this subject who states that the text in Deut 16:1 refers to the New Moon of Abib. The text in Psalm 81:3 refers to the New Moon as a solemn feast day and the text in English in the Oxford Annotated RSV has been rendered New Moon and Full moon to make sense of the text within current Jewish practice. The fact of the matter is that the terms rendered "moon" and "new moon" are synonymous, being derived from Hodesh and they refer to the New Moon. It is understood in Hebrew that the New Moon is a festival. Judaism tries to make Psalm 81 refer to the Month of Tishri. Now this is completely absurd as anyone who has read the Bible, even in a cursory manner, knows that Israel came out of Egypt in the month of Abib which is the first month and not the seventh as they now try to explain.
I am often fascinated by the fact that Judah will go to any lengths to pervert the understanding of Scripture often through the Talmud and then clutch themselves in anguish saying "see how difficult God has made it for us." Like the comment from Fiddler on the Roof where the persecuted hero says to God: "I know we are the chosen people but couldn't you choose somebody else once in a while?" We have "bad news for these modern men." They are not the chosen of God now in the same way. The Church is the chosen and, in the not too distant future, Judah will be called to the faith and those who disobey and reject the call will be removed. The Sons of Gomer will pledge themselves to the beast system but that will not save them when God deals with Judah and those tribes attached to it.
I also wish to deal with the texts here later as they are referred to in the Koran. Islam too has made nonsense of these texts. It is a fundamental problem. Like Trinitarian Christianity, Judaism and Islam are similar perverted systems both vying with each other, each to avoid actually doing what God says.
There will be no restoration in the last days without the New Moons being restored
and kept and if we wish to be part of that restoration we had better get it
through our thick skulls that God requires obedience more than sacrifice. The
whole of the nation of Israel, and that includes Ephraim and Manasseh, will
be keeping the Sabbaths, New Moons and Festivals of God when the Witnesses start
their mission and when Christ arrives or they will die. They will die of starvation,
and disease, and haemorrhoids, and all the plagues of Egypt as God has said
will happen (Zech. 14:16-21). Isaiah 66:23 says that all flesh will come to
worship the Lord of Hosts on the Sabbaths and the New Moons (Hodesh). The prophet
Zechariah says that there will not be a trader in the house of the Lord of Hosts
on that day. These days of the Lord will be kept and anyone who trades on that
day will not be a part of the House of God in those days. Do you get the message?
Who or what is the "House of the Lord of Hosts"? We are that Temple
as you all should well know. If you are a trader on those days sacred to the
Lord you will not be part of that house. The obedient, of all flesh, who come
from New Moon to New Moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath to worship before the
Lord of Hosts will look on the dead bodies of those who do not worship on New
Moons and on Sabbaths (Isa. 66:23). How much plainer does it have to be?
How much more do we have to beg those of little faith to worship God and be
obedient to His wishes concerning these last days? Why is it that many of the
churches of God will follow anyone who tells them not to follow the clear words
of Scripture and think that absolves them. Do you seriously think, that because
someone in the Churches of God writes a paper saying that the New Moons will
be kept in the Millennium but they don't have to be kept now because they do
not appear in Leviticus 23, and they ignore and disguise with the Jews the intent
of Deuteronomy 16, that the person who listens to them will be absolved when
they are put to death for disobedience. Have you not read what God says about
these ministers who trivialise His Law and Testimony? You are judged on what
you know and how you handle that knowledge.
The cult mentality was instilled in the churches of God in the twentieth century that fatally wounded many of the elect. The system God established as Holy is now so far away from the world system through its own disobedience that they are entirely incompatible. Nothing of this system will go into the millennium. The millennium will not be the USA, UK or Australian systems without the bad or crime. We have a responsibility to obey God with all our might. How long will we be of two minds: If Yahovah is God then worship him but if Baal, he is God then worship him. Worship is obedience. God has given us a very clear calendar to understand and instructions on Who He Is and the means of Salvation that He established through Jesus Christ whom He sent. Understanding and knowing the One True God and Jesus Christ whom He sent is eternal life (Jn. 17:3).
It is not our responsibility to convince you. That is your problem. The ministry of the Church can only do so much to get you to the millennial system. We can explain what is required. The rest is up to you. James will have more to say about this for Sabbath. It is by your obedience and your prayer and fasting that you are saved and not ours. If we tell you something that is not in Scripture you had better be very sure that it is not in Scripture and you are not being duped by some weasel-wording rabbi (or Imam) distorting Scripture or some money-grubbing minister of the church saying it is OK not to do X because it might interfere with their tithe income. Keeping the New Moons is the hardest thing to be done in the last days because the world is not geared to obeying God; rather the reverse. It is structured to disobey God and reward disobedience and those who obey the word of God make themselves a prey through their obedience. So what? Does that absolve you from obedience? Do you not understand that God will feed us with ravens if necessary? God will use us to establish the system in the last days and to stand as a witness to the world. When we are finally restored, the worlds systems will send us back in chariots and in litters and on horseback and mules and carts and all manner of vehicles. They will be very diligent and careful to send those of us who are alive as humans back to serves as priests and Levites of the Living God in Jerusalem. The more fortunate of us will be spirit beings but there will be those of the elect lineages who are not in the first resurrection. These will form the nucleus of the human system in the Millennium. The world will deal with them with great care and in fear and trembling. Like Moses who did not enter the Promised Land there will be those needed in the millennium also.
We all have the choice as to obey or disobey. If you love God then follow him in obedience. If you love Christ then keep his commandments. These are those that he gave to Moses at Sinai from the One True God.
Wade Cox
Coordinator General
© Copyright 2003 Christian Churches of God, All Rights Reserved
