9/11/25/120
Dear Friends,
This Sabbath I would like to discuss the question of the Sanctification and its relationship to the Faith. I am often puzzled by the failure of some people to see the importance of the Sanctification of the Temple on the First Day of Abib and the Sanctification of the Simple and the Erroneous on 7 Abib. These subjects are examined in the papers Sanctification of the Temple of God (No. 241) at www.ccg.org/english/s/p241.html and Sanctification of the Simple and the Erroneous (No. 291) at www.ccg.org/english/s/p291.html.
It has become obvious that the failure in comprehension comes from the failure of the Churches of God in the past to understand the progressive and comprehensive calling of the world's populace and their Atonement. It comes down to a failure to understand the nature of Atonement and the Plan of Salvation within the Plan of God and the sequence as it commences with the Sanctification of the Temple, which Temple we are.
The answer lies in this problem. How did God choose to reveal Himself and His desires to mankind, and how is He calling them to salvation?
The solution to the problem should illustrate to us the method of the building of the Temple and our place in that Temple and its construction, which Temple we are. In other words, we play a part in our own selection, preparation, and construction as the Temple of God.
The sequence of the Holy Days outlines the plan and our part in the plan.
Firstly, the physical Temple, as it was, had to be sanctified by Christ on 1 Abib and then the Sanctification of 7 Abib had to be kept by Christ, as he was first of the First fruits. We know he did this because the Bible tells us that he took a whip and purged the Temple at Jerusalem and reinspected the Temple to ensure it was clean. He fulfilled the sequence of the Feast of the Passover in the setting aside of the Lamb on the Tenth Day, and then the preparation day meal which became the Lord's Supper on 14 Abib, and the death of the Lamb from the ninth hour on the afternoon of 14 Abib. He was placed in the Tomb at the end of the 14th day. He was in the tomb from beginning 15th Abib over the 16th and 17th Abib being raised from the dead at the end of 17 Abib. He was thus three days and three nights in the belly of the earth fulfilling the Sign of Jonah in this aspect (See the paper The Sign of Jonah and the History of the Reconstruction of the Temple (No. 13) at www.ccg.org/english/s/p013.html). He ascended as the Wave Sheaf offering before God on the morning of the Sunday 18 Abib 30 CE to become our High Priest and to make the Holy Spirit available to mankind through the Church. This receiving of the Holy Spirit occurred at 9 AM on Pentecost 30 CE. This then conferred on the Church a sequence of events that made it necessary for the Church to fulfil in order to complete the calling of the planet to the faith. The First fruits was at Passover with Christ as the Wave-Sheaf of the Barley Harvest. The next phase of the harvest was with the Church as the Wheat harvest.
It is in this phase that people do not wish to comply or have trouble in understanding their calling. As the Body of Christ we now have the responsibility of making the calling available to each of our brethren. God has decided to act through humans to execute the Plan of Salvation. That is why we are called the Body of Christ. That is why he is the head and we are the members. God determines the elect and predestines them to be called. He does this through His omniscience or foreknowledge. He gives each one of us to Christ. However, it is through the body that the elect are given the opportunity to understand the calling. God does not publish the faith. We do that under Christ.
We progressively, as we are able, make the faith understood. The Holy Spirit then acts with those predetermined to be called. God has chosen to place the planet under Christ and the Church to prepare the planet and atone for sin and remove it from the planet over the next 1100 years, and whatever time we have left of this age.
That is the function of Atonement. That is why Satan or Azazel is placed in
the wilderness of the bottomless pit so that Christ, having been sacrificed
in obedience through his blood, can bring all mankind to redemption. He does
this though the elect, who are the Temple of God and the Body of Christ. After
he has placed all things in subjection with the Church at the end of the process
and removed sin from the world, God is able to come to this planet, and Christ,
who was placed in command of this process, will place all things under God,
himself included.
Each year we are to commence the process anew. We commence as Christ did on the First day of Abib with the Sanctification of the Temple, which is ourselves. Having got ourselves ready by 7 Abib we then fast for the Simple and the Erroneous as required by the Bible. These are they of the world who do not understand the plan and are not yet called. This is exactly what Christ did for us, and what we are expected to do for others.
The diligence with which we perform the Sanctification process and prepare
ourselves for the rebaptism of the Footwashing, which cleanses us annually,
makes us available as the renewed Body of Christ to undertake the calling process
again for the next year. That is why we must take the Passover annually or we
are removed from the elect. The same thing happens with Atonement as it also
refers to this process of reconciling the planet and our people to God. Atonement
is the end reconciliation, on the Tenth of the Seventh Month, of the process
which begins on the First and Seventh of the First Month as that sequence depicts
the plan of God over the age.
The failure of the Churches of God to undertake these tasks properly over recent
decades has made it necessary to reorganise the Churches of God and get the
work on an operational footing to prepare for the Witnesses and then the arrival
of Christ.
The Sanctification process is critical to the function and ability of the Church
as the Body of Christ to be able to be used, and to raise and train more of
the elect as determined by God and given to Jesus Christ. If you are not cleansed
and made into new wineskins each year, nothing further can be done with you.
You cannot ferment new wine in old skins. In other words, if we do not prepare
the Church we cannot be used to raise and train new members as determined by
God.
The work was not just done simply by Christ, and we are allowed to sit back
and be idle. God set up a system that made it necessary for us to be constantly
perfecting ourselves and preparing for the progressive harvest of the elect.
It was said to me recently in a conversation, that the person speaking with
me did not really understand fully the Atonement process until he began studying
the Sanctification of the Temple and the Sanctification of the Simple and the
Erroneous. Once he realised that the Atonement process and the Sanctification
process were universal in their ultimate scope, and that God was dealing with
all mankind, and He was doing it through us, then it all made sense. This also
is the process of: do it in obedience and God will give you the understanding.
Give your ways to the Lord and He will establish your thoughts (Prov. 16:3).
You must learn to sacrifice for one another and to love one another or you
will not serve each other in diligence. Remember it was your predecessors who
made it possible for you to be called by their hard work and sacrifice and many
paid with their lives for the result.
Start work now for the Passover this year. Prepare for the "Fasting"
month of Sanctification and the Passover and Unleavened Bread. For by your sacrifices
are all men called in accordance with the Plan of God. In everything God works
for the good, for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose
(Rom. 8:28 RSV).
Wade Cox
Coordinator General
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