Sabbath 25/01/26/120
Well friends we are all now back from the Passover. I hope all are well and
spiritually refreshed. I had some questions posed to me regarding Scriptures
that point to the Sanctification process and the activities of Judah and Levi
in the Passover period at the time of Christ.
The first scripture below is dealing with the fact that Jews went up to Jerusalem at least 6 days before the Passover to purify themselves. Also, many were looking for the Messiah at least six days before the Passover. This is taken as seeming to indicate that they expected him to take part in this purifying.
John 11:55-57 55 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves. 56 They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?” 57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if any one knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.
Now Christ, like all Israel, was required to prepare himself for the Passover and to purify himself to take the Passover. This purification process, as we know, took place from 1 Abib (see the paper Sanctification of the Temple of God (No. 241)), and went to 7 Abib where the Sanctification of the Simple and Erroneous took place (see the paper Sanctification of the Simple and Erroneous (No. 291)). After 7 Abib the priesthood and Levites were able to purify the populace in this process. Thus 8 Abib was the start of the second phase of the process. The people were beginning to gather at Jerusalem from this time.
John 12:1 1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
In John 18:28 (below), it says that those who led Jesus (including the officers of the Jews) to the Hall of Judgment, or Praetorium, did not enter so that they would not be defiled. The problem was that contact with an unclean Gentile would result in uncleanness as also it was with a dead body. They would have been unclean until dark the next day on normal rules of the Bible text. It also would have interrupted the purification and sanctification process.
John 18:28 28 Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was early. They themselves did not enter the praetorium, so that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.
John 18:12 12 So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews seized Jesus and bound him. 13 First they led him to Annas; for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.
For those people who believe Jesus actually ate the Passover that he said he earnestly desired (Luke 22:15,16) but would not do so until he tasted it with them in the kingdom, this text (John 18:28) also clearly shows that he did not eat it. None of his disciples ate with him.
All of us eat the feast of the eight days of Passover and Unleavened Bread. We are required to be prepared and sanctified and to go to the place the Lord shall choose to place his hand. We have done this for two thousand years and for millennia before Christ, in anticipation of his coming.
If the unconverted of Judah were at pains to prepare for the Messiah, how much more so should we of the Church be active and prepare.
Having taken of the Passover we should not be in a rush to return to the leaven of malice and wickedness, but we should continue the leaven of the Holy Spirit, symbolised by the offering of the loaves of Pentecost.
I had mentioned to you all to observe quarantine rules and regulations whilst at the feast. Remember that when a quarantine order is issued then that means you stay put and no one pays you casual visits. Obedience in quarantine is essential.
As I warned you all over the last few months, the SARS virus was far more serious than they admitted and the authorities were trying to cover up the enormity of the problem. The mortality rate for SARS is now at an admitted 10% and rising. It is “doubling” every two weeks and is mutating and has now mutated to where it attacks the intestines as well as the lungs. The Chinese are now admitting that it is much deadlier than first anticipated. Special laws are being passed to enable quarantine breaches to be dealt with as imprisonment without trial.
Be advised that we will deal with deliberate infections at feast sites due to lax quarantine observance most severely. Do not infect your friends through negligence and self-interest or stupidity. This SARS epidemic will last now for three years and no cure is in sight. It will attack the young and the old and the infirm. People with low immune systems are most at risk. Many infected will die.
To give you some idea of the problem, we know that when the two patients were treated at Hanoi, 33 of the staff were infected and many died. In Beijing, at the Peoples Hospital at the university there, the entire hospital of 1040 beds and a staff of 2000 have been infected and quarantined. A sign on the gate says that no one, either patient or staff or any equipment is allowed outside of the gates. Drug treatment centres are being rehabilitated and fitted out as SARS quarantine compounds.
Masks act as a problem by trapping moisture vapour as droplets and then trap the infection in the mask having the reverse effect of actually not protecting the wearer.
This virus has the potential to kill between three and five hundred million people in Asia alone. Authorities in Africa may actually be encouraged to take no action and let it wipe out the HIV/AIDS populace there.
The problem is also in the structure of our cities. We were not meant to build house on house and field on field and we were not meant to raise and eat pork. The pig acts as a virus-processing agent and makes accessible diseases otherwise not available to humans. Air-conditioning systems pass the virus around more effectively. God did not mean humans to live like we are living and eat as we are eating. We are destroying the environment. Humans will destroy themselves unless they repent.
Let us hope that we are able to get our people to wake up and take action before it is too late. Our economies are very vulnerable and action is underway now to try to destabilise the current world balance to move power to Europe. This will not help anyone, not even the Europeans in the long run.
I will deal with these aspects over the next few months.
Remember to pray for one another. Love one another and sacrifice for one another.
Be prepared to lay down your life for your friends, as God and Christ love us.
Wade Cox
Coordinator General
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