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Dear Friends,
This Sabbath and New Moon we arrive at what is an important day in the calendar.
We should note that in 30 CE Christ was resurrected at the end of the Sabbath
day and he ascended into heaven at 9 AM on Sunday as the Wave Sheaf offering.
This was at the time of the Temple service for the Waving of the Sheaf, which
was the first fruits of the harvests of Israel.
This ascension on the Sunday began the Omer count to Pentecost. The period of the count was for fifty days, ending at the Sunday in Sivan or the Third Month. From the accounts in the Gospels and Acts, it is deduced that he spent forty days on earth after his return from the throne of God and of Grace, and after his acceptance as our sacrifice. Those forty days he spent in preparing the Church, of which he is head, for the receipt of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The forty days commenced from the evening of his return at the end of the first day of the week. In that year of 30 CE it was on 18 Abib. There were 11 days remaining in Abib and twenty-nine days in Iyar. This was forty days. Thus his ascension took place at the beginning of the New Moon of the Third month, which was Sivan in Judah or Ramadan in Ishmael. Thus the beginning of the New Moon of the Third Month marked the final ascension of Jesus Christ. This left the apostles to pray and fast for the period during the Third Month for the receipt of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, nine days later on Sunday.
This period is the basis of the celebration of the Church and forms at the end, the celebration of the giving of the Law at Pentecost. The fast of Moses was for forty days and forty nights and the end of the fast was with the return of Moses with the tablets of God. His fast began from the New Moon of Iyar or Zif or Sha’aban, the Second Month and proceeded to the day of Pentecost. This is the basis of the fast of Ramadhan in Islam. The fast derives its name from the fact of Moses’ fast and the emulation of the behaviour of Christ prior to his ascent. The period of prayer and dedication is over the Omer count from the feast of Unleavened Bread. It is numbered from the Wave Sheaf, but not begun until the period after 21 Abib or Nisan in Judah or Rajab in Ishmael. Moses began his fast from the first day of the Second Month. He was not on the Mountain of God. He had to take Israel and the mixed multitude, which was to extend under Christ to include the elect of the Gentiles, out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the Mountain of God. The nation in its order of march would have spread out for days. In the steps to Pentecost (see the paper Pentecost at Sinai (No. 115), the Advance Guard would have arrived at Sinai long before the Rear Guard, and even the Main Body, would have left the previous camp. Moses must have been in place in Sinai while the parties were moving and he must have been fasting long before that and even to the crossing of the Red Sea.
This whole exercise was to teach us about the sacrifice and dedication required to attain the Kingdom of God. The period of the Omer Count was observed in Israel. Jesus Christ and the Church also observed this period. Christ gave his own life that we might have eternal life in God. The Church prepared for and received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Now, it is a matter of fact, that in this day and age, in the weakened physical and spiritual condition we are in, we cannot fast for forty days and forty nights without food or water. Nor indeed could the vast majority of people do it at the time of Christ and later. That is why, during the fasts of the Omer Count, people never fasted for the period. It became a matter of each person’s spiritual dedication as to how long and how often they fasted. The practice also developed in Judah and in Ishmael, of fasting during the day and eating at night. This is the basis of the comment about fasting twice a week. This practice became widespread in the Church. The Omer Count of Pentecost and the fast of Moses, were counterfeited by the Pagans, becoming the Lenten fasts. These fasts, which were held a month earlier, were dedicated to other gods and culminated in the pagan Easter Festival (see the paper The Origins of Christmas and Easter (No. 235)).
People decided on what days they would fast and prepare for Pentecost, which was the harvest of the Church. This practice spread to Ishmael and the Church in Arabia. Thus, people could and did, decide what part of the forty-odd days they were in fast or devotions. The Koran says that what parts of your fast are not done, you must fulfil later.
Remember that the period of the Feast ended after the Omer Count, so no fasting was undertaken until 22 Abib (or 21 Rajab in Ishmael). The general view was to emulate Moses and proceed from the New Moon of Iyar and end at Pentecost, which was the Feast of Weeks in Israel, or Eid el Fitr in Ishmael. The fasts of The Seven Sabbaths of the Omer Count long preceded the Hejira of 622 CE. The Hejira is the flight of the party of the prophet from Mecca to Medina.
When the faith was under attack by both the Trinitarians, and the Jews in Arabia, the prophet “Muhammed” was raised up in Arabia from the Unitarian Christians there, to deal with the false doctrines attacking the Oneness of God and the false practices the Trinitarians introduced regarding infant baptism. He produced a doctrinal explanation of the Bible providing leadership to the desert tribes. The insistence on the fasting month was a reference to the process of the Omer count. Ramadhan does not begin the devotion; it ends the process in Pentecost called Eid el Fitr.
This understanding has been lost in Islam along with the Calendar. The true understanding of the faith in Islam is hidden like gems in a mine and has to be searched for with great care (see the paper Hebrew and Islamic Calendar Reconciled (No. 53)).
Even the names have meanings, which are now lost. For example, Muhammed is not the name of the prophet. The name of the individual behind the Islamic prophet figure might appear to be Ahmed, but that is also a problem, and meaning either “Advocate” or “Most Praised”, probably refers to the Holy Spirit of which Jesus was Herald. Muhammed refers to the Church and its leaders as “the enlightened one” or “Muhammed.” We will explain more about the name and the Church and its place in Islam in the preface to the Commentary on the Koran.
The calendar was tied to the faith until 638 CE under the Caliph Omar. The clerics were like all those who followed, without understanding. They decided (with the help of Satan or Iblis) that the reference to 12 months meant that the intercalation of the second twelfth month of “We Adar” or “and Adar” had to be abandoned. The term postponement, the dehiyyot, was not understood. Thus the Islamic calendar was cut adrift from the Bible and the Plan of God in 638 and afterwards. The Hadith claims that it was that early, but that is to be properly tested. What is certain is that the calendar was severed from the Bible and the Harvest system as laid down in the plan of God, so that never again was Islam able to keep any feast correctly, and what was kept was corrupted.
The Four Sacred Months of the Faith, which were Abib, Iyar and Sivan as the first three months and Tishri as the Seventh month according to the Bible, were restated in the Koran, but their names were not given, so the Hadith wrecked that nexus as well. The Hadith did to Islam what the Talmud did to Judaism. The Four Sacred Months in Islam are Rajab, Sha’aban, Ramadhan, and Muharram. They are the same four months as found in Judaism and in the Bible and Ancient Israel.
The second fast of Moses, which was the forty days of Moses after he returned at Pentecost, was undertaken from Sivan at Pentecost on into the Fourth Month of the year. Following the timetable of the year Christ was sacrificed, for example, the end of the second fast and the giving of the second tablets of the Law, would have occurred on the 19th day of the Fourth Month, called by the name of the god Tammuz or the Chaldean Dumuzi. This was on Friday 18 July 30 CE in the Gregorian calendar.
Thus, one cannot begin and end either or any of the fasts in Ramadhan. It is named for the end of the fasts at Pentecost and the giving of the revelations of God to the elect at Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks.
We are dealing with Arabs and Jews, both in and from Arabia and Africa. Thus it is of great interest to place the entire structure together and shed more light on what is true and what happened all those centuries ago, and what has to be done to restore the faith.
Without a dedication to the restoration of the truth that is not possible. The significance of the Hejira in 622 to the faith in Islam is important. This date does not start with any victories and any occupations. It starts at this point because it marks the flight of the prophet and the faithful from Mecca to Medina. It marks the decision to preserve the truth of the faith above all else, and in the face of overwhelming odds.
It is only through this dedication and commitment to faith and truth will the worship of the One True God be restored.
The Arabs at present are trying to destroy a valuable piece of history, in what is called the Wushan or Ruashan Qur’an or Koran. It is a very ancient Koran, which is different to the Koran from Arabia. Its publication will provide much revelation on the theology and processes of Islam. However, the Arabs are trying to destroy all copies of it. That is being done to preserve the myths introduced in the Hadithic interpretation of what we all understand as the Koran of Arabia.
The Church was instrumental in the establishment of Islam in the East, and theologically it has much to add to the development of the faith there. The problems introduced to Islam from Paganism and idolatry are much like the errors introduced into Judaism and Christianity. None of the three so-called Monotheist mainstream religions is true and none is free of idolatry.
We have a task to accomplish before the Witnesses get here and Christ follows them to take over the planet for the Millennium. We have to explain what went wrong and what has to be done to fix it. We don’t have to make people believe it. We simply have to tell them. What they do is their affair.
The Witnesses will deal with them and reinforce the law of God and its nexus. For three and one half years we will see the terrible fact of the world’s failure to repent. Islam will be restored to the truth and so will Christianity and Judaism. Repentance will be hard won. Many will not turn, but the ones who do will be saved. To properly worship God we have to know Who He Is and then we have to know when He wants to be worshipped. What is to Him the time we set aside? How do we establish a relationship with Him?
The time of the demons is coming to an end. Satan will be confined soon. He knows that and that his time is short. His aim is to prevent the repentance of humanity. To do that he is prepared to destroy them and the entire creation.
One thing that is happening around the world is that people are getting angry about religion. Many in Australia for example, are getting angry with anyone who is religious in a Christian or Islamic sense. You can believe almost anything except the truth and follow the truth. That is no accident. The desire for religion has to be destroyed in order to destroy the faith and repentance of the planet. We are heading to disaster and no one cares. When it happens someone else is blamed. When the servants of God take up their places in Jerusalem the entire world wants them dead.
Our job is to prepare the way of the Witnesses and the Coming of the Messiah. To do that we have to speak to all nations and to what is today called Islam.
Let us pray for the power and strength and resources to do that work. Show
all men that we love one another and thereby show them the love of God that
abides within us.
Wade Cox
Coordinator General
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