Sabbath 22/3/26/120
Dear Friends,
This Sabbath we are into the period of the forty days and nights that Moses spent on the mountain of God at Sinai. The elders of Israel had gone up with him to eat and drink with the elohim that was the Angel of Yahovah and who was called Yahovah of Israel who spoke for Yahovah of Hosts, who was the One True God. The fire and smoke was on the mountain for six days from 20 Sivan to 26 Sivan. On the seventh day on 27 Sivan Moses entered the cloud and was with the Lord for the remainder of the period, being forty days and forty nights on the mountain without food and water. The forty days and forty nights took him over the period to the end of the month, and over the next month to the end of the Fourth Month, called Tammuz by the Hebrews.
Now this name is the name of a pagan god, Tammuz or Dumuzi, among the Chaldeans. His month was commemorated in Israel not because he was a god, but because this deity had caused Israel to sin over the Fourth Month and the Golden Calf was made as a part of the worship of the Babylonian system, which was also extant in Egypt. Look at the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222) to see the symbolism of this period and activity.
While Moses was away on the mountain with Joshua, Aaron and the priesthood allowed Israel to sin. Aaron himself made the calf. His excuse was that he just put the gold in the fire and out came this calf. Fancy that. What a miracle! The fact was that this activity had been allowed to clean the earrings of the pagan system out of Israel. In the museum on Crete one can see to this day the golden earrings of the Golden Calf system. They are uniformly, a bull’s head with the horns curved upwards in the shape of a crescent and almost meeting at the point where they would be fixed in the ear. They were found at the palace at Knossos and show that the system was universal in the Middle East and Mediterranean. Despite what the attendants at the Museum will tell you, they and the system represent an Aryan priesthood from the Babylonian system, placed over the cities of the ancient sea kings.
So God does sometimes allow sin among the priesthood to bring lessons to the fore. In this, case it was to purge Israel of idols.
Moses came down from the mountain at the end of the month Tammuz. On the evening of the New Moon of Ab the Fifth Month, he and Joshua saw Israel in great sin. Remember that Yahovah sent them down telling them of the sin. Moses broke the tablets of the Law given to him on the mountain. He had already been given the Ten Commandments verbally for Pentecost. After Israel had been told the basis of the Law of God, and after the Elders had seen the Angel of Yahovah and eaten with him, Moses went back to discuss the entire structure of the Law with him, and to be given the tablets as a symbol of the extended structure. He came down to find Israel in sin under their leaders. On this day, 3000 of the host of Israel were slain for their idolatry. This was the reverse and similar concept of 3000 being added to the host on the expansion of the Church in 30 CE. The key players in the matter were removed due to idolatry, and by grace and faith 3000 were added to the body of Christ.
At the end of the New Moon of the Fifth Month, Moses returned to God. He ascended twice and remained for another forty days and nights and received another set of tablets of the Law. The sequence of the ascents shows that he was on the mountain and returned after further discussions regarding the establishment of the system of Law and Government to Israel, in order that they could receive the law in detail for the Seventh Month, called Tishri in Israel and Muharram in Ishmael. This time the tablets remained with Israel.
How do we fare in this sequence? What do we say is required of us in the process of departure? We did not have the privilege of seeing the Image of the Glory of God and eating with the Angel of the Presence who became Jesus Christ. Yet much the same is required of us. We are to remain faithful in the face of idolatry and the worship of foreign gods. We have seen the Church of God lapse into dreadful sin. We have seen the triune god intrude into the body of Christ and break it apart. We have also seen the body declare itself to be of Paul and Appollos, and of other lesser and more sinful men less worthy of mention over the years. This last few decades, the worship of men has been encouraged in the house of God and the results have been the same. It is in the month of Ab that God has traditionally punished the idolaters and the sinful of the House of God. The Temple fell in the first half of Ab before the full moon and so it is consistently with the House of God. From the New Moon to the Full Moon of Ab we see reorganisation. In the Fourth Month of Tammuz we see idolatry and sin. Remember that the Temple was destroyed so that the land may have its Sabbaths. Judah, like Israel before it, was not keeping the Land Sabbaths. The Temple was placed in Elephantine in Egypt so that the sacrifice was continual before God all the time that the Temple lay in ruins. In the same way the Temple in Heliopolis in Egypt was built by Onias IV the High Priest, ca. 160 BCE, in accordance with the word of God to Isaiah (Isaiah 19:19), so that a Temple would be fully operational all the time the Temple in Jerusalem lay polluted under Antiochus Epiphanes and Greek gods and gold bars corrupted the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem.
Onias did not wait around in Jerusalem waiting for God to strike the idolaters down. He went to Egypt, as had been foretold by God through Isaiah, and built the Temple there in the City of the Sun. In the same way we do not wait around sitting on our hands for God to act. We identify the problem and get on with fixing it. How long have we heard the feeble protestations of the worshippers of men in the Churches of God in the last days saying they are waiting for God to put things right? He has acted and they have been asleep.
The Church of God has moved from place to place over the last forty jubilees, moving each time the Holy Spirit indicated the time had come, due to the pollution of the source of the word of God.
In the same way, Christ told the people that the Pharisees sat in Moses’ seat and had to be obeyed, but that unless our righteousness exceeded them we would never enter the kingdom of heaven. Now the Pharisees never ruled the Temple, and the Sadducees were in charge of it because they were the more powerful, being the aristocracy and being based only on the written Law. The answer was that the teachings of the Law and the writings were always explained while being seated. The scrolls were read standing, but the teachings were always done seated. Thus the standing lecture practice of the last decades is incorrect. The Pharisees taught the Law but corrupted it by their traditions. They were corrupt as was the rabbinical system that followed them. The lesson was that anyone who taught the law faithfully had to be obeyed in the correct teaching of the Law, but his or her example was no excuse for error.
We follow the pillar of fire and cloud that is Jesus Christ. We do not remain in the old location when the well is dry and the manna is falling elsewhere. If we cannot fix it, we move. The word of God is then preached anew and correctly. This aspect is simply one of assent and letting “your yes be yes and your no be no”. If you say you will do something, then do it. I have been constantly amazed at the fact that we have people come into the Church to do a task, and then have shown themselves totally untrustworthy in the execution of that task. We have seen it often and occasionally we have had to take action to rectify the problem. Then the same people attack us in self-righteous indignation. It is amazing that such action could be so common among the people of God.
We are all sinners, and I am the most miserable of sinners, but we all have a duty to each other and to abide by the tasks entrusted to us all. If we sin, then we repent. I am usually more than willing to allow repentance and restoration after error. I need forgiveness, as do we all. God is always forgiving and ever merciful. We should emulate God’s thinking. David was a man after God’s own heart because of this trait.
One of the things I find encouraging is the steady addition we have to the Christian Churches of God over areas and nations. People come to us from the Churches of God that have fallen short in their endeavours, and often they come with people that are friends. Often we get people who have started to study and are simply compelled by truth. I have seen many people say that they are compelled by truth but study for years never coming to an understanding and never being compelled by the logic of the truth they study.
I was amused and saddened to see a group of people who were once productive members of the Church doing nothing but reading the CCG material and agreeing with 99.9% of it or more, but refusing to come to us and work for the faith because they did not wish to be told what to do by me or the Deputy CG, or this coordinator, or that coordinator or whomsoever. I am very sorry if I have caused offence to anyone, but I will continue to do the job set before us until my time is up. In the same way I will support the elected officials of the Church wherever they are. If you have got a problem with someone in the leadership and it is personality based, then you have the problem and you have to repent. We all know the procedures for handling grievances if they are genuine. There are many administrations but one Lord that is true. However, you have to identify the administration through whom Christ is working and where that work takes us. We all have to identify the body of Christ for the Lord’s Supper and then work with that body. Sometimes we get offerings from people who do not tithe to us, and who do not support us and perhaps have given us grief in the past. Usually they are told to offer where they pay their tithes and work. Support the work of God with a whole heart. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Don’t leave a mess for others to sort out or litigate. Do what is expected of you. Do not bring railing accusations against others to defend your own sin and unrighteousness.
We are commanded to rend our hearts and not our garments. Why do we look for the specks in our brother’s eyes and not see the beams in our own eyes? Is the word of God so dim and obscure to those who bear such false witness? Do our hearts blind us to the spirit of truth and grace? Is our love of others so dim and faint that we turn on each other when we are judged by how we treat each other?
One of the strange legacies we have inherited among the Churches of God is the false doctrines concerning not voting, and behaving as though there is something wrong with behaving according to law in our societies. The doctrines regarding not voting were introduced in many of the Churches of God to prevent the lawful assembly and conduct along sound administrative rules and conduct of associations. Usually we find that most people understand when shown that their views were wrong, but sometimes they do not understand. Many of the problems of the Church of God stem from covetous desires on the part of individuals. Often it is due to arrogance and the view that the leaders “know better.” At a Friends of the Sabbath meeting I told a minister’s wife, who was from WCG and had gone to UCG, that they would never do any good until they gave the members full adult franchise and ran the organisation properly, and took it out of the hands of the small ministry who were the only voting members. She looked at me as though I were feeble minded. They didn’t and never had any intention of doing so. None of the offshoots of Armstrongism do provide a franchise. That is why they are being destroyed in accordance with Ezekiel chapter 34.
Our system is according to law and by due process. It is monitored by the nations we live in, and we will fight to protect our organisations and registrations and communities. When we are attacked, we will defend while we are accorded due process. Many people, who are baptised into the Body of Christ, seem to think they are above the law. I assure you, we are not. If your brother offends you go to him. If you have offended your brother take action to redress the matter. Go with him two miles for every one he asks of you. The Law is clear. If you have offended, redress the matter before you are hauled into court. Do what you say you will do. Do not do what you say you will not do.
Let us continue in the faith and work together. Remember the command to love
one another and obey God. Help us all to complete the work. Remember what I
have said before. If there is someone else doing more than we are doing, then
tell us and we will sell all we have and work with them. Love one another as
Christ loves us, and work for the faith in sincerity and truth.
Wade Cox
Coordinator General
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