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Dear Friends,
This week on the third day of the week, which is, in pagan terms, Tuesday 8 April 2003, we fast for the Sanctification of the Simple and Erroneous (No. 291).
“The Sanctification of the House of God began on 1 Abib or the New Moon of Abib the previous Wednesday. The link is established in the text in Ezekiel 45:18-20. The text begins with a direct order of God.
“Thus saith the Lord God: ‘ In the First Month in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish and cleanse the sanctuary; and the priest shall take the blood of the sin offering and put it upon the posts of the house and upon the four corners of the settle of the altar and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court’”.
The next phase, which links the above step to the whole house of God, is the Sanctification of the Simple and the Erroneous. We see above that the Sanctuary is cleansed with the blood of the sin offering, which was Jesus Christ. This process does not do away with the Passover, but rather links the Cleansing process to the build up for the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In that process, the outer veil was torn and the priesthood of Melchisedek was able to begin to administer the sacrifices in the Temple of God. This aspect is covered in the paper The Ascension (No. 129). The elect as the new priesthood could then go boldly before the throne of God with prayers and supplications.
Because of this new responsibility, we are entrusted and charged with the task of sanctifying those of the elect and the people of God who err through ignorance, or fault, or lack of understanding. To get to this phase of the faith is itself a major step forward in understanding and faith. It is normal that the congregation is sanctified with a fast. Take out your concordances and look up the terms and references for sanctifying the congregation and the purpose of fasting. If you are at this stage of the faith you cannot be helped through the understanding of what you are doing. You either know or you do not know. You are either, fasting for the Simple and the Erroneous, or you are the Simple and Erroneous. You are either the solution to the problem or you are the problem itself.
Ezekiel then carries this command of the Living God as follows:
And so thou shalt do the seventh day of the month for every one that errs and
for him that is simple so shall ye reconcile the house (Ezek. 45:20). The next
text, in Ezekiel 45:21, carries on into the Passover directives. This process
is interlinked and it is directed here in Ezekiel to show that the ordinances
are to carry on into the millennial system for the Church and after the return
of the Messiah.
You are required to keep the First day of the New Year as a solemn assembly (see The Moon and the New Year (No. 213) and you are required to keep the Seventh Day of the month of Abib as you are required to keep the Passover and Unleavened Bread. Your choice is obey or don’t obey. If you don’t obey the faithful will pray for you. Your defence will be that you are either simple minded or erroneous. Either way, you are wrong and you depend on the grace of God through the intervention of the elect before God, through Jesus Christ.
In some ways this text is a test commandment. You have to understand the New Moons to get to this day correctly and you have to have a sound knowledge of the Law of God to understand it. Thirdly, you must have the desire to obey and the love of your brethren and your people to serve them.
I was once spoken to by a Seventh Day Adventist at a Friends of the Sabbath Meeting, seeking to trap CCG in what we did because he knew we kept the law in its entirety, including the Feasts and New Moons within the structure of the New Temple system under Christ.
He said to me; “But what about the Seventh Day of the First Month. Do you keep that?” I replied: “You mean the Sanctification of the Simple and Erroneous of Ezekiel 45:20? Yes, we keep that.”
Not expecting me to have answered positively or even known what he was talking about he said again: “What about the Seventh day of the First Month, I said do you keep that? “
I said: “I answered you. Yes, we keep the Seventh day of the First month which is the Sanctification of the Simple and the Erroneous listed in Ezekiel 45:20. Yes we keep that.”
Instead of being overjoyed that he had found someone else that understood that it had to be kept he simply said: “Well I’m stunned” and he walked away repeating: “I’m stunned.”
You see he had knowledge of what was required but he did none of it. To change would have meant he would have had to obey and change his comfort zone. He had to be directed by the Holy Spirit and have zeal according to knowledge. Most people have zeal but little knowledge. He had knowledge but little zeal. Either way he was part of the problem and he was dependent upon the people obeying God and diligently keeping the Seventh Day of Abib in accordance with the Laws of God, as revealed through His servants the prophets.
Keep this day in love of your fellow man. By your intervention show God that
you love your neighbour, for if you do not love him who you have seen how can
you love God whom you have not seen.
Wade Cox
Coordinator General
© Copyright 2003 Christian Churches of God, All Rights Reserved
