New Moon 1/1/28/120
This day is New Years Day of the 28th Year of the 120th Jubilee since the fall
of the earth’s system and the beginning of the rule of Satan. The Chinese were
a month too early in saying Gong Xi Fa Cai.
As usual, we are reminded of the steady destruction of the earth under the Prince of the Power of the Air. Fortunately his time is drawing ever nearer to its end. This is a Sabbath Year and the Year of rest, and the year of the Reading of the Law of God. All of us should commence our studies in earnest from this day. This day is the solemn feast day of the Bible and the blowing of the trumpets of God (Ps. 81:3). God has told us that this shall be the beginning of the year for us. How disobedient Judah is in following the feasts of the heathen with Rosh Hashanah as the beginning of the Year. Soon their time of disobedience will also be over.
It is with this solemn feast day that we meet together and begin the process of the Sanctification of the Temple of God. We are that Temple. However, we sin all the time. It is with this festival that we begin the sanctification process to make us fit and proper receptacles for the renewal of the Holy Spirit. We renew our vows and the Covenant of God at the Lord’s Supper at the beginning of the Passover period, at the commencement of 14 Abib.
The entire sequence and significance is explained in the paper The Sanctification of the Temple of God (No. 241). From this period we commence to prepare ourselves for the Lord’s Supper. The entire period is twenty-one days commencing from 1 Abib and then proceeding to the fast of 7Abib which is the day explained in the paper Sanctification of the Simple and the Erroneous (No. 291). From 7 Abib we proceed to 14 Abib in prayer and study. On renewing the covenant on 14 Abib we then keep the Night of Observations or Night of Watching at the beginning of the First Holy Day on 15 Abib. We then keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, meeting each day and going before God in prayer and study until the last Holy Day on 21 Abib. On that day we are then ready to continue in the world advancing the work of God and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
This year we will also decide our administrative structure and policy for the next seven years. We will prepare from Passover to keep the international conference at Tabernacles. At the final stages of the Restoration of all things the entire world will keep this festival and send their representatives to Jerusalem or they will be punished (Zech. 14:16-19).
We keep the feasts of God now because God requires it of us and we keep them as part of the Laws of God.
What does this process of Sanctification do to and for us? It prepares us for the continuation of the faith and the renewal of our spirituality. We become one with God in the Holy Spirit.
By changing the reference point of the New Year, Satan has managed to take Judah’s attention off the process of the Sanctification that commences with the New Year of Abib. In this way he has also deceived the whole world. The Churches of God that have been deceived into following that false calendar system likewise are not following the process God set down for the Church to follow in Sanctification of the elect for the Lord’ Supper. The errors and false explanations concerning this aspect are quite serious. In the main, they stem from the false system set in place by the Armstrong system following the Hillel Calendar of the Jews. This was a very late innovation in the Churches of God and the errors persist among many offshoots. They interfere with the process and spirituality of the Churches of God.
This year we will outline the continuation of the programs and work we have undertaken this last seven years. The way in which God has chosen to work with us has proven to be a system by which the entire Churches of God and the Host are also judged. Each year the system deals with an aspect of the Church and its leadership. They are judged on how they managed to do things and work to the aims and objectives given us in stewardship of the Mysteries of God. In the same way, we are also judged on how we deal with what we have been given to do and how well we handle the situation.
Do not be offended that, in comparison to the world churches, we are few in number and that we have little strength. Do what we have to do and Christ will honour what we do. This year you will receive reports about what has happened not only in your nation but also in others as well at Tabernacles. You will hear details of what we have done or not done and how we have carried out the tasks God has given us to do.
Rejoice with all of us in the triumphs and pray for us in the failures or weaknesses.
In this sanctification period we must first sanctify ourselves and then sanctify those who know no better and err. Those people range from our brothers in the faith, to the leaders of our nations, to the people who work against us.
Prepare and pray for us all. Love one another. For it is in loving each other that we show that we love God.
May we all have a happy and rewarding New Year. Let this year be rewarding to us all spiritually and physically in all aspects.
Wade Cox
Coordinator General
© Copyright 2005 Christian Churches of God, All Rights Reserved
