Atonement 10/07/26/120
Dear Friends,
Today is a very significant day in the Sacred Calendar. It symbolises our reconciliation with God. The ultimate phase in that reconciliation is at the return of the Messiah in the Last Days. He came first to deal with sin. For that reason the High Priest dressed in white linen for the casting of the Azazel Goat into the wilderness, and the sacrifice of the goat representing Messiah. The sacrifice is examined in the papers Atonement (No. 138) and Azazel and Atonement (No. 214).
The change of robes after that phase into the royal robes of the High Priest symbolised the Advent of Messiah as High Priest and King Messiah of Israel. Each year, and each Atonement, we get closer to that Advent and that much-awaited day. For many of those that dwell in peace it is not of significant import. However, for those faced with war and desolation it is indeed a significant event.
Many of the privileged of the earth think: “Yes it would be nice, but not just yet Lord”. For the starving, and the destitute, and the war-torn it cannot come soon enough.
It will come, and when it does there will be no running away from it. For the Church it is a matter of being ready, and not taken by surprise. No one can fill your oil lamp but you.
Since last Atonement we have seen some changes and God has removed a few people from places where they could have done, or were doing, harm.
Atonement is a matter of looking at where we personally went wrong, and where we were affecting the work, and how we personally adversely impacted on the work of God in the Church. Between last Atonement and this one we have seen more false statements and false accusations made about CCG and its officers than ever before in its history. God takes up the cause of the Church and its members as He sees fit, and when He deems it appropriate to act in a matter.
Atonement is about getting ourselves right with God and not worrying about
what others do or might have done.
You are the one God is dealing with in so far as it matters to you personally.
His dealing with other people is irrelevant to us personally, except in so far
as they cause harm to the Church. It is none of our business how they relate
to God. None of us is to invent false accusations or repeat gossip that we personally
have not experienced or witnessed. If we have witnessed a matter then it is
in terms of going to our brother.
The Fast of Atonement is the reconciliation process we have to go through before
the good times of the Feast of God at Tabernacles, or Booths, representing the
good times of the Millennium.
Christ comes to save the elect and then brings the world to Reconciliation at
Atonement. From that year of the Atonement until the Millennium, Messiah deals
with the world. Between the First and the millennial Fifteenth Day, or the
weeks of years, there is a lot of pain and anguish. The period in the yearly
Sacred Calendar for the Seventh month is, and should be, every bit as sobering
as the period from 1 Abib to 15 Abib for the Passover.
There are many people who have thrown away the understanding of the Faith over
the years. To listen to them, it is always someone else’s fault.
When God removes someone from the Faith due to their errors, He gives them a
delusion in understanding. It is a fact that no one can keep the correct calendar
that does not understand the Nature of God. We have seen it repeated time after
time in the Faith. The Church was made to adopt the Hillel system when they
advanced Ditheism in the Twentieth century. The Hillel system itself was developed
after the rejection of Christ as Messiah.
Since 1994 we have seen extraordinary variations on a theme in the Churches
of God. We have seen variations on the Hillel postponements that do not follow
even their systems. We have seen the adoption of Samaritan errors that
would have made even Jeroboam blush. We have seen false statements and accusations
made to hurt the Church, and yet the people making them seem to have no remorse
or conscience, and some even seem to believe the lies they utter, or at best
be indifferent to their veracity.
All of us have to stand before God and defend what it is we have done. At Atonement
we should try to be reconciled to our brothers. We cannot grow in understanding
and develop the Faith in the Church with animosity among any of us. We must
lay our gifts at the altar and go and be reconciled. Then we can be reconciled
to God.
All of us try to do what we understand to be correct and just in the eyes of
God. Many of us fail in various ways. The answer is to keep trying. Each year
at Passover we are cleansed and renewed in the Holy Spirit, and begin the cycle
again.
There are only a few years to go now until the end of the 6,000 years of Satan’s
rule, and even that will be cut short. Would that God sent Messiah and bound
Satan at the hand of a fit man, at the call of the Archangel, and sent him to
Tartarus this Atonement. However, we know the period of witness has to come
first. Let that be soon Lord God.
There are twenty-one years to go to the Millennium. At least seven of those
will be under Jesus Christ.
Satan is angry and he knows his time is short. Our time is just as short and
we have much to do. He is trying to stop us and to accuse us night and day before
God. Let us get on with the work of God in all diligence.
Let us not be sidetracked and let us be resolute and dedicated to the task.
When we fast let it be to break the bonds of wickedness and to break every yoke
in accordance with the instructions in Isaiah chapter 58. Let us fast to silence
those who would accuse us, and to make the work available to more people all
over the world in all languages. Pray that we are given the resources to do
so.
Wade Cox
Coordinator General
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