New Moon 1/12/28/120
Dear Friends,
The New Moon of Adar is upon us. The Church is now in the stages of preparing for the Passover. This year we have two months of Adar being an intercalary year of the cycle. The task ahead of us all is to make sure that we individually and the Church as a whole are all fit to take the Passover. We as individuals prepare for the Passover and we sanctify the Temple, and on 7 Abib we fast for the Simple and Erroneous. In this way the body as a whole is cleansed and made ready for the Passover. You are all required to keep the Feast for the eight days, and your position in the voting membership of the Church depends on your adherence to these doctrines and feast procedures.
Each year we get closer to the coming of the Messiah. It is this fundamental belief that sets us apart as a people of God. Our dedication to the structure of the Temple system and its feasts sets us apart. We are the Temple of God and so while the Church exists, the Temple stands.
Most church systems do not see the nexus between the Temple and its systems and the Body of Christ, which is the Temple. They do not understand what the NT tells them regarding the baptism of the elect and their placement as the Temple of God. We are the Naos in that God dwells in us through the Holy Spirit.
Each year we work towards cleansing the Temple so that we are a fit and proper receptacle for the Holy Spirit.
The great process of the Plan of God, as revealed in the Bible, is detailed in the work The Seven Great Passovers of the Bible (No. 107). In that work we see the great restorations leading up to Christ and the elimination of sin once and for all in his sacrifice as the Passover Lamb.
The time scale from the Restoration under Ezra and Nehemiah to Christ covered the space of nine and into ten jubilees. The Restoration under Ezra and Nehemiah was of critical importance to the sequence of the Plan of God (see the paper Reading the Law with Ezra and Nehemiah (No. 250)).
Our preparation is an important sequence that reflects the importance of the Church of God as the Temple of God. There is an anti-church movement springing up among individuals baptised in the Sabbath systems that strikes at the very idea of an organised church structure. This is the antichurch idea born out of rebellion against the Church as the Body of Christ under discipline.
The Church of God is the Army of God under Jesus Christ. The loyal Host surround us and make our way clear.
It is in our capacity to act as the Body of Christ and in a sanctified system that determines our capacity to carry the lamp-stand of the Temple, which is the power of the word of God.
Whichever group it is that forms the Temple of God and which speaks as the Body of Christ is the focal point of the attacks of the adversary who is the accuser of the brethren. If the Body of Christ did not act for God, why would Satan bother to calumniate it and its people?
The time is drawing to a close and in the year 2027 we reach the forty-ninth jubilee since Ezra and Nehemiah and the fortieth jubilee since the Messiah. It will commence the fiftieth jubilee or Jubilee of Jubilees. This system will see the millennial rule of Jesus Christ.
God does nothing except by His own Laws and calendar system, and the Plan of God is reflected through the ages in that calendar and sequence of action.
The world is hastening towards war. The situation is now far less stable than it was even a month ago. The Middle East is a powder keg and the decisions of the West are becoming more unbalanced. We move implacably towards war with seemingly no understanding of what that will entail. Einstein was asked what weapons would be used in WWIII. He said he did not know, but he was certain that WWIV would be fought with sticks and stones.
We are now looking at the annihilation of the planet, and people speak as though war is an option with the nuclear outcome as acceptable. Nuclear technology and weaponry are unsustainable.
The arguments regarding the technology foresee the waste being pushed into
outer space towards star systems. First, we have to get it up there without
accident and then get it mobilised into a safe path to the star in another system.
It is all so bizarre.
The world is less stable. The year 2005 was the hottest year on record with
the average temperature here 1.13 degrees warmer than ever. In 1997 it was going
to take us 1000 years to do that (see the paper Global
Warming and Bible Prophecy (No. 218)).
Each year is hotter than the last and each year sets records. We have to face a world that is harsher and less able to feed us. Water is a necessity and we are not doing enough to conserve and harvest it properly.
What can we as individuals do?
Our safety is in the Lord and in our faith.
Trust in God. Hold fast to the faith and to the unity of the brethren.
Prepare for this Passover as though it were the coming of the Lord and pray
we see him soon. When the witnesses (see the paper The
Witnesses (No. 135)) stand in Jerusalem we know our redemption is very near.
Wade Cox
Coordinator General
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