Sabbath and New Moon Message 30/9/34/120 and 1/10/34/120

Dear Friends,

This Sabbath is followed by the New Moon of the Tenth Month. It is a very serious time and matter as the double Sabbath falls on the pagan solstice festivals of the 24th and 25th December or “Christmas” Eve and “Christmas” Day.

God has made it an explicit instruction that we are NOT to celebrate this pagan festival in Jeremiah 10:1-9.

This conflict is old and preceded the prophet Jeremiah when God condemned the practice. It is a festival of Baal worship and is a direct conflict between the worship of the one true God and Baal of the Sun and Mystery Cults.  The origin of this ancient system is explained in the paper Origins of Christmas and Easter (No. 235).

Moreover the Bible is quite clear that we are to keep both the Sabbaths and the New Moons holy and we are not to trade on these days (Amos 8:5).

The determination of the Calendar is laid out in the paper God’s Calendar (No. 156).

To avoid these back to back Sabbaths the post Temple period Jews in exile introduced a new calendar based on the Babylonian intercalations which postponed the New Moons and hence the Holy Days and feasts also.  This false calendar was introduced to Judaism in 358 CE, long after the fall of the temple and no one was fooled by it. All of Christianity unanimously rejected it even the branches affected by the Sun and Mystery Cults. The Churches of God never acknowledged or kept the false Hillel Calendar and its postponements until the 20th century from the US when the Churches of God became infected with Ditheism and the Hillel Calendar under the errors introduced by Herbert Armstrong and his ministry which still retains these errors and makes continual false claims in support of the false Calendar and the history of the early church.

Anyone keeping the Jewish Hillel Calendar will not be keeping these Sabbaths correctly and indeed many of the Churches of God will be using this pagan festival for their own meetings and festivities not treating the days as proper Sabbaths and doing no trading on those days. That includes going to restaurants and employing anybody for any purpose whatsoever in entertainment or trade.

This conflict of the period at the beginning of the Solstice period of 2011 in the year from Solstice 21 December 2011 to Solstice 21 December 2012 is the end of the ancient Sun calendars that we see reflected in the Meso-Americans and elsewhere.  Their modern contemporary priests and acolytes in Southern Mexico in what poses as the ancient Mayan system are openly proclaiming the beginning of the year of the end of the time sequence of the Tzolkin count and they are now saying openly that this is the end of the long count and that 21 December 2012 is the start of the new era of the next long count and in which an ancient god will come to the earth and take up rule. This thesis has been examined and explained in the paper 2012 and the Antichrist (No. 299D). This facade will deceive a lot of people.

What is more than tragic is the fact that over this period the Churches of God, infected by the false Hillel system and Herbert Armstrong’s faulty theology, will be unconcerned about the necessity to keep the Sabbath and New Moon this year in accordance with God’s laws. Indeed they have been told by their ministry that they do not need to keep the New Moons and if they did the Hillel Calendar would ensure that they would keep them all on the wrong days, as they do with all the Holy Days due to these postponements of the Hillel system (see also the papers The Calendar and the Moon: Postponements or Festivals? (No. 195) and Distortion of God’s Calendar in Judah (No. 195B)).

These offshoots that claim to be worshipping God will go off for the Xmas week and hold their own meetings, failing to keep the New Moons and going to restaurants on the Sabbaths and New Moons and trading and engaging in all of these profane and pagan practices that God so strongly condemns and the prophets fought so hard to eradicate.

They neither know nor care what is true if they ever did understand the problem. How long will they be of two minds? As Elijah told them millennia ago: How long will you halt between two opinions?  If The Lord be God then follow Him but if Baal be god then follow him. And the people answered him not a word (1Kgs. 18:21).  The people knew then that what they were doing was forbidden by God yet they had no answer and thought that the prophets had no power against the system of Baal as espoused under the kingship and the Canaanites. In the same way today the Churches of God follow apostate ministers and false calendars and pagan practices, at the encouragement of the ministers, and love to have it so.  They break the laws of God and trade on the Sabbaths and New Moons holding them in contempt.

Remember this is the lead up now to the Sabbath Year of the Cycle and the Reading of the Law of God as commanded by God in His laws and His calendar.  You can’t keep the Jubilee cycles correctly until you identify it and keep the years of the cycles.  That the Churches of God do not do so in these last days in the main shows that most of them are either dead or lukewarm and God say that they will not inherit the kingdom of God unless they repent, as we see in Revelation chapter 3. They are in the main indifferent to the laws of God and do not care to properly identify and follow the truth.

Over the next twelve months the system of the God of this world will do all he can to deceive the elect and he will certainly turn the whole world against the One True God and Jesus Christ whom He sent (cf Jn 17:3).

This deception will continue on now over the Last Days and the Churches of God will be sifted like wheat.  Do not be surprised to see many of the old and righteous, the merciful now begin to die in accordance with Isaiah 57:1-2.

Isaiah 57

[1] The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from calamity, [2] he enters into peace; they rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness.

It is the remnant of this sinful world that pays it no attention and thinks nothing of it. Read Isaiah 57:3-11 as to what is to happen to these people.

[3] But you, draw near hither, sons of the sorceress, offspring of the adulterer and the harlot. [4] Of whom are you making sport? Against whom do you open your mouth wide and put out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, the offspring of deceit, [5] you who burn with lust among the oaks, under every green tree; who slay your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks? [6] Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion; they, they, are your lot; to them you have poured out a drink offering, you have brought a cereal offering. Shall I be appeased for these things? [7] Upon a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed, and thither you went up to offer sacrifice. [8] Behind the door and the doorpost you have set up your symbol; for, deserting me, you have uncovered your bed, you have gone up to it, you have made it wide; and you have made a bargain for yourself with them, you have loved their bed, you have looked on nakedness. [9] You journeyed to Molech with oil and multiplied your perfumes; you sent your envoys far off, and sent down even to Sheol. [10] You were wearied with the length of your way, but you did not say, "It is hopeless"; you found new life for your strength, and so you were not faint. [11] Whom did you dread and fear, so that you lied, and did not remember me, did not give me a thought? Have I not held my peace, even for a long time, and so you do not fear me?

This is the period of struggle that is before us but God will declare the righteousness of the elect and He will determine who will inherit their rightful place in the kingdom of God on the Holy Mountain. These are of a contrite and humble spirit so that they may revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite. He will create the fruit of the lips and He will heal them granting peace to all that serve Him of the right spirit. (Isa. 57:12-21).

[12] I will tell of your righteousness and your doings, but they will not help you. [13] When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you! The wind will carry them off, a breath will take them away. But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain. [14] And it shall be said, "Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people's way." [15] For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite. [16] For I will not contend for ever, nor will I always be angry; for from me proceeds the spirit, and I have made the breath of life. [17] Because of the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry, I smote him, I hid my face and was angry; but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart.
[18] I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and requite him with comfort, creating for his mourners the fruit of the lips. [19] Peace, peace, to the far and to the near, says the LORD; and I will heal him. [20] But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot rest, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. [21] There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked."

This is not a game and the elect are being placed in a position of decision and are being sifted like wheat. What is more important is that the leaders are being judged on what they say and teach and they will fall and be judged and relegated to the Second Resurrection before all others.

We see false teaching emanating more and more from these churches of God and they are corrupt in their understanding of the nature of the One True God and of His Calendar and they teach falsely on prayer and the faith once delivered. We know and can identify the faith of the early church and it is not as taught by the Churches of God emanating from the US.

Study these papers over this weekend and make sure that you understand the Nature of God and His Calendar and that you keep the “Faith once delivered to the Saints” (Jude 3). This history of the church and its doctrines can be identified and a synopsis of the matter is in the paper Role of the Fourth Commandment in the Historical Sabbath-Keeping Churches of God (No. 170) and other papers on the Original Doctrines of the Christian Faith and of the Churches of the first two centuries. Study to make yourselves aware and counted worthy to attain to the First Resurrection and keep yourselves unstained from the world and these false systems that are everywhere around us.

Wade Cox
Coordinator General