Sabbath 23/06/3/120                                                                                                     

Dear Friends,

As we are aware the Sixth Month of the Sabbath Year of the Fifth cycle of the 120th Jubilee is drawing to a close.

We are about to commence the Reading of the Law commencing from the day of Trumpets which is on the New Moon of the Seventh Month. We are getting many requests to join us and we are inducting many new church groups and individuals from all over the world. We have had a lot of requests from Africa for funds so that the Feast can be kept. One of the problems is that the members of many of our churches still have not got the message that it is their responsibility to tithe, and from the First tithe the Church does the work of God and from the Second tithe they put away enough funds to go to the Feasts. Many people do not get it. I was unhappy to see that our officers were reluctant to pursue a former officer who defrauded the Church and ensure the police did their duty. It seems to be the attitude in Kenya particularly that overseas churches are fair game and once one lot have been exposed another lot will take over and milk the stupid Muzungus. I am afraid that is not good enough and if an officer fails to protect the funds of the Church he will be dismissed and if he is part of a fraud he will be prosecuted.

I am pleased to see that Uganda has taken on the provision of materials for the Congo assisted with income from the World Conference. Most churches have provided assistance from their own revenues to themselves and to other groups. That is what the tithe system is all about.

As I have said before towards the end of the sixth year of the previous cycle, many of us have been confronted with problems in our lives and circumstances. Many of you have lost employment and wondered how the sixth year is supposed to be a double harvest year, only to be confronted with new employment and new prospects, which in hindsight will show to be more beneficial than the previous situations in spite of the trauma and rejection things like this cause. Many who joined us over the sixth and seventh years of the cycle have been given education and training both in the Church of God and in schools run by the Church of God. 

This last week we graduated 33 students in Kampala from the CCG training centre there in Kampala.  They graduated in Tailoring and in Computer studies. They will then be micro financed into the sewing machines and assisted in working with computers. From these beginnings come our many group businesses and operations that allow women as well as men and sometimes disabled and youth to be set up in business and thereby contribute to the long term welfare of the Church by tithing. It sometimes takes a while for people who are not aware of the tithe system to understand the long term benefits of tithing properly.

After the coming feast you may then prepare for the planting of crops for the Harvest at the Passover. We are hoping that we can set up more schools and cooperatives. We have requested some assistance in order to do so.

We are told in the writings of Paul that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28). We are called according to the purpose of God and work for God in the faith to His ends and not to our own. Many things appear puzzling as we walk along the path of the faith.

This year is a year of endings and new beginnings. It is one of preparation and organisation for the faith and is the Seventh year Sabbatical rest. This year is a non-tithe year. This year we are not to tithe and the Church is reliant on our freewill offerings. Without them, we as a church cannot survive. We cannot do the work and we cannot assist others. We must keep this in mind. You are all required to attend the Feast out of your own Second Tithe as required by God.
To this end I will run through your obligations in tithing so that we are all clear on this aspect. The full details of the tithe system are covered in the paper Tithing (No. 161). Please read that paper. Every church particularly is required to study it.
The tithe system runs as follows:

In the Third Year of the cycle the second tithe is donated to the poor through the Church’s Third Year welfare fund. Three tithes are never paid. The law is quite clear that in the Third Year the second tithe is donated to the poor and needy, and this is done through the Church. We are all required to save our excess second tithe to carry us over this year and the seventh year of the cycle, where we are not required to amass our second tithes and use them for the purposes of attending the Church feast pilgrimages.

The Seventh Year is thus a year of great freedom for the individual within the faith. The Church is thus totally dependent upon the generosity of each individual. The poor are also dependent upon the generosity of the individuals.

This Seventh year a great many will require assistance to attend the Reading of the Law. To that end, we would ask that all those who have excess second tithe and who would like to help an individual, please send the donations to the secretaries marked as “For Third Year account assistance.” In that way we are able to help those most in need.

This year 2012 is the Seventh Year of the cycle. Thus, the years 2012, 2019 and 2026 are all Seventh Years. 2027 is the Jubilee Year of the 120th Jubilee since the closure of the Garden of Eden and the cursed earth. Soon the time will be over.

In each year we are also to assist with the funds for the Feasts and Sabbaths/Holy Day meals and this is covered under the Terumah levy which, in days gone by, was given to, and was the responsibility of, the Princes of Israel.

The requirement of the tithe system is mandatory and is not dependent upon the Temple system. We are the Temple of God and the Temple has thus never ceased to exist, and the system of administration has never ceased to function. Those who do not tithe are thieves. Administrations purporting to be Churches of God that teach against the tithe are false teachers and diminish the Law of God. They are not part of us.

Do not be deceived by those who seek to destroy the Church of God and the Law of God. By attacking the tithe they attack the capacity to work in the last days. In these days immediately ahead of us, the last and critical function of the gospel of the kingdom of God is to be performed, and then the end will come. To this end we were called.

In the last half of the 20th century the gospel was corrupted and a false calendar and a false system were preached. It was compromised by a false God structure of Binitarianism or Ditheism that had insinuated itself into the Churches of God. For this reason the system had to be dispersed and reorganised. As I said at the last Reading of the Law in 2005 there would be a further reduction and that occurred from the Feast of 2005 to the 7th of Abib 2006. The people who tried to destroy the work were removed and we started all over again. The Churches of God were dispersed and we started again with a smaller more pure force.  However some further reductions had to be made until we were rid of those Satan had placed among us.  As we see in the paper Gideon’s Force and the Last Days (No. 22) the Churches of God were sent home, section by section, and the work was done in smaller and smaller packets until a pure restored doctrine could be preached to the whole world, in all nations and ultimately in all tongues. The Internet was allowed for that very purpose. In preparation for that event Bibles were distributed. Those who did not understand or obey what was written in what they distributed often did the distribution.

Arguments are tested against fact. The Word of God does not come back void and the Word of God is of no private interpretation. The society in which we live is undermined by an anti-Bible mindset. The entire structure of the family is being broken down. Those who seek to destroy the current social fabric wish to redirect it. The Laws of God have no part in that agenda. The people who seek to misdirect the Churches of God are part of the same social agenda. They are not of us because if they were of us they would have not gone out from us. They would work with us to achieve the promulgation of the gospel of the kingdom of God. They do not do that and in fact seek to corrupt the Law and the Testimony because there is no light in them.

This year is the Reading of the Law and we have prepared a hard cover book “The Law of God” and all papers are updated and on the web with the audios recorded and on the web also both in English and French.  The French Volume 1 of the Law of God will commence print immediately the English rolls off the Presses and is bound. They will be available from CCG Publishing.

In the Sabbath year we must read the Law of God in its entirety according to the Law itself. In order that all nations might more readily see and hear that Law being read, we must have it translated and read in the major trade languages so that all may see and hear. This is a major effort and costs money. We must all prepare and organise to help. We must not forget the work in the Sabbath Year and we must all work towards that end including once the Reading is finished on 21 Tishri 35/120 i.e. 2012.

Paul said if you don’t work, you don’t eat. That is every bit as true now as it ever was. If you are not gainfully employed get off your backsides and start work. If you are between jobs, ask what you can do for the faith, not what it can do for you. If you are underemployed get a decent job and help by tithing. If you are not tithing you are robbing God. The work is done on widow’s mites and by the sick and the lame, but not the lazy. God will get the work done and if it is not by us, the very stones will cry out. Do your part.

We work very hard and all of us give what we can either in prayers or funds or effort. Each does what they are able. Don’t be a parasite and pole on the others. Plan ahead. Work according to direction and plan and obey those placed in positions to lead you. Do what you can and pay what is your due. You can’t love God by robbing Him as God says through Malachi 3:6-12.

6] "For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
[7] From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, `How shall we return?'
[8] Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, `How are we robbing thee?' In your tithes and offerings.
[9] You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me; the whole nation of you.
[10] Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house; and thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.
[11] I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil; and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts.
[12] Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts.
If you love God do the work He sent us to do. This is the motto of the Churches of God: My meat is to do the work of Him who sent me and to finish His work (Jn. 4:34).

Wade Cox

Coordinator General