Sabbath 14/11/38/120

Dear Friends,

As we are all aware the next sacred year begins on 9 March 2016 (at EENT 8 March 2016).  That is unless you are a Babylonian Cabbalist that follows the Hillel Calendar using the Babylonian intercalations.  Anyone who has done any study on the matter knows that the Churches of God have never followed the Hillel Calendar until the heretic Herbert W. Armstrong introduced it to the Churches of God with Dugger in the COG (SD) in the 1940s.

It is a matter of academic record that the Temple Calendar was determined in the Astronomical Schools and ran from New Moon Conjunction to New Moon Conjunction. The New Moons were determined by the heavenly movements and the entire shipping system was determined by the New Moons as they determined the tides also.  All nations knew and determined the tide charts and the calendar systems of the months based on those conjunctions.  The New Moon in ancient China was referred to as the Emperor’s shame as, if the astrologers failed to determine the New Moon Conjunctions and the eclipses accurately well in advance, they were punished severely.  The New Moons and the Sabbaths and Holy Days were determined in the Temple system and we have ancient public records of that system. Anyone who does not know and understand that fact is simply uneducated.  Anyone who denies that as a fact is either uneducated or unprincipled.

CCG is aware of the offshoots of the WCG and their false doctrines concerning Hillel and their lies concerning the Temple Calendar.  That calendar was published by CCG as God’s Calendar (No. 156) many years ago.  We have seen many of these scoundrels make false claims such as that the Temple Calendar did not exist (Nelte).  Or that the Hillel Calendar was used at the Time of Christ in the Temple and Christ did not refute its use therefore it must be correct (Pack).   The WCG taught its ministers to pass the Hillel Calendar off as the correct Calendar and the one used by the Churches of God knowing that such a claim was a blatant lie.  Any student of Judaism knows that the current calendar was taken to Chief Rabbi Hillel II by two Jewish rabbis from Babylon in 344 CE and then was developed for the postponements and was issued as the official Jewish Calendar in 358 CE over 320 years after the death of Christ and 288 years after the closure of the Temple in 70 CE and the fall of the Sadducees and the establishment of the Rabbinical system from the Pharisaic system as it was developed post temple period from Jamnia.  No scholar with any integrity would ever claim that Hillel was used in the Temple period and would admit that it came into being in 358 CE and was not completed until the Twelfth Century under Maimonides.  All Jews acknowledge that it is incorrect by stating that they have to wait for the Messiah to correct it (see the paper Why is Passover so later in 1997? (No.239)).  The same situation will apply in 2016 because the Babylonian intercalations will force the Hillel system to be a month late and the Passover will fall in the Second month of the Temple system in 2016 and Pentecost will fall in the Fourth month and Tabernacles will fall in the Eighth month.  This happens at least six times in a 19 year cycle.

The Babylonians invented this system in the Seventh Century BCE and their dating system originated at the same time and that is why the Jews declare this year to be 5776 instead of the year 5988 since the closure of Eden and 6018 since the Creation of Adam (see the paper Outline Timetable of the Age (No. 272)).

When they brought the Hillel system out it was observed that the Babylonian intercalations did not accord with the heavenly cycles of the seasons and there was a reactionary element formed to try to counter the Hillel system by observation and this was termed the Karaite System.  Instead of going back to the Temple Calendar which would have solved the problem they wished to keep the traditions and the postponements under Hillel and postpone some of the months that were inaccurate. The origin of the Karaite system is found in the paper The Origin and Basis of the Karaite Division (No. 156C).  

In order to deal with the serious concerns forming among the brethren of the offshoots this year in 2016 these unprincipled scoundrels are now trying to use the Karaite arguments to assert that the Babylonian intercalations are required to prevent the harvests from being delayed, which never occurred under the Temple system and only came about because of the Babylonian intercalary system in the first place.

We had one of our officers confronted with this ridiculous argument recently by a member of his family associated with a major offshoot of WCG, which seem to have concocted this fabrication to minimise internal criticism. They will say anything at all to avoid admitting error and embracing the truth.  Truth is the basis of the faith, and only the truth will set you free (see the paper Truth (No. 168)).   In order to justify the Jewish apostasy of Hillel, Armstrong invented the fiction that the Jews retained authority of the oracles of God from a misidentification of the writings of Paul. That aspect is covered in the paper The Oracles of God (No. 184).  Yet they refused to accept the Jewish misidentification of a Sivan 6 Pentecost in spite of their heresy. Thus they did not believe what they taught.

It is the aim of the Churches of God to enter the First Resurrection and become the priesthood of Christ (see the paper Heaven, Hell or the First Resurrection of the Dead (No. 143A)).  To do that each of the Churches of God must keep the calendar of God on the correct days and that includes Sabbaths, New Moons and Holy Days and Feasts.  To do that they cannot postpone them and particularly not the Day of Atonement or the Passover and Unleavened Bread. The Jews will go to the Second Resurrection (see the paper The Second Resurrection of the Dead and the Great White Throne Judgment (No. 143B)); but so also, we are told, do the two eras of the Churches of God, namely the Sardis and the Laodicean, seemingly because they do not keep the Calendar of God (see the papers The Calendar and the Moon: Postponements or Festivals (No. 195); Distortion of God’s Calendar in Judah (No. 195B); Hillel, Babylonian Intercalations and the Temple Calendar (No. 195C) and The Pillars of Philadelphia (No. 283)).

It is up to each individual to enter the Kingdom of God.  They do it on their own merits and no one can do it for them and no one can give them dispensation to do other than keep the Commandments of God and the Faith and Testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev. 12:17; 14:12). These are the elect or the saints.

These teachers of false doctrine and slanderers of the brethren have no authority to waive one jot or tittle from the laws of God and if they do they are counted least of those in the kingdom of heaven and  not entering themselves they prevent all who follow them from entering also.  Be under no illusions; Sardis and Laodicea are not in the First Resurrection except for those that repent and become part of the Philadelphian system of the Last Days.  The timings of the Churches of God and their doctrines are seen in the paper Role of the Fourth Commandment in the Historical Sabbath-keeping Churches of God (No. 170).

Herbert Armstrong was a credentialed paid officer of the Church of God (Seventh Day) in two branches for many years. All those paid credentialed officers of his in RCG and WCG are also Sardis officers. The only way to the First Resurrection is to repent and move to a church keeping the correct doctrines and that is CCG.

If you love your family members and brothers work to make them understand these simple truths.

Wade Cox
Coordinator General