Sabbath 23/8/40/120

Dear Friends,

Today we move ahead in the study of the Koran. Today we study Surah 33 The Clans at Commentary on the Koran: Surah 33 The Clans (Q033).  The persecution of the Church of God in Arabia continued in a serious vein as we have seen in the texts and go from the Battle of Badr to the Battle at Mt Uhud and then to the attacks on Medina or Yathrib in what was the War of the Trench and the Battles of the Clans.

We saw that the poor of the faith had to flee in the First Hijrah to Abyssinia and seek protection under the Sabbatarian faith in Abyssinia and under the protection of the Negus or king there as described in the Commentary on the Koran Surah 19 “Maryam”, which was given to them to explain the faith of the church at Mecca and to establish their bona fides with the churches in Abyssinia.

We have seen above that Surahs 3 and 8 refer to the previous battles of Badr and Mt. Uhud and they deal with the operations of the idolatrous Meccans against the Muslims. The Meccan leader was Abu Sufyan and they continue on under his command in those battles to the War of the Trench and the Battles of the Clans revealed in this Surah 33.

The Surah Al Ahzab takes its name from the army of the allied clans which came against the Muslims at Yathrib or Al Madinah in the Fifth Year of the Hijrah (vv 9-25).  The Prophet had expelled certain of the Bani Nadir, a Jewish tribe from Yathrib, on the grounds of treason (cf. Surah LIX).  These Jews went first to the leaders of the Qureysh in Mecca and then to the great desert tribe of the Ghatafan to recruit their assistance in exterminating the Muslims. They promised them help from the Jews at Yathrib. The result was that the Qureysh with all their clans and the Ghatafan with all their clans marched against the Muslims with the intention of destroying their strength at Yathrib and exterminating them.

The Church of God has been under threat of extermination for almost 2000 years.  In 2027 it will be 2000 years since the establishment of the Church under Messiah and the Sign of Jonah will reach its completion. The Sign is explained in the text The Sign of Jonah and the History of the Reconstruction of the Temple (No. 013).

Soon the Witnesses will be here and then the Messiah will arrive to resurrect those of us who have fallen asleep and then take us all to Jerusalem as Spirit beings to rule the world with him for a thousand years, and then to re-educate mankind in the Second Resurrection. In those days the church in Arabia had to fight for its very survival and as a result absorbed the unconverted among them and they, as with the Romans, absorbed the pagan Sun cults into them and corrupted the Scriptures, as did the idolaters from Mecca and Arabia generally. What arose after the death of Ali and Hussein was Hadithic Islam and the corruption of the Koran and the Scriptures.

It is a fact now that the Sardis and Laodicean systems of the Churches of God have become so corrupt that they themselves cannot recognise the origin of the Koran in the Scriptures with their original doctrines of the early churches of the Pergamos era (see Role of the Fourth Commandment in the Historical Sabbath-keeping Churches of God (No. 170) and The Pillars of Philadelphia (No. 283). The world is about to be taken over by the Messiah and the people will actually claim Christ is an invader and the effeminate god of the Baal system they expect will be quite different.  Most will die in the Wars of the Last days and the Vials of the Wrath of God (No. 141B) and not enter The First Resurrection (No. 143A) but go to the Second Resurrection and the Great White Throne Judgment (No. 143B). Do not fail and be ready.

Wade Cox
Coordinator General