Sabbath Message 020142120

Dear Friends,

This Sabbath we continue on from the New Year yesterday in dealing with the Sanctification and the problems we face in preparing for the Passover and the problems ahead of us.  It is important that we realise that the Passover over the Lord’s Supper on through the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread through the Wave Sheaf to the end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the Last Holy Day is critical to the faith and the most important period of worship for the Church.

It is a commandment of God that the person who does not keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread is to be cut off (Ex. 12:15).  It is that important. If we work on the Sabbath we are also cut off (Ex. 31:14). So also if we do not keep Atonement we shall also be cut off (Lev. 23:27-30).  Nor are we permitted to keep the Feast of the Passover and Unleavened Bread within our Gates (Deut. 16:5-8) (cf. God’s Calendar (No. 156)).

The Great sins of the Sardis and Laodicean eras were that they did not properly keep the Feast of the Passover and Unleavened Bread and they kept it according to the Babylonian Intercalations and they stopped keeping it as an eight-day Feast and lost all comprehension of its importance in 1968 when they stopped keeping it as a Feast in designated sites. To this day they do not understand the magnitude of their sin and the fact that sin consigned them to the Second Resurrection.  The Lord’s Supper on the 14th Abib according to the Temple Calendar is the Second Sacrament of the Church.  Failure to keep it condemns the sinner to the Second Resurrection.  So also the failure to keep the Fast of the Seventh Abib as commanded through Ezekiel (45:20). Christ and the Apostles and the Churches of God kept that as a fast for centuries and we have the historical records of that fact (cf. Sanctification of the Simple and Erroneous No. 291 Appendix A).

The Churches of God kept the sequence of the Sanctification of the Temple of God from the New Year of 1 Abib through the entire period of the Fast of 7 Abib and the Cleansing by Messiah and the setting aside of the Passover Lamb and the Sacrifice in the afternoon of 14 Abib at 3PM when the Passover Lambs were slaughtered from 3 PM to 5 PM (ninth to the eleventh hour) at the Temple. At least 200,000 lambs were slaughtered each Passover and the first Passover Lamb killed at 3PM was presented to the High Priest.
The significance is explained and detailed in Timing of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection (No. 159).

The Sardis and Laodicean eras simply ignored the Passover sequence and the Last of the Sardis systems decided that the Feast of Tabernacles was of greater importance and they worked during the Feast of Unleavened Bread and did not go out of their gates for any of the Passover sequence and misunderstood the timing and sequence of the Passover itself. As a result of these errors they are now consigned to the Second Resurrection unless they repent and adopt the Temple Calendar and keep the proper feast in its entirety. They are not excused due to the failure of their ministry who will be punished even more so than they (cf. Commentary on James (No. F059)).

Do not be deceived.  The Passover is the more important of the Feasts and if you do not keep that Feast you will be consigned to the Second Resurrection along with the Ministry that tells you it is not as important. All the Feasts have to be kept if you wish to be part of the Elect and in the First Resurrection.

Wade Cox
Coordinator General