New Moon Message 1/3/35/120

Dear Friends,

In the year 30/120 on Trumpets or 11 September 2007 we issued a message along the following lines and it may well be that we need to review some of the details.

That day and every other Day of Trumpets is the day we traditionally associate with the Return of the Messiah. It is the New Moon of the Seventh month. Ten days after the day of Trumpets we are fasting for the Day of Atonement and in fifteen days afterwards we are at the Feast.

This year we will have gone from this third new moon to Pentecost and then over the Ascents of Moses to the end of Elul and the Day of Trumpets in the Seventh Month. Also this year (2012) we will again be at the Reading of the Law.  As we observed in 2006 or 29/120 much had happened and much more was to happen as we progressed down the long and twisted road of world politics and war. Iraq is not fixed although we are no longer enmeshed as we were back then. We are still in Afghanistan and the Middle East has escalated rather than diminished in violence as we knew it would and as we said it would. Syria is a mess as is Lybia and the Arab nations generally. Everything we said in 1997 to 2001 has occurred exactly as we said it would. It might be of use to go back and read the Sabbath Messages immediately prior to the invasion of Iraq and after we went into Afghanistan. The British Generals have been saying the same things for many years, but it is too late now.

On top of that crisis we have seen the GFC started by the US banking system, and we saw the loss of Lehman Bros, and in spite of all the corruption and theft and dishonesty in Wall St and the US treasury and the White House we saw Morgan Chase lose $2 billion because of the same corrupt frauds of the CDOs and banking ruses and massive undeserved bonuses.  That banks will not learn and the banksters need to be forcefully controlled is obvious to all except the GOP system in the US.  The banks that deal with the Housing mortgage systems need to be nationalised and controlled in all nations. 

Europe is collapsing before our very eyes and as we said years ago before the GFC the banks there were planned to be and now are on the verge of collapse and need to be brought under control. Financial crisis, worse than the Great Depression, is staring us in the face.  There will be violence in Europe as there is violence in North Africa and the Middle East.

World War III is simply developing before our eyes and we seem powerless to stop it. Day by day the mindset of intolerance and bigotry is hardening. There are things being done now that we would never have thought possible in our free and open societies outside of all-out war, and only then in dictatorial regimes that had abandoned the rule of law and the conventions that civilised nations had laid down for the proper conduct of hostilities.

For many years now the US military has been able to develop civilian labour prisons on Army soil under its regulations. Other regulations now provide for the UN control over the three nations in North America in the event of outbreaks such as Avian flu which in 2007 was being trumpeted as a certainty in the immediate future.  They have now worked out how to do it and the scientists are about to publish the means of making it transmissible to mammals and most of all to humans. The loss of life will be catastrophic and they seem to think that is a good idea to continue with the publications.

As we pointed out since the Reading of the Law in 2005 and in 2006: “Christ told us that Satan’s rule had to be shortened because, unless those days were shortened, there would be no flesh saved alive.”

Matthew 24:22
And if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.

Mark 13:20
And if the Lord had not shortened the days, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days

The only reason that these days are shortened is because of the elect whom God has chosen (see the paper Predestination (No. 296)). The Plan of God will continue, and the human race will be kept alive only because of its place in the Plan of God, as the elect has a place in that Plan.

It is important that we look at the papers regarding Pentecost such as Pentecost at Sinai and also the Omer Count to Pentecost on this day to get our bearings as to what is to occur in the church in order for us to be prepared. We were given the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in 30 CE and it has been renewed every year since then in order that we may remain as the Temple of God.

The crisis of this world is not a matter that reflects on the Church, or on the justice and mercy of God. What is to happen does so because men are disobedient. God has given us a rulebook and a set of instructions that will ensure the protection, health and wellbeing of the entire planet, and ensure that we live life properly and have it more abundantly. It is called the “Bible” and most people claiming to be Christians don’t follow it and many don’t even believe it is an inspired work of the church even though Christ said that Scripture cannot be broken.

We are required to work while we still can, while it is yet light. Soon the darkness will come upon us and no man can work. We hope to explain the events and sequence of the development of WWIII and how we might be saved out of it. We have explained the First and Second Resurrection recently and we will now go on to explain the further escalation of WWIII and the time frame we are looking at for the escalation.  Let us look back on the details mentioned in that message at Trumpets 2007:

“It is a matter of fact that there are thirteen secret underground cities in Russia. Sydney Sheldon in his work The Sky Is Falling (Doubleday Book Clubs, 2000) says in the author’s note to the work (which is a work of fiction), that the city on which it is based, Krasnoyarsk–26 (renamed Zheleznogorsk), is real and is one of these thirteen secret underground cities. It is located in Central Siberia two thousand miles from Moscow. It was created in 1958 under the old Soviet Union. Since then it has produced more than forty-five tons of weapons-grade plutonium. In spite of the fact that two of its plutonium-producing reactors were shut down in 1992 one remains active and currently produces half a ton of plutonium a year which can be used to make nuclear weapons. There are reported thefts of this plutonium and Russia and the US are working to increase security to protect nuclear material being produced in these secret cities. They are not financially secure and in fact do sell the materials to pay their own wages and costs. The fact of the matter is that we do not really know how much weaponry and plutonium has found its way into the hands of which nations. We are about to find out in the not too distant future. We are already in WWIII. It is simply a matter of its development into total war.”

We remind the church often that: “Every one of us should remember that God never changes. He is immutable. Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. God has written the Book of instructions and He gave it to us through His servants the prophets.”

He didn’t change anything. He didn’t forget what He wrote. He did not lose it either. He appointed the Church and He gave that Church the authority to bind and loose. He established a Plan that pointed to Jesus Christ whom He sent, to die to redeem the creation from sin. The Temple system pointed to Christ who entered into the Sanctuary with his own blood once and for all to redeem mankind. God did not change anything. He fulfilled the sacrificial laws. He was not a Trinity when He began to create. He was the One True God. He did not establish different calendars. He expects obedience more than sacrifice.

He gave us simple laws to obey. The pointer to the capacity for obedience is the Sabbath. He demands we keep the New Moons which is the true test of the faith in modern days. He also commanded us to gather three times a year to worship Him and we are not to come empty-handed.”

We have issued a generic offering message that deals with those issues (see the paper Offering (No. 275)).There are only three offerings a year. One is at Passsover, one is at Pentecost, and one at the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles; thus three offerings a year.  There is no offering on Trumpets or Atonement.

The Churches of God are expected to obey God and follow His instructions. We have been continually advising the Churches of God, and have been concerned with the failure of the Churches of God in the last half of the twentieth century to be doctrinally correct and follow the correct Calendar because of the errors of one man, Herbert Armstrong, and the weakness and idolatry of his followers and those of the Churches of God (Seventh Day) also.

The Temple, while it stood, kept the correct Calendar. It did not postpone its New Moons and Holy Days. It kept the Calendar according to the conjunction and it did not commence the year as the Samaritans established (i.e. with 1 Abib/Nisan always falling after the spring equinox), even as early as Jeroboam.

Judah was dispersed for its traditions and the matter has got worse not better. Their calendar is a construction of Babylonian rabbis in 344, which was adopted by Hillel II in 358 as the official Jewish calendar. It was not kept in the Temple period as we see from Philo and also by examination of Josephus and the interchangeable dates, Temple and Macedonian calendar dates (see the papers War with Rome and the Fall of the Temple (No. 298) and also Distortion of God's Calendar in Judah (No. 195B)).

As we have continually said: There is nothing difficult about it all. All you have to do is read the Book and do what it says. It does not say to keep Sundays, and it does not say to keep Christmas and the festivals of Ishtar or Easter (see the paper The Origins of Christmas and Easter (No. 235)).

It is written: “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mat. 4:4). Christ did that and he rebuked Satan with those words.

Our task is to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and to make disciples of men. We are to warn all men in these Last Days as to what is to occur. God chose us and gave us to Jesus Christ. Christ is told not to lose us and we are told to be obedient. The Bible text has a clear plan. It means what it says, and the text is to be obeyed. We are now in the Last Days (see the paper The Day of the Lord and the Last Days (No. 192)).

Once again, in this build up to the Feast of Pentecost, pray that we are consolidated as a Church and a people. Pray that we are blessed and protected in our travels and in our meetings and in our activities. Work now towards the Reading of the Law. Study The Ascents of Moses (No. 70). Pray that the Adversary is restrained and the bonds of wickedness are broken and the oppressed go free. Pray for your brethren and their troubles. Pray for those who are set tasks in the Faith. Pray that our people are all restored to their loved ones in good health.

We have seen much tribulation this Last Sabbath Cycle all over the world. However, we have also grown quite remarkably. Pray to bring an end to our tribulation this month and make new starts and pleasant ways. Enjoy your Feast at Pentecost and also at Tabernacles, as we are now about to enter an even more serious period in the history of the world from next year onwards. This last cycle has been worse than the one before it but the next two cycles will bring the world to its knees and into subjection under Christ.

 Again this year pray that Christ is soon here and that the time is cut short and peace can reign, and also pray that the world is corrected and the wars of false religion set up under the Seals are ended (see the paper The Seven Seals (No 140)). We know that once the Witnesses are here we have a very short time to go. For me personally, it will be a great relief to see them standing in Jerusalem. The events over the 1263.5 days will be horrendous but we know it is the time set and we will expect the Messiah at its completion (see the papers The Witnesses (No. 135) and the Advent of Messiah: Part I (No. 210A).
We will issue 210B in the near future.

Once again: Pray that the people wounded and hurt by religious misuse are healed and they are at peace. Pray for the lives and the health of the world as they go through this trial ahead of us.

Wade Cox
Coordinator General