Open Letter to the UCG Council of Elders (No. 159B)

Re: the UCG Calendar declaration of 2021 and the UCG Council of Elders President's declaration that the Holy Spirit was given to the Church at Pentecost 31 AD or CE

Dear UCG Council of Elders,

I am writing to express our profound disappointment at the self serving and intellectually dishonest statement on the Calendar that the council issued at Reference C.

To establish the academically understood position of the Churches of God over the two Millennia we need to state the true position of the church which has been nowhere dealt with by UCG either in its council statement in this document or its ministry in any known document. We were forced to write to the Churches of God over your incorrect declarations in 2008 at Ref. D. Your recent paper shows that you failed to address any of those issues and repeated a multitude of false statements in your recent article.

You seem to try to convey the impression that there was no Temple Calendar in use in Judaism while the Temple stood or in the Churches of God (Ref. E). You certainly do not even try to discuss its existence and appear to dishonestly ignore even the possibility of its existence.

Your article of 2021 seems to be an apology for keeping the Hillel Calendar of 358 CE (Refs. F, G, and H); although you seem to allow there was a Karaite system before 358 CE. The Karaite system is addressed at Ref. I. This of itself was caused by the post Temple rabbinical system and its traditions derived from the Babylonian systems of Baal Worship. That is why the Levites (except for the Zadokites) will be hewers of wood and drawers of water in the Messianic system as we see from the prophecies in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel (F023 (coming soon), F024xiv, F026x, xi, xii). (See also below)

You also seem to argue that the oracles of God rests with the Jews which is an utter fabrication, also addressed in our open letter to the Churches of God re the New Moons and the Hillel Calendar at Ref. D, which also drew your attention to the question of the responsibility of the Churches of God for the Oracles of God (No. 184) (Ref. J).

It is also the opinion of the Council of Elders of CCG that the UCG position regarding the Calendar not being fully contained in Scripture is also a fabrication and verges on straight out blasphemy. The UCG paper states: "it is clear one cannot derive a calendar directly from biblical instructions alone."

No, what is clear is the UCG council cannot (or will not) derive a calendar from biblical instruction.

The Temple Calendar was determined entirely from Scripture under God's Authority and was restored with the entire jubilee system again at the Restoration of Ezra and Nehemiah and in the reign of Artaxerxes II and for the provisioning of the Levites in the Fourth Century BCE and it was kept faithfully to 70 CE under the Temple system and by Christ and the Church of God in spite of the efforts of the Pharisees (see below and Ref. R). The Talmud was not constructed or developed until Hillel was issued and only the Mishnah and the traditions and the Babylonian intercalations were relevant. Judah was dispersed because of these traditions as we note from Jeremiah Ch. 13 (F024iv) and Ezekiel (F026x, xi, xii).

The Sabbaths and New Moons were kept as Sabbaths and the High Priest robed for each of the days. Even the Romans, when they clamped down on the Temple system handed the robes to the High Priests for the ceremonies and special psalms were sung (see F019). At reference E we explain that the Calendar was determined according to the Conjunctions which were determined years in advance in the Astronomical Schools as Philo recorded in his explanation of the Calendar according to the Special Laws determining the Calendar. So also the New Moons as determined by the conjunctions which were on the day of the conjunction; and the Moons went from one New Moon Conjunction to the next. The crescent moon was a pagan system and was never used in the Temple system or in the Churches of God.

Your paper states "The Church of God down to the modern era has followed the same example as that of the early Church, which is to use the calendar proclaimed by the Jews through the centuries." This is another blatant fabrication to add to this farrago of fiction. The same fabrication was reportedly asserted by the later RCG under Pack. Hillel did not exist in its early form until 358 and not in its present form until the Twelfth Century after Maimonides modified it. For the first three centuries it is impossible for the church to have used anything other than the Temple Calendar. Even the Mishnah did not exist until ca 200 CE. The Mishnah shows that back-to-back Sabbaths were in existence even then and thus Hillel and it postponements did not exist.

The determination of the Astronomical Schools was established in ancient Israel with the tribe of Issachar. Of these, two hundred chief men, (with their men under them) all with understanding of the times, came to David at Hebron to make him king and effectively establish the astronomical schools for the determination in Israel, under the new king. One of our senior elders stated of your article by the Council:

“They have failed to address that Issachar were given understanding of astronomy.

1Chr. 12:32

And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.

They failed to address that David used a calculated calendar.

1Sam 20:5

And David said unto Jonathan, Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third day at even.

At 14.b. they fail to understand that to have the authority to postpone Atonement is the same as claiming the authority to postpone the Sabbath to Sunday. Their second to last paragraph claims slavish obedience to Rabbi Hillel. To be logically consistent, they must by all means keep a Sivan 6 Pentecost.” None of the Churches of God did that and have never, in almost two thousand years, done so. They have never sought to change times and the Law until Armstrong and Dugger, using Hillel, did so.

The Churches of God kept Pentecost on the Sunday in accordance with Scripture except for a short period in the RCG system before it became WCG. Pentecost was kept in the Temple system on a Sunday as was done in the Temple Calendar and in the Samaritan system also. The Samaritans only began lighting conflicting beacons for the New Moons after the Pharisees took over the post Temple system following the destruction of the Sadducees, and corrupted the entire system, which ultimately led to the Hillel Calendar of 358 CE.

UCG Council tries to ignore the fact that the Churches of God have kept the Temple Calendar for over 1900 years (see Ref. K). The work at reference tries to imply that the Jews were keeping the calendar in Babylon for a century before its release. That is not correct. The Babylonian Intercalations were taken to Hillel II by two Babylonian rabbis in 344 CE and the Council worked for 14 years developing it to the postponements and released the New Calendar in 358 CE. The Hillel calendar was and is imperfect and it was updated by Maimonides in the Twelfth Century.

The Jews offered the new Hillel Calendar of 358 CE to the Churches of God and to the churches associated with Rome in the Binitarian systems, which were to adopt Trinitarianism in 381 at Constantinople, and those ratifying it from Chalcedon in 451 CE.

None of the Churches of God, and even those that became pseudo Christians from Rome, adopted Hillel, and the Churches of God rejected it entirely. They kept the Temple Calendar for well over 1600 years generally under Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos and Thyatira. It was corrupted in Sardis and particularly in the US (except for the Caldwell conference).

The Sardis system in the US was completely corrupted when Herbert Armstrong and Andrew Dugger introduced Hillel to COG (SD) ca. 1940. Armstrong was a paid minister of Sardis until late 1946. Herbert Armstrong retained the false Calendar when he formed Radio Church of God (RCG) in 1946 and then retained it when he formed Worldwide Church of God (WCG) from the (RCG). He was a paid minister of COG (SD) until late 1946 (per Roy Marrs, editor Bible Advocate, COG (SD)). He was never validly baptised. He was baptised by a Trinitarian Protestant minister, which none of the Churches of God accept, or will accept, in any other individual. He was ordained by the laying on of hands of the COG (SD) members at an all day tent meeting, as he himself stated. Many of these people became RCG members but were not such at the time.

Quartodeciman Disputes

Your article mentions these disputes and seems to attempt to link them to Constantius, the son of Constantine, in the Fourth Century. The fact is that the Quartodeciman disputes arose in 154 CE when Anicetus became bishop of Rome and introduced the Festival of the God Attis at the Easter system of the goddess Easter Consort of Baal of the Sun and Mystery Cults. The Church of God kept the Temple Calendar and Hillel was still two centuries into the future. This pagan innovation was opposed by Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. The schism was prevented until 192 CE when Victor became bishop of Rome and declared the Easter system, (associated with the God Attis), as necessary for communion with Rome. This was opposed by Polycrates without success (Ref. L). The Christian Church split from this decision. Neither the Churches of God keeping the Temple Calendar nor the Binitarian Cults stemming from Greece and Rome accepted Hillel. This led to the complete rejection of Hillel as a Judaising monstrosity that relied on Babylonian intercalations that put the Passover in the wrong months and one third or more of the Time, two in the same year, and relied on Postponements which were an unbiblical heresy. The conflicts between the Temple Calendar and Trinitarianism led to the Unitarian/Trinitarian Wars (No. 268) and not as the article states.

The Babylonian Intercalations occur in the Hillel Calendar in 2023 for the whole year of 2024 in all the churches keeping Hillel and they will then have the Passover and all Holy Days and Feasts a month out for the whole year. The fact is that under the Hillel Calendar, the Churches of God under Armstrong and Dugger have never kept a Holy Day on the correct days in their entire existence, except by accident. The Witnesses (Rev. 11:3ff) will stamp this insidious evil out when they take up their station in Jerusalem soon. Since 1965 (or to 1967) on to the present day, WCG never kept the Passover correctly, and with Hillel have forfeited their places in the First Resurrection.

The Churches of God were persecuted for the Quartodeciman Disputes and the Law of God (L1) for centuries (F044vii) (see Ref. M and N).

So also the Christian Churches that formed Islam did not keep Hillel but kept the Temple System (Ref. O) (see also No. 122D).

Three feast seasons

The Council also appears to join the Seven Holy Days with the three feast seasons as offerings contrary to Law (Exodus 23:14,17; Deuteronomy 14:23, 16:16) (No. 161). God forbids an offering at Atonement (Ex. 30:15). Nor does He allow it to be postponed as Hillel so blatantly and unbiblically does. The three feasts are pilgrimages and are to be kept out of our gates (Deut. 16:5-8).

You have continually refused to keep the New Moons as required in the Temple Calendar. We were told through the prophet Isaiah that those failing to keep the Sabbaths and New Moons in the last days will be put to death (Isa. 66:23-24). You certainly will not be in the First Resurrection at the return of Messiah (see also below).

Holy Spirit

The statements issued by the President of the UCG Council, and a regional director, that the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost 31 AD (31 CE) are very serious. The implications of these statements are enormous. Firstly, the Holy Spirit (No. 117) was given at Pentecost as it fell in Jerusalem on the year that Christ was executed. In making this statement the Council is asserting that Christ was executed at Passover 31 CE. This is impossible as the Passover in 31 CE did not fall as it did in 30 CE. The Timings of the Passover in the years in which Christ might have been, or was claimed to have been, executed are listed in Ref. A. These calculations at reference A have been derived from those of Her Majesty’s Nautical Almanac Office and confirmed by Mt. Stromlo in AU. Of these 14 Abib fell on:

Sunday	28 March 28 CE
Saturday	16 April 29 CE
Wednesday	5 April 30 CE
Sunday	25 March 31 CE
Saturday	12 April 32 CE
Thursday	2 April 33 CE

As we can see in 31 CE, it is impossible for Messiah to have complied with the Sign of Jonah as he would have been in the tomb from Monday to Sabbath evening, six days and nights in the belly of the earth and thus could not have been Messiah. Only 30 CE complies with the Sign of Jonah (No. 013) (Ref. P). So also a Sunday Resurrection is impossible with all of them.

The UCG council effectively states their Reference texts are derived from the Textus Receptus and thus the KJV and the NKJV and associated texts as stated. The KJV and NKJV incorporate the forged texts of Daniel 9:25, among others. The text was an attempt to link Daniel 9:25 to the Messiah and his death. This fiction required the relocation of the Construction of the Temple to Darius I (Hystaspes) which is impossible, as it breaches the biblical texts of Ezra and Nehemiah. In spite of that fact, Herman Hoeh followed this gigantic fabrication and then divided the final 70th week of years and allocated the three and a half years to the last days, in misrepresentation of Daniel, and came up with 31 CE as the death of the Messiah referred to in the text in Daniel. To establish this fabrication based on the forgery, Hoeh then had to find four Passovers in the gospel of John. There is only the one Passover in the Synoptic Gospels (see F040 and F043). To achieve this fiction, he falsely asserted that one of the references (which was to Pentecost) was actually the fourth reference to Passover. This fiction was taken up by Fred Coulter from WCG, but he withdrew that dating as false. When Ref. A was published he stated to us that the text had been withdrawn. He had managed to fudge the figures by allocating the Passover in question to the Second Month on 25 April but the problem was that there had never been a Passover as late as 25 April for centuries before 31 CE, and in fact in the early period of the Kings. The Textus Receptus is known to contain many proven forgeries (see ## 164F and 164G) and hence the KJV and NKJV and all texts related to the Receptus are based on that text (there are many other forged texts in the Receptus). There are in fact two messiahs in Dan. 9:25 (see F027ix). The first is Nehemiah (at the end of Seven Weeks of years) and the second messiah, or anointed one is James, brother of Christ, cut off but not for himself at the 69^th Week of Years (63/4 CE (see the correct text in Soncino, RSV, LXX, and DSS).

The Sign of Jonah finished in 70 CE at the end of the Seventy Weeks of Years. The period commenced in the reign of Darius II and ended with the fall and destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem under the Romans and the closure of the Temple at Heliopolis before the New Moon of Abib 71 CE, by order of Vespasian. That is another reason why 31 CE cannot be correct. (Ref Q).

It was by understanding this prophecy from the LXX that the church understood that they had to flee to Pella, which had requested a Roman Garrison.

One CCG officer says: the paper states "Once the Hebrew calendar is rejected, whose calendar does one follow".

He says: The answer should be obvious; God's calendar. The UCG should stop looking to humans to decide their doctrines and have faith to know God has given us a book with the answers.

Importantly, Hillel is not the Hebrew Calendar at all. It is based on the Babylonian Calendar and its intercalations, and the traditions and derived postponements.

God told Jeremiah in Ch. 13 to buy a loin cloth and walk 400 miles to the Euphrates and bury it. He did that so that Israel and Judah would understand the absolute folly and heresy of getting involved with the Babylonian religious system (F024iv).

The COG in the USA has also got itself in this position because it has adopted the Trinitarian forgeries in the Receptus via the KJV and many have lost their position in the Kingdom of God through the sheer incompetence of the ministry worldwide.

The Seventh Church of God in the Last Days

God knew how corrupt the Churches of God would be in the Twentieth Century and what would occur in the Last Days. He knew Judah would stay totally corrupt with the Babylonian influences in the Last Days under Hillel and the Churches of God would never reform itself without the final era of the church and the last voice of prophecy. God did that in three Bible sources. The first was specifically in Jeremiah 4:15-27. This was the voice derived from Dan/Ephraim that was to warn of the Coming of the Messiah in the Last Days and to warn of the Wars of the End. The purpose of that system was to also explain prophecy especially the prophecies of the Latter Prophets from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the Twelve Prophets to Malachi and on through the NT to Revelation (Warning of the Last Days (No. 044)).

The second vehicle was in Ezekiel which must be coupled with Daniel to understand the serious position of Israel and Judah and the time of the wars of the end. See also (F024; xiv; F026; x; xi; xii; No. 036; 036_2) and the Sign of Jonah 013 (Ref. P), and Completion of the Sign of Jonah (No. 013B). Ezekiel was also used to establish the timing of the Jubilee system and the restoration. Hillel made a complete mess of this system using the Babylonian intercalations and the 49 year jubilees which are completely unbiblical. The WCG failed to carry it through when they did study the issue, because they could not rid themselves of the lies of Hillel and the traditions. That error consigned everyone in the Churches of God keeping it to the Second Resurrection. They followed an invalidly baptised false prophet to the Second Resurrection through ignorance (see also No. 269) (Ref. X).

The third vehicle was through Revelation in chapters 2 and 3 detailing the Churches of God.

Rev. 3:1-6 deals with the Sardis system and placed the last or demarcation system to the final Church of that system that has the name that it is living but it is dead. The only church that fits that description is the Living Church of God, formed in 1997 from Global out of WCG. Sardis had the Unitarian Godhead until the Ditheist system (No. 076B) was advanced by Armstrong in RCG/WCG and that ultimately smashed their system into Radical Unitarianism, (generally from the Freemasons (No. 076C)) and Binitarianism and Trinitarianism. (No. 076).

Two major churches were formed out of the Sardis system aside from a few hundred offshoots. The first of these was the Laodicean system (Rev. 3:14-22) which became a major Sabbath system from North America but did not keep the Temple Calendar and not even Hillel.

The other major offshoot of the Laodiceans was the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society or Jehovah's Witnesses. They became Antinomian Sunday keepers and thus failed completely. They will be in neither the First Resurrection, nor the Millennium.

The final system to be formed is the Philadelphian system (or church of brotherly love) formed after the Laodicean system in spite of its place in Rev. 3:7-13. The key to the role and doctrines of this church is found in Rev. 3:9.

Behold I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are jews and are not, but lie- behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and learn that I have loved you.

In Rev. 3:10 we learn that this system has kept the word of patient endurance; it is to be kept from the hour of trial that is to try those of the whole earth; verse 11 says that Messiah is coming soon and to hold fast that which that system has so that no one may seize their crown. This system is to be made pillars in the Temple of God. The text in verse 12 also continues on to say that: never more shall he go out of it. This text indicates that there will be great upheaval in the Churches of God over this period and that the ones in that system will have been forced out of the Temple of God to retain their crowns given the false doctrines involved (see No. 283). (Ref. S).

The people claiming to be Jews at this time will be liars and not true Jews at all. These and the people of the Churches of God following their doctrines will also be rejected. They will have “lost their crown”. They are judged as in Amos 8:5-7, 11, and Isa. Ch. 1. They will be put out of the Temple system. The series of Churches that retain their crowns are those of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira and Philadelphia. Sardis and Laodicea are rejected as systems because of their false doctrine and dead or lukewarm spirituality. The connection where those who are saying that they are Jews but lie are the tribes that came into Judaism with their traditions and made to bow down and worship or proskuneo to those of the final and millennial system. These tribes are explained in the tribes of Judah (No. 212E) and Israel No. 212F).

The reality of this text is that pseudo-Judah which represents over 90% of Judaism in the Last Days will repent and then be made to pay obeisance before us as we have become elohim in the First Resurrection and they have not done so. So also everyone keeping these false doctrines of the Jews will have to repent before or under the earliest years of the Witnesses to even have a chance at the First Resurrection. The fact is that every person claiming to be of the Churches of God and who does not repent of the Hillel system and the other doctrines of the synagogue of Satan before the third year of the Witnesses commences will not enter the First Resurrection. If the Churches of God do not repent at the coming of the Messiah, they will not even enter the millennial system and they will be killed and consigned to the Second Resurrection.

The Temple Calendar is what we of the Churches of God have kept since the formation under Messiah in 27 CE. We have never kept Hillel until 1940 odd, and we will be punished for that error along with the Jews and pseudo-Jews that do not repent. Getting the doctrines and the Calendar correct is not some sickness contrary to what some of the ministers have taught. It is our desire to help you make the First Resurrection and survive either in the Resurrected Saints or in the millennial system. The choice is yours. We will help you understand more fully, if you request it. The answers are all in the Bible although you seem to reject or avoid that issue.

God has given us all directions to follow that are clear and precise. The proclamation of the Calendar is the responsibility of the Church of God with the lampstand, in accordance with the Laws of God. Hillel is not such an instrument and the Jews, and everyone else, will be punished for what they do, or fail to do. Your errors do not excuse the failure to keep the Temple Calendar and Hillel will not excuse you or save your lives. You are required to prove all things (1Thes. 5:21 and test the spirit of all men (1Jn. 4:1) and keep the commandments of God and the faith and testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev. 12:17, 14:12). One is to submit to God and His laws not to false prophets who blatantly misrepresent Scripture. James 3:1 says you who desire to teach will be more severely judged.

Christ did not keep Hillel. He kept the Temple Calendar as we have done on until the mid Twentieth Century and do so now. Hillel is a minor aberration of the COG (SD) and WCG system and anyone stupid enough to follow it will not be among the elect. To say that the modern Church has followed the Jews and their calendar is an outright lie. See also Isa. 1:13-14 to see what you people have done and corrupted God's Sabbaths, Feasts, New Moons, Laws and you will be stricken for violation, and put out of the Temple system.

Measuring of the Temple

Revelation 11:1-2 states that there is to be a Measuring of the Temple (No. 137) (Ref. T) in the Last Days. The sequence is as follows:

On 16 January 1986 the Idol, or Worthless, Shepherd of Zechariah (11:17) died. He had made himself a demigod in the Sardis system through a process of brainwashing over the fifty years of RCG/WCG’s brief existence, using the corrupt self-seeking ministry of those who would profit from the brethren as prophesied in Ezekiel Ch. 34 (F026ix). His family influence was removed and almost dead. For a number of corrupt reasons, he had appointed a successor that knew little and allowed the Trinitarian subversion of the WCG. In 1987 prior to 1 Abib J.W. Tkach announced the Measurement of the Temple had begun and read Rev. 11:1-2, almost as Caiphas announced the death of Christ in 30 CE. This was in effect the assessment of the Temple, and the world, over the last 40 years from the year of the Third Sabbatical cycle to the Jubilee of 2027. This was the forty years of the Last Generation of this age (Mat. 24:34; Mk. 13:30; Lk. 21:32).

The first phase was the measurement of the Ministry over the first seven years to the Third year of the Third Cycle of the 120^th.Jubilee in 1994. In this year God scattered this apostate church to the four winds. Over the next thirty years the world began to be informed under the Final Church system, of brotherly love, that restored the Temple Calendar and the Jubilees. The ministry were now under their final test and the brethren were then tried. The churches proved their complete inability to correct false doctrine and correct lies, as this UCG document of 2021 (44^th year of the Jubilee) proves. 2022 is the Third year and the major changes of the Seventh cycle began. The corruption of the Israelite nations was final, and the destruction began as we see in Wars of the End Pt. I: Wars of Amalek (No. 141C) (Ref. U).

We are now in the Final or Second Holocaust and most of the world will die. All the keepers of Hillel and those who do not keep the Law and the Testimony (Isa 8:20; Rev. 12:17; 14:12) will not be allowed into the First Resurrection (No. 143A) (Ref. V) of the elect or into the Millennium.

The Second Resurrection

Those of the false systems of Sardis and Laodicea will be sent to the Second Resurrection and the Great White Throne Judgment (No. 143B) (Ref. W) with the rest of mankind. There they will be retrained with the rest of humanity and the Demons (see No. 080).

The fact is that the Sardis system has baptised over 300,000 people in its period of the Twentieth Century under Hillel and the Laodicean system has baptised millions under an antinomian system of lies. All those people will be furious when they find out what these false prophets (No. 269) (Ref. X) and scoundrels have done to them. As a result the Host will have to place the entire ministry into Cities of Refuge until they can re-educate the people to forgive them and give them a chance to repent. So also with “popes” and Trinitarian Ministers and all Jews keeping Hillel that have not repented. Those that do not repent under re-education will simply die at the end of the system in 3127 and their carcasses will be disposed of in the Lake of Fire. The choice is theirs. Any one stupid enough to follow them is certainly unfit for the Kingdom of God.

References:

A Timing of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection (No. 159)

B The Forty Days Following Christ’s Resurrection (No. 159A)

C UCG Council of Elders Doctrinal Statement on the Calendar of 2021

D Open Letter to The Churches of God Re: New Moons and the Hillel Calendar (No 124B)

E God's Calendar (No. 156).

F The Calendar and the Moon, Postponements or Festivals (No. 195)

G Distortion of God's Calendar in Judah (No. 195B)

H Hillel, Babylonian Intercalations and the Temple Calendar (No. 195C)

I Origin and Basis of the Karaite Division (No. 156C)

J. Oracles of God (No. 184).

K. Acts of the Apostles (F044vii)