PASSOVER
APRIL 4, 2012
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Passover 2012 is rapidly approaching and we must make a decision [conscious choice] whether to partake of the Lord's Passover at its appointed time. What will your decision be? From which table will you take the Lord's Passover? The Apostle Paul urgently admonished the Corinthians to avoid idolatry. Paul warned them not to give the least degree of sanction to a form of worship that honors any other being than the One true God. God must come first at all times and His service must have first consideration always! Notice Paul's warning: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils" (1 Cor. 10:16-17,21). This cup of demons is a symbol of heathen gods – false deities seeking to oppose, thwart, and counterfeit the Lord's Passover.
There can be no compromising between God and false teachers, between truth and error or between righteousness and sin. Every man is called upon to chose whom he will serve. "For if we sin wilfully after
that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" (Heb. 10:26-29).
The majority of those who keep God's annual Holy Days, found in Leviticus 23, have not proven the origin of the oral Jewish Hebrew calendar, tradition of men, they follow. Most have not proven the calculations that have been intercalated into the oral Hebrew calendar. Most do not realize that these calculations cannot be proven from the Word of God,
the Bible! Those shepherding the Churches of God say that we are to follow the calculations and postponements that are in the oral Hebrew calendar, on faith. NO!!! We must follow God's Word, the calendar God has in the Bible, on FAITH !! Many professing Christians refer to the Bible as the Word of God, yet they refuse to obey its commands! These same professing Christian look to God's Word for their authority to keep the weekly Sabbath and the annual Holy Days, but they are not willing to keep HOLY the Days God sanctified [set apart] as Holy time!
Why is it according to the oral Hebrew calendar and/or what is called by some, God's "Sacred" calendar, that God's annual Holy Days are postponed by one, two or more days in some years?
We need to ask ourselves, How important is Passover to us? Does it matter which day we keep and observe for Passover? Would it disturb or bother you to see all the first born in your family die? Making the right decision to these questions could save you and those in your family from death as it did our forefathers living in Egypt. "The LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, [at midnight on the 14th day of this first month] and will smite all the first born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead" (Exo. 12:1,12-13,29-30). That is a very frightening picture. The believer, in doing what he was instructed to do, was saved by the blood of the physical lamb which pictured the"blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8), Jesus the Christ.
We are no different than those Israelites. We too, are to obey the Passover instructions given in the Word of God. Our goal is to follow the Living Word, Jesus the Christ, and His written Words found in the scriptures. Yet many professing Christians insist on playing "Russian Roulette" with God's commanded laws. This is done by practicing syncretism, believing half of what our Messiah said and practiced and believing half of what the Pharisees and scribes said and practiced. Case in Point, try to find in the Bible where God gave the Pharisees or the scribes [who, were never given nor received God's Holy Spirit] permission to postpone His annual Holy Days for a preparation day. Challenge yourself to find the rules of postponements that the Pharisees use to intercalate and determine God's sanctified Holy appointed time in His Word-- the Bible! It's just not there.
There are learned men that overlook the simplicity of Christ and interpret Matthew 23 as if they are to follow the doctrines of the Pharisees rather than obey God. We are to prove all things and let the Bible interpret itself. "Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to His disciples, Saying the scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not" (Matt. 23:1-3). Christ is paraphrasing a physical judgmental law-a civil judgmental law that He had instituted through Moses. "Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment. Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous" (Deut. 16:18-19). Christ is claiming the Pharisees and scribes adopted this civil job by appointing themselves to it. Moses went on to say "If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose; And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment: And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee: According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to. the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left" (Deu. 17:8-11). Local courts with civil judges were to be established in all cities. Civil matters of controversy that could not be settled in the lower courts were transferred to the Levitical courts.
Christ told the disciples how to make judgments in the church. "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican"(Matt. 18: 15-17). Christ never gave the scribes and Pharisees permission to change His commands. At the time, Christ said "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat," the Pharisees and scribes were not in charge of the temple. The Sadducees were in charge of the temple until 69 or 70 AD, when the temple was destroyed. The Pharisees and the scribes were in charge of the synagogues where they held open forums. Read the rest of Matthew chapter 23 and you will see what Christ thought about the Pharisees and scribes that sat in the civil seat of Moses!
The date marked on the oral Hebrew calendar, the one used by most Churches of God today for Passover 2012 is April 6th. This date again falls on the day counted by following the waxing crescent moon god, allah.
When reading Gen 1:1-5 that God calls the first day there is no sign of a crescent moon ! The Church of God, in Truth, following Geneses 1:1-5 which God calls the first day on His Biblical calendar. It is from this first day we count 14 days to know when to keep His memorial Passover on, April the 4th 2012. This date has no postponements or intercalation attached to it!
Notice the reason why certain Israelites united with Judah had to keep the second Passover. "Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover unto the LORD God of Israel. For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the congregation in Jerusalem, to keep the Passover in the second month. For they could not keep it at that time, because the priest had not sanctified themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem" (2 Chron. 30: 1-3).
Authority for the observance of the Passover in the second month, instead of the first, is given in Numbers 9:1-14. Notice verses 10-11, 13, "Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the Passover unto the LORD. The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the Passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the LORD in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin." What excuse will you give to your Creator when asked why you did not keep the Passover in its appointed season [time]? Quoting this verse out of two other sources to help have a clearer picture of the very serious consequences of not keeping the first Passover. The Good News Bible writes, "But anyone who is ritually clean and not away on a journey and who does not observe the Passover, shall no longer be considered one of My people, because he did not present the offering to Me at the appointed time. He must suffer the consequences of his sin." The Moffatt translation says, ‘But if any man, who is neither unclean nor absent on a journey, fails to keep the Passover, that person shall be outlawed from his kinsfolk, because he has not offered to the Eternal at the proper time: that man must take the consequences of his sin" (Num. 9: 10-11,13).
God inspired Isaiah to write, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins”(Isa 58:1). You are being warned of the error found in the tradition of man’s oral Hebrew calendar and keeping of the astronomical new moon that is not the instant of the dark moon conjunction God calls His first day, Gen 1:1-5. This is a warning as the Apostle Paul did when he said, "For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. Therefore watch and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified" (Acts 20:27-28,31-32). The Apostle Paul set the example of a watchman before the Ephesian Church for three years sanctifying them with truth.
We are not sanctified by the number of people in a specific group. We are not "set apart" by the many millions of dollars one might accumulate. If that is the way of measuring God's chosen, then the Catholic Church wins!! No brethren, Christ said, "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth" (John 17: 17).
God's people must obey God. Jesus Christ is the High Priest of the Church of God! We do not have to wait for the Sanhedrin of Judaism to come back to change the Hebrew calendar dates or wait for the astronomical, mean moon phase, or crescent phase to count from, to start a month. We must follow God and His Son, Jesus Christ. The signs in heaven have not changed. God set them for our good! We must keep the weekly Sabbath and His Holy Days at their appointed time!
May God give to you the courage and fortitude to partake of His Passover at His appointed time, because He asks, "How long halt you between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word" (I Kings 18:21). E
James Russell
LEV. 23:1-8:
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and
say unto them, Concerning the Feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be Holy convocations, even these are My Feasts.
3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an Holy convocation; you shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
4 These are the Feasts of the LORD, even Holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their seasons.
5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD's Passover.
6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread unto the LORD: seven days you must eat Unleavened Bread.
7 In the first day you shall have an Holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.
8 But you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an Holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.
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