That is the great "FALL Harvest of souls!"
The astonishing fact is that the present soul- harvest corresponds to the early Spring grain-harvest of Palestine. It is so pictured in the annual round of festivals God gave to Israel to keep His people continually in the understanding of His PLAN! This is the preliminary harvest of souls! This is the time of SATAN'S dominion. And out of it God is calling a people for His name, that through our mercy who now are called, the great majority not now called may, then, obtain mercy! Those now called to salvation are merely the "first-fruits" of God's salvation (Jas. 1: 18). They are called, now, to prepare for the office of "king" or "priest," to become the instrumentality through which Christ will really save the world, when HIS time comes! What a glorious PLAN, and GOSPEL!
But, some will say, is not this the doctrine of a SECOND CHANCE?
Absolutely not!
One text ought to make that plain, Hebrews 10:26-27: "If we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth NO MORE SACRIFICE FOR SINS, but a CERTAIN fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation."
Those to whom it has not been given to understand - those not now CALLED- have not received the KNOWLEDGE of the Truth.
They may have heard it preached. But most of them do not really grasp it- they do not really UNDERSTAND! Because the TRUTH is spiritual knowledge, and spiritual knowledge cannot be transmitted naturally to a mortal human mind! Spiritual truth is revealed! None receive it, though their ears hear the words, or their eyes read them, except as GOD opens their understanding and by His spirit reveals to them the TRUTH!
But, if one has been truly called of God, convicted by God's spirit, his mind opened to the precious spiritual knowledge of the Truth, then if that man sins willfully, deliberately, intentionally, without resistence- THAT MAN IS THROUGH! He had had his chance! He shall have no other, during the coming millennium!
Those who shall then be saved are those who have not, until then, been CALLED! They are those who NEVER HAD A PREVIOUS CHANCE!
In God's own time, according to His Plan, all shall have their chance! But each in his order. Those who were born and lived first receive theirs last. And those born last come in first! The illustration of the "Valley of dry bones" in Ezekiel 37 shows the whole House of Israel-those spiritually blinded who lived and died without a chance-resurrected in mortal bodies to mortal life, as before. It shows their understanding being opened- the KNOWLEDGE coming to them for the first time. Then God puts His holy spirit within them, and they are saved!
And so it follows, now, that most of our loved ones who have died unsaved in all probability did not die LOST! In all probability they were not called, during this age. But their call is coming later! They shall be resurrected back to life, and given their fair chance! And you, if you are called- if God reveals this wonderful TRUTH to your mind- are having YOUR one and only chance NOW- your chance to prepare and fit yourself to be used of Christ in the loving labour of helping to save them, then!
Oh, what great MEANING we begin to see in the Christian life! What glorious PURPOSE! What grave responsibility! Will you make your calling and election SURE?
And now, in the light of this wonderful revelation of truth, we should be able to UNDERSTAND this matter of "PREDESTINATION."
Very few understand what "predestination" is. First, consider what it is not. There is no teaching in the Bible that says the decision you are to make- your final fate of becoming either saved or LOST, is already predetermined, and that you are DESTINED finally to arrive at that fate!
Absolutely NO TEXT anywhere in the Bible says anyone is predestinated to be LOST!
But doesn't the Bible say anything about predestination? Certainly. But it does not say what people seem to think! People seem to think it says we are predestinated to be either saved or lost. Some to be saved-others to be lost.
Let us read the only texts in the Bible speaking about "predestination." And see if you can find anything in any of them about anyone being predestinated to be LOST. The difficulty is that people have assumed and taken for granted what is not true.
There are just FOUR places where the word "predestinated" occurs in the Authorized version.
Romans 8:28-30: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, he also did PREDESTINATE to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did PREDESTINATE, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified."
Ephesians 1:4-5, 11-12: "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in Love: having
PREDESTINATED us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will . . . in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being PREDESTINATED according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will: that we should be to the praise of His glory, who, first trusted in Christ."
Notice, none of the places in the Bible where predestination is mentioned says anything about anyone being predestinated to be LOST- predestinated to reject Christ. No one is predestinated to make a certain decision- to accept or reject Christ- to be saved or lost. But some have been predestinated to be called to salvation, NOW!
Of those called NOW, in this age, notice WHEN we were called!
II Timothy 1:9: "God, who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began."
And, as in Ephesians 1, quoted above, notice carefully what it SAYS:
God chose us in Him, when? "Before the foundation of the world!" "Having PREDESTINATED us"- what for? To be LOST? No, "unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ." "Being PREDESTINATED according to the purpose of Him, who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." Were any predestinated, then, to be LOST? Is it GOD'S WILL that any be lost? He says it is not! Then can't we see that "predestination" has nothing to do with WHETHER we shall be lost or saved- with our decision-with our ultimate fate?
Notice carefully, now!
"Being PREDESTINATED ... that we should be to the praise of His glory, who FIRST trusted in Christ!" Those predestinated are the FIRST to trust in Christ merely the first preliminary soul- harvest!
And now do you begin to see the glorious truth-that predestination has nothing to do with your making a decision or your fate-it has only to do with the TIME of your calling- whether you are called NOW, in this age, or later!
Notice it in the passage in Romans 8:28-30:
"For whom He did foreknow." How GREAT is God! If you are one now called, God
"foreknew" you- Knew you thousands of years before you were born! and "whom He did
foreknow He also did PREDESTINATE TO be lost? No, "to be conformed to the image of
His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did
PREDESTINATE, them He also CALLED." Not will call in the future---called, now, in this age.
There it is! Note it!
"Whom He did predestinate, them He also CALLED!"
Predestination has to do with BEING CALLED. Not with being saved or lost. Those now
being called, in this age, were foreknown, and PRE- destinated to be called now- to be the
FIRST to put their hope in Christ. All others have their call later!
God does not decide for you, in advance, whether you shall be saved or lost. He DID decide far in advance which ones He would call in this FIRST calling, to be a priest or a king in His Kingdom- to have part in the saving of OTHERS!
How WONDERFUL are God's ways, when He opens our understanding to reveal them to us!
Let us make our calling and final election SURE! Let us not grieve over departed loved ones who probably were not called, in this life. God is able to raise them up again. They will come up in the Great White Throne Judgment. And in that judgment, The BOOK OF LIFE shall be opened, and many shall then find it. Judgment, now, is upon the true Church of God- those now called (1 Pet. 4:17). And WE are later to JUDGE THE WORLD! (1 Cor. 6:2)
The overwhelming majority on earth today are neither saved nor lost. Their chance has not yet come. This is not their time. But it is coming as certainly as God's Word is TRUE!
This is NOT the age when Christ is desperately contesting Satan as to whether all humanity
shall be saved or lost. If it were, as most seem to believe, a controversy for souls now,
between Christ and Satan, then Satan surely is winning the contest, and a one sided contest it is!
But Satan is not more powerful than God! We near, now, the close of the sixth working day of Satan's week. Soon will come "the Sabbath of THE LORD THY GOD." Satan shall be chained, Christ shall rule- And PREACH, and SAVE!
[1] Rather, we are nearing, now, the end of the six working days of the millennial week allotted Satan!
Ed. No, we are now nearing the end of seven working days of the millennial week. Satan has been influencing man for " six working days". Satan's firsts "day" was the pre-adamic period or 1000 years when he rebelled against God. Christ said, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Luke 10:18. When Christ takes over the earth Satan will have had " ruled" over the earth for seven thousand years. That completes his time. He blew it.
[2] A millennial week each "day"
One day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 2 Peter3:8.
Ed. At the point of time when Christ (with his bride) stand on the earth to
rule, there will be no sun. It will have melted away.
Christ will be the light, as in our day time. With HIM we will have
perpetual light for a period of one thousand years. It will be
one thousand years of daylight, Christ being in place of the sun. HE is
after all a GOD being NOW.
[3] But there is no injustice with God. He denies no one an
opportunity of salvation. These many are simply [3] called NOW-
at this time- in this, Satan's age! This is simply not the TIME when God is
trying to save everyone.
Ed. The [3] should really have the word NOT put in its place
to make sense. These many are simply NOT called NOW.
This has been highlighted because too many religious leaders are happy to
write RELIGION without giving much thought to the confusing effect of not proof
reading the material.
[4] Jews (of Judah).
Ed. The Jews of Judah are still a scattered people. New York has 2 million of
them. The "Jews" of Palestine are in fact 95% Gentiles of Russia, controlled by
modern day Edom. Hence in the last days Jerusalem will be trodden down of the
Gentiles Luke 21:24.And-For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to
battle: Zech. 14:2. Rev. 16:16 and Joel 3:1,2 cover the same thing.
[5 ] in that same day.
Ed. Whilst in the Worldwide Church of God under Mr Herbert W Armstrong, he
used the concept that Christ was going to rule on EARTH, the scriptures used
were Zech.14:4-5 and 1 Thess. 4:17. Page 309 Mystery of the ages. The doctrine
being that the resurrected saints and others being changed would meet Christ in
the air and that very same day come down out of the
clouds and stand with him on the Mount of Olives.
This doctrine is partly associated with the Secret Rapture Theory and
recently a sect in America apparently waited on a mountain in America for Christ
to descend with a space ship to carry them back to heaven; which of course
didn't happen.
While there are elements of truth in what HWA said and what the Rapturist's
and the sects say, overall the basic doctrine is FALSE. This doctrine is covered
in the article The Marriage Supper of the Lamb cd47, 48. Its FREE upon
request. And The Marriage of the Lamb, Spelling it out cd83. The
original author of The Marriage Supper of the Lamb is Todd
Derstine.
Introduction: In 1957, after learning about God's Sabbath, I read a lengthy
book called, "Pagan Holidays or God's Holydays." After reading it I was
convinced that God's Holy Days were to be kept as well as the weekly Sabbath.
For the first time in my life I realized God had a real purpose for all of
mankind . . . I am reproducing a portion of this book along with some of my own
comments. I hope you will take time to study this booklet and check it in your
Bible. My prayer is that it will give you a better understanding of the destiny
that God has for us.
Tom Justus, Minister
Church of God, Sabbath Day
Springdale, Arkansas
January, 2000
Presented By:
Church of God UK
In the 12th chapter of Exodus, while the children of Israel were still in
Egypt- LONG BEFORE ANY OF THE LAWS MOSES HAD BEEN GIVEN-prior to the time when
God revealed to Moses and the Israelites that He would make the Old Covenant
with them-we find God's annual Holy Days being observed.
And in the 23rd chapter of Leviticus we find a summary of these annual Holy
Days or set feasts. The reason for calling them Holy Days is because as each day
is given it states that this day is a "Holy Convocation," Holy assembly.
Now when God made the Sabbath for MAN, He gave man a rest- day carrying great
significance and purpose. To His CHURCH in the wilderness, God said that the
Sabbath was a covenant SIGN between Him and His people. Exodus 31:13 A sign is a
supernatural proof of identity. It is the sign by which WE KNOW that He is God.
How does it prove that to us? "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,
and on the SEVENTH DAY He rested." It is a memorial of CREATION.
And creation is the proof of the existence of God. Creation identifies God.
The Sabbath is a weekly memorial of creation. A weekly reminder of God's power
to create. Therefore it identifies God to us.- It keeps us in the true memory of
true worship of the true God. No other day but the SEVENTH DAY OF THE WEEK could
have that great significance and MEANING. It was designed to keep us in the true
worship of God.
Now in like manner, when God gave His Church seven ANNUAL Sabbaths, God, in
His wisdom, had a great purpose. These days, too, were given to keep God's
children in the true memory and worship of God by keeping us constantly in the
understanding of God's great plan of redemption. For these annual days picture
the different epochs in the Plan of spiritual creation and mark the
dispensations, and picture their meaning.
The whole story of spiritual regeneration was, in these feast days, to be
reenacted year after year continually. They have vitally important symbolism and
meaning. These feasts, or Holy Days, or Sabbaths, were commanded to be kept YEAR
AFTER YEAR, and FOREVER! We ask the reader to retain an OPEN MIND.
Thus God purposed to impress the truths these "high" Sabbaths picture upon
all the minds of His children through ALL time, keeping His Church in the true
understanding of HIS PLAN!
This is the beginning of God's plan for mankind. Starting in Exodus 12 and
skimming through verses one through fourteen (1) "And the Lord spoke to Moses
and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, (2) This month shall be unto you the
beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. (3) Speak
you unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month
they shall take to them every man a lamb. (5) Your lamb shall be without
blemish, a male of the first year. (6) You shall keep it up until the fourteenth
day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel
shall kill it in the evening.
(7) And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the side posts and on
the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. (12) For I will
pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all
the first born in the land of Egypt, both men and beasts; and against all the
gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. (13) And the blood for you
will be a token upon the houses where you 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. (14) And this day shall be unto you
a MEMORIAL; and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your
generations; you shall keep it a feast by an ORDINANCE FOREVER.
The slain lamb, without blemish, represented Jesus Christ. As the children of
Israel had to come under the blood of this slain lamb, we too have to come under
the blood of Jesus Christ for salvation. Many places in the Bible mention Christ
as a lamb. When John saw Jesus approaching him he said, "Behold the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world." John 1: 29. Also Peter says in I st Peter
1:18, 19, "You were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without
blemish and without spot."
The night before He was crucified [1], while eating the
Passover Lamb Christ made a great change in this ceremony. Knowing that He was
going to fulfill the real meaning of the Passover, "He took bread and gave
thanks, and brake it, and gave it unto them saying, This is my body which is
given for you; this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after super
saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you' " Luke
22:19, 20. In John 13:4, 5 he writes, "He (Christ) riseth from
supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded
himself.
After that He poureth water into a basin and began to wash the
disciples feet, [2] and to wipe them with the towel
wherewith He was girded." John 13:13, 14. He continues, "You call me Master and
Lord; and you say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have
washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another's feet."
We no longer slay a lamb at this time of the year, but take bread and wine as
a memorial to Christ's death. Dear friends, do you see the wonderful meaning? Do
you grasp the true significance of it all? Do you see God's purpose? The
Passover pictures the DEATH OF CHRIST for the remission of sins that are past.
Now let us consider the second part of God's plan for the redemption of mankind.
Exodus 12:15, 16 - "Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first
day you shall put away leaven out of your houses; for whosoever eateth leavened
bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from
Israel. And in the first day there shall be an Holy Convocation, and in the
seventh day there shall be an Holy Convocation to you; no manner of work shall
be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done by
you."
Let us learn the full significance of this. Why did God ordain these Feasts
days? What was His great purpose? Turn now to Exodus 13 verse 3 - "Moses said
unto the people, Remember this day, in which you came out from Egypt."
"Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and the seventh
day shall be a Feast unto the Eternal". . . "This is done because of that which
the Eternal did' (a memorial)-"and it shall be for a SIGN" a miraculous PROOF of
identity-"unto thee upon thy hand, and for a MEMORIAL between thine
eyes"-WHY?-"that the LORD'S LAW MAY BE IN THY MOUTH"... verse 9, 10. "Thou shall
therefore KEEP this ordinance."
Do you grasp the true significance of it all? Do you see God's purpose? The
PASSOVER pictures the DEATH OF CHRIST for the remission of sins that are past.
The accepting of His blood does not forgive sins we shall commit. It does not
give us license to continue in sin-therefore when we accept it, our sins are
forgiven only up to that time-PAST SINS.
Shall we stop there with only past sins forgiven? We are still flesh beings.
We still suffer temptations. Sin has held us in its clutch! We have been slaves
to sin, in its power. And we are powerless to deliver ourselves from it. We have
been in bondage to sin just like the Israelites were in bondage to Egypt! To
what extent shall we put away sin? Not partly but COMPLETELY! And as leaven is
also a type of sin [3]- leaven puffs up, and so does sin -and
as SEVEN is God's number symbolizing COMPLETENESS, we are to follow the Passover
with seven days of unleavened bread.
Shall we leave Christ symbolically hanging on the cross? The seven days of
UNLEAVENED BREAD following Passover, picture to us the COMPLETE putting away of
sin, the KEEPING of the Commandments after our past sins are forgiven. They
picture the life and work of the RISEN CHRIST who ascended to the throne of God
where He is now actively at work in our behalf as our HIGH PRIEST, cleansing us
of sin ... delivering us completely from ITS POWER ... The early church kept the
Days Of Unleavened Bread, notice Acts 20:6
"We sailed away from Philippi, AFTER THE DAYS OF UNLEAVENED BREAD." Paul and
his companions plainly had observed the days of unleavened bread at Philippi.
The holy spirit would not have inspired these words otherwise. Likewise notice
Acts 12:3-4, "Then were the days of unleavened bread," why this, if those days
had in God's sight, ceased to exist. This was after the crucifixion. The days of
unleavened bread still existed, or the holy spirit could not have inspired "then
WERE the days of unleavened bread."
Next in order of God's plan for mankind comes Pentecost. The word "Pentecost"
is a Greek word, used in the New Testament, but not in the Old. It signifies
"fifty." In the Old Testament this feast is called "Feast of First fruits," and
"Feast of Weeks." In Leviticus 23:9-10-11, "And the Lord spoke unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel saying unto them, When you come into
the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then you
shall bring a sheaf of the First fruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he
shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you; on the
morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. (The
Israelites were not allowed to harvest any early grain crop until this day.)
Verse 15-16 And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from
the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be
complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath (during the days of
unleavened bread) shall you number fifty days;" Verse 21
"And you shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an Holy
Convocation unto you; you shall do no servile work therein; it shall be a
statute in all your dwellings throughout your generations." This is the very
feast that Jesus' disciples were observing as recorded in Acts 2:1 "And when the
day of Pentecost (Feast of First fruits) was fully come, (being observed) they
were all with one accord in one place." This is the day God gave His holy spirit
to the Church. Christ had told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem for this
power.
In Palestine there are two annual harvests. First produced by the early rain,
is the spring grain harvest, second, produced by the "latter rain," comes the
main harvest . . . the MUCH GREATER fall harvest. God intended His Holy Days to
picture to His Church repeatedly year by year the fact that only those He
himself calls during this age can become His begotten children now. We are
merely the First fruits of the great spiritual harvest. As Passover symbolized
Christ's sacrifice for the remission of our sins and the days of unleavened
bread, the putting away of sin. PENTECOST pictures the FIRST part of the
spiritual harvest-the calling out of the Church-the called-out ones which, for
the New Testament dispensation, began in 31 A.D.-On the day the holy spirit
FIRST came to dwell within flesh, as prophesied in Joel 2:28.
The two wave-loaves were brought out of the habitations of the congregation
as the FIRST FRUITS unto the Lord. So the New Testament CHURCH was gathered out
of an apostate, Christ-rejecting congregation (church) of Jews, as the FIRST
FRUITS of His salvation. Leviticus 23:17
God has not cast away His people, Israel. But He Blinded them UNTIL the end
of Gentile Times, so that through their fall, salvation came to the Gentiles,
who, through Christ, are individually GRAFTED IN, or spiritually ADOPTED into,
the family of Israel.
This is the dispensation when God is calling a people for His name (Acts
15:14-17-study this anew!) to be a Kingdom and PRIESTS, reigning WITH Christ in
the Kingdom during the thousand years (Rev. 5: 1 0).
"After this"-after this dispensation of taking out of the Gentiles a people
for His name-"I will return," promises the Eternal; What for? "and will build
again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the
ruins thereof and I (Christ, not men) will set it up."
WHY? "That the residue of men might seek after the Lord."
Tabernacle signifies worship. During this present Church age, the Jews and
Israel are blinded. Their church "tabernacle" is fallen down. Israel is "in
Babylon." After this, Christ will return, and then the rest of men-blinded
Israel, and Gentiles alike, will seek after the Lord when Satan is chained, and
Christ reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords!
Those of the FIRST FRUITS of His salvation, made immortal, will then reign
with Him, as kings and priests in the wonderful work of building a NEW
civilization.
During this time Israel is mostly blinded UNTIL the fullness of the Gentiles
come in; and so (Rom. I 1: 26) all Israel shall, then, be saved from sin; for
the DELIVERER, Christ, shall come out of Zion! All Israel shall be brought to
repentance and saved from sin-how? Because Christ turns ungodliness from mortal
Israel by forgiving sin.
Now, in this dispensation, Israel has not believed, and the tabernacle of
David is fallen down (Rom. 11:31-32), that, through the mercy of the Gentiles
and the small "Elect" in Israel, picked out in this age, acting as kings and
priests with Christ, THEY, ALSO, then, may OBTAIN MERCY!
How WONDERFUL is God's great PLAN of redemption, when we understand it, as we
see it pictured in these annual HOLY DAYS! To be
continued.
Some Stamps are now having the E only on them and the Post
Office cannot do anything about it. No price (I have been told they are 37p
each) this is in addition to straight bananas and curved sausages and trying to
forcing us to go metric.
If the Continent of Europe was incredibly prosperous and debt free i.e.
totally out of the control of the international bankers; Edom of the old
testament, I could understand our politicians wanting to join them. But they are
a seething cauldron of corruption and cost us in the UK,
Billions.
Britain Under Siege. A 78 page study that has been carried
out to show how Britain as a nation in under attack from numerous enemies
because she has not "kept the ways of the Lord" but has "wickedly departed from
God" 2 Samuel 22:22. History has shown how the Lord protected this nation in
time of trial because she was faithful to Him but now, because Britain's
disobedience and sin, "God stirred him up another adversary" to punish her, 1
Kings 11:23. All those who would earnestly desire to see Britain "redeemed from
the hand of the enemy before God final, fiery judgement falls.
"I will punish you according to the fruit of your doing, saith the Lord: and
I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour all things round
about it "Jeremiah 21:14.
Ed. A shocking study but well worth reading.£5.00; $10.00
"Co-Incidences"? A 21 page booklet; Linking Britain with
Ancient Israel. A very concentrated study that will warm the heart.£3.00; $6.00.
Send donations to Church of God P.O.Box 53 Farnborough Hants GU14 OYZ UK
Introduction by the Editor. Again this article is one of
those "original" articles that brought so many people into the Church about 70
years ago. While the main theme remains the same, comments [ ] will be added to
the end of the article to show where we think the "original Herbert Armstrong"
needed modifying.