Dear Friends,

Today is the day we traditionally associate with the Return of the Messiah. It is the New Moon of the Seventh month. In ten days we will be fasting for the Day of Atonement and in fifteen days we will be at the Feast. It is now two years since we were at the Reading of the Law. As we observed last year much has happened and much more will happen as we progress down the long and twisted road of world politics and war. Iraq is getting worse and not better. 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 are now starting to say the same things, but it is too late now.

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.

The US military is now 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 is now being trumpeted as a certainty in the immediate future.

This year Trumpets falls on the anniversary of the Twin Towers disaster in New York, i.e. 11th of September. This month many expect a number of major events to happen. Next Sabbath I will deal with the economic problems facing our society and what happened in the past and its likely impact on the future.

As we pointed out last year: “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 paper Trumpets (No. 136) on this day to get our bearings as to what is to occur. It 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.”

We are required to work while we still can, while it is 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.

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.

As we said last year: “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 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 is no offering on Trumpets or Atonement, and only one at the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles; thus three offerings a year.

The Churches of God are expected to obey God and follow His instructions. The last three Sabbath Messages 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 and the weakness and idolatry of his followers.

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 their 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 Josephus and the interchangeable dates, Temple and Macedonian calendar dates (see the paper War with Rome and the Fall of the Temple (No. 298)).

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 Tabernacles, 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 Atonement. Pray that the Adversary is restrained and the bonds of wickedness are broken and the oppressed go free.

We have seen much tribulation this past month all over the world. Pray to bring an end to our tribulation this month and make new starts and pleasant ways. Enjoy your Feast as we are now about to enter a most serious period in the history of the world from next year onwards.

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.

Again this year pray that Christ is soon here and that the time is cut short and peace can reign, and also again 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).

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