August/September 2015

Because of the coming Feast and holy days, this letter is for August and September.

However, you will receive the Feast CDs or DVDs the first part of September.

On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States issued the perverse, ungodly judgment, by a 5-4 vote, that same-sex “marriage” was legal. While millions of ungodly people rejoiced at this decision, millions of others were stunned in disbelief. Bewildered, they asked: “How could they do that? It is against God and history!”

In defiance against God, the five majority judges would not listen to the four judges who opposed their decision—nor would they heed the will of countless politicians or the majority of America’s population! Many who have some knowledge of the Bible understand that this vile decree will bring God’s harsh judgment upon the nation. Even some of the lawyers involved in the case warned the Court that an affirmative decision would bring God’s wrath!

The same-sex “marriage” decision is actually the result of lawlessness and sin in the nation today. God calls homosexuality an “abomination” (Lev. 18:22), which is gross sin. The Bible also labels this sin “sodomy”—after the infamous city of Sodom, which God destroyed with fire and brimstone. Jude records that the wicked today are “as Sodom and Gomorrah—and the cities surrounding them [Admah and Zeboim (Deut. 29:23)], in the same manner as them—having given themselves over to sexual debaucheries, and having gone after different flesh are themselves exhibited as a perpetual example of undergoing the punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 7). The continuing harmful effects of this horrendous decision will undoubtedly multiply many times over, resulting in the re-creation of “Sodom and Gomorrah” on a scale never before seen in human history.

Greater Abominations that Began Fifty Years Ago: On January 22, 1973, in the case Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court made the 7-to-2 ruling legalizing abortion. Here is a summary of the final decision: “The Court held that a woman’s right to an abortion fell within the right to privacy (recognized in Griswald v. Connecticut) protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision (Roe v. Wade) gave a woman total authority over the pregnancy during the first trimester and defined different levels of state interest for the second and third trimesters. As a result, 46 states were affected by the Court’s ruling” (ROE v. WADE. The Oyez project at IIT, Chicago-Fent College of Law, 07 August 2015).

Little did the members of the Supreme Court realize that their decision was in direct violation of God’s Law. Neither did they consider that the long-term consequences of their actions would lead to a society filled with promiscuous sex and violence on a pervasive scale.

God’s command “You shall not commit adultery” is the foundational law concerning all sexual transgressions, which are clearly defined in Leviticus 18-20. In Leviticus 19, God gave a specific command that the Court never considered: “You shall not prostitute your daughter to cause her to be a whore, lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness” (verse 29). As is evident today, God’s warning has indeed come to pass.

As a nation, we began to systematically violate this commandment more than 50 years ago—about eight years before Roe v. Wade. In about 1963, sex education began to be taught in the public school systems. Today, as a result, 50 to 60 percent of teenage boys and girls and young men and women engage in sexual activity without regard to marriage. When the effects of the media, entertainment industry, and alcohol and drugs are factored in, it is no wonder that sexual immorality is the hallmark of today’s society.

The “sex any where, at any time, with anyone, at any age” way of life has resulted in the breaking of God’s commandments against adultery and prostituting our daughters and making our sons whoremongers. Indeed, the land has been filled with addiction to sex and drugs, wickedness, depravity, and crime. Consequently, the traditional family—of both father and mother, as God originally created—has been destroyed, resulting in the overwhelming burden of millions of single mothers and fatherless children.

Today, we are facing similar conditions of rampant sin and violence as was prevalent during the prophet Ezekiel’s time, just before the destruction of Jerusalem. “And He said to me, ‘Have you seen, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah [applies to us today] that they do the hateful things which they do here? For they have filled the land with violence and have turned to provoke Me to anger still more….Therefore I will also deal with fury; My eye shall not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them’ ” (Ezek. 8:17-18).

Even if the people will not repent, God still commands His servants to “Cry aloud and spare not!” This is what God told Isaiah: “Cry aloud, do not spare, lift up your voice like a ram’s horn, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me daily, and seem eager to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and one that did not forget the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they seem eager to draw near to God” (Isa. 58:1-2).

But they do not draw near to God in humility, truth and sincerity. Rather, they come before Him as the heathen come before their false gods! Therefore, God mocks them for their pretense and gross sins: “But draw near here, you sons of the sorceress, you seed of the adulterer and the harlot. Against whom are you making sport? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and draw out the tongue? Are you not children of transgression, a lying seed, being inflamed with idols under every green tree, killing the little children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks?” (Isa. 57:3-5).

The Greater Abominations of Abortion and the Selling of Fetal Body Parts: A great holocaust of epic proportions has recently been exposed by some very courageous investigators who have risked their lives to uncover the gruesome truth about the abortion industry. For the past three years the Center for Medical Progress has been conducting undercover investigations of Planned Parenthood’s abortionprocedures and the harvesting and selling of baby parts for scientific research. Even though there are federal laws against these practices—let alone the laws of the Creator God—investigators have found that this is exactly what is being done.

This is not a recent practice—this has been going on for decades!

The Center for Medical Progress has recorded hundreds of hours of video in their three-year undercover investigation. Just fifteen days after the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex “marriage,” the first group of these video recordings was released and shown on FOX News. The regular major TV news organizations—ABC, NBC, CBS and PBN—did not show them, which clearly tells us that these organizations are completely corrupt and do not report news that is not “politically correct.”

I am sure many of you have seen excerpts of these investigative videos. You have seen the callused, heard-hearted, inhuman attitudes of these female executives as they openly discussed retrieving specific body parts of aborted infants—even the complete bodies of late-term aborted infants—GRUESOMELY MURDERED FOR PROFIT! If you have not heard of this, you can write us, e-mail us, or call the office and we can send you a DVD with three full hours of these investigative videos.

These videos reveal the consequences of 42 years of abortion-on-demand and expose the “greater abominations” of this nation. There can be nothing more satanic and demonic than this horrific practice of willfully killing the unborn and selling their body parts. How can it be a woman’s legal right to kill the unborn child in her womb? It is exactly as Paul writes: “Now the Spirit tells us explicitly that in the latter times some shall apostatize from the faith [reject God altogether], and shall follow deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons [there can be nothing more satanic and demonic than killing the unborn]; speaking lies in hypocrisy, [with] their consciences having been cauterized [as] with a hot iron [as shown by claiming that the aborted infants’ body parts are for the “noble purpose” of scientific research]” (I Tim. 4:1-2).

God’s condemnation applies to every woman and man involved in the murder of the unborn. More importantly, He holds the religious, civil, and medical leaders of the nation responsible for the blood of the nearly 60 million abortions since January 1973!

The wanton killing of the unborn in America has been worse than what Israel and Judah did thousands of years ago. In the days of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the Israelites did not abort the unborn to simply get rid of unwanted children; rather, they had “offerings” of newborns to Baal and Molech—both pagan sun gods. This was one of the main reasons God destroyed Jerusalem and delivered the people of Judah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who carried them into exile.

Jeremiah’s Sobering Warning of Dire Consequences: God instructed Jeremiah to warn the priests and leaders of Jerusalem for their killing and offering infants and young children to be burned in the fire to Baal:

“Thus says the Lord, ‘Go and get a potter’s earthen jar, and assemble some of the elders of the people and of the elders of the priests. And go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom by the entry of Potsherd Gate. And there declare the words that I shall tell you. And say, Hear the Word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and people of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, which shall cause the ears of him who hears it to tingle. Because they have forsaken Me, and have profaned this place and have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents [the infants sacrificed to Baal]. They have also built the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I never commanded nor spoke, nor did it come into My mind.”

“ ‘Therefore, behold, the days come,’ says the Lord, ‘that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but, The Valley of Slaughter. And I will make the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem come to nothing in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of those who seek their lives. And I will give their dead bodies to be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth.

“ ‘And I will make this city [Jerusalem] a waste and a hissing. Everyone who passes by shall be astonished and shall hiss because of all its plagues. And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their own sons and the flesh of their own daughters, and they shall each one eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall afflict them.

“ ‘Then you shall break the jar before the eyes of the men who go with you, and shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel that cannot be made whole again. And they shall bury them in Tophet until there is no place left to bury. I will do this to this place,” says the Lord, “and to its people, and make this city as Tophet. And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be as defiled as the place of Tophet because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host [false gods] of the heavens, and have poured out drink offerings to other gods.” ’

“Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy. And he stood in the court of the Lord’s house, and said to all the people, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all its towns all the evil that I have spoken against it because they have hardened their necks so that they might not hear My words” ’ ” (Jer. 19:1-15).

As modern-day descendants of ancient Israel, waves of God’s corrective judgments are coming upon this nation—precisely because of these horrendous sins. And they will continue to come—like the waves of the ocean, crashing onto the beach just before a hurricane hits with a mighty force. To be sure, our abominable evils have risen up before the face of God. This nation was founded on God and the Bible. But today, though professing to be Christian, most Americans have turned their backs on God, as did ancient Israel and Judah.

Our accumulated sins have now become depraved abominations, just as in the days of Ezekiel: “And He [God] said to me, ‘Son of man, do you see what they do; even the great abominations which the house of Israel is doing here, that I should go far off from My sanctuary? But turn again, and you shall see greater abominations.’… And He said to me, ‘Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, each man in his room of idols? [All the top political leaders and their organizations.] For they are saying, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the earth’ ” (Ezek. 8:6, 12).

Now that America has been graphically confronted with proof of these abominable practices—the wanton killing of the unborn and the selling of their body parts—the question is, What will we do?

We can be thankful for all of the Pro-Life organizations that have been tirelessly trying to roll back this abortion holocaust. We can thank God for using the Center for Medical Progress to courageously expose Planned Parenthood’s genocide of millions of innocent unborn babies.

Will America now outlaw abortion? Will enough people stand for God and the unborn to hold back the hand of God’s judgment? Only time will tell!

Man and Woman: The Special Creation of God

In Genesis one, God records His special creation of man and woman: “And God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of heaven and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that crawls upon the earth.’ And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him. He created them male and female. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of heaven and over every living thing that moves upon the earth’ ” (Gen. 1:26-28).

God personally created and formed Adam with His own hands: “Then the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life also was in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2:7-9).

After placing Adam in the garden, He commanded him to dress and keep it. He was also to guard it, as the word “keep” implies. Then God created Eve and she became his wife: “And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helper compatible for him.’… And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall over Adam, and he slept. And He took one of his ribs, and afterward closed up the flesh underneath. Then the Lord God made the rib (which He had taken out of the man) into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

“And Adam said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man.’ For this reason shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife—and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed” (Gen. 2:18, 21-25).

Although Adam and Eve sinned against God by eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and were thus removed from the garden, God continued to work with them and their offspring. He promised a coming redeemer, Jesus the Christ (Gen. 3:15), to make atonement for their sins and the sins of their descendants. Thus, God would still carry out His plan and purpose for mankind. (For a detailed study on God’s Master Plan, write for our book, God’s Plan for Mankind Revealed by His Sabbath and Holy Days.)

Nearly 3,000 years later, King David, a man after God’s heart, praised God for His creation of mankind, revealing that God made human beings a little lower than God Himself. “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens!... When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained, [I am compelled to ask,] ‘What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? For You have made him a little lower than God and have crowned him with glory and honor. You made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands!’ ” (Psa. 8:1, 3-6).

What did God give to all human beings that sets them apart from the rest of creation? The Bible reveals that God has given to each person, at conception, the “spirit of man.” In fact, it is this “human spirit” that facilitates the conception of a new human life! Modern science verifies that human life begins at conception. As we will see, it takes three components to create each new human being: First, the sperm from the father; second, the ovum from the mother; and third, the spirit of man from God. It is the “spirit of man” from God that gives life, because “the body is dead without the spirit” (James 2:26).

The Spirit of Man

God is composed of spirit (John 4:24). And from God comes the Holy Spirit, which is the power of God through which He does all things. The Bible also reveals that God has given to each person a separate, invisible spirit essence or substance called the “spirit of man” (or the “spirit in man”). God gives this special spirit at conception. Its purpose is to enable humans to have thought and consciousness. “But there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty gives them understanding” (Job 32:8). Paul notes its unique function: “For who among men understands the things of men except by the spirit of man which is in him?” (I Cor. 2:11.)

The spirit of man, though unseen, is united with the human brain. It is not a separate spirit being, such as an angel or demon. Rather, it is a spirit essence or substance that God places in each human. It imparts the power of life, thought, intellect, and other godlike characteristics. This human spirit makes man different from any other creature God has created. The prophet Isaiah writes that God has “created the heavens and stretched them out, spreading forth the earth and its offspring.” Continuing, God “gives breath [life] to the people upon [the earth] and [gives] spirit [Hebrew, ruach] to those who walk in it” (Isa. 42:5). God places this spirit essence within each human being: “Thus declares the Lord who stretches forth the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit [ruach] of man within him” (Zech. 12:1).

This spirit of man enables human beings to possess numerous godlike attributes. Indeed, it is this unique spiritual dimension that makes us “a little lower than God.” However, the “spirit of man” is different from what the Bible calls the “soul.”

The word “soul” is translated from the Hebrew nephesh, meaning physical life, whether human or animal. In many passages nephesh is translated “creature” or “life” (Gen. 1:20-21, 24, 30; 2:19; 9:4-5, 10, 12, 15-16; etc.). When translated “soul,” it refers to the physical life and strength of a human being (Gen. 2:7; Ex. 1:5; Lev. 23:27; Deut. 4:29; Joshua 11:11; etc.).

Rather than being separate from the physical body, the soul is inextricably fused with the body. When God created Adam from the dust of the ground, Adam did not receive a soul, he “became a living soul” (nephesh). The “soul” is what a person is physically—not something he “has.” The “soul” empowers the physical functions of the body—the blood, lymph, and nerve systems of each person. Indeed, the “soul” can die (Ezek. 13:18-19; 18:4, 20). Nearly all living animals are referred to as “souls” because they have physical life. The Bible tells us that their “souls” die as well (Rev. 16:3).

Paul writes that there are three aspects to human life: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your entire [human] spirit and soul [life] and [physical] body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Thess. 5:23)

Unlike the soul, which ends with the death of the body, the “spirit in man” returns to God when a person dies (Eccl. 12:7). Importantly, the “spirit of man” contains a complete record of the thoughts, memories, and character of the person to whom it belonged. Upon a person’s death, God preserves this human spirit—to use it again at the resurrection in order to fully restore the person with a new body and mind.

Referring to those who will be in the first resurrection to eternal life, Paul speaks of the “spirits of the just who have been perfected” (Heb. 12:23). Indeed, it is the completed “spirit of man” that God will use to resurrect those who will be in the first resurrection.

The Spirit of Man in Human Procreation

The Bible affirms that even those of ancient times had some knowledge of the spirit of man—the spirit that God gives to each new human life at conception. They understood that it was this spirit that actually brought about the creation of life in the womb. When speaking to the patriarch Job, the young Elihu said, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (Job 33:4). Elihu was referring to the fact that it was God Who made or formed him in his mother’s womb by His Spirit (Zech. 12:1). The prophet Isaiah refers to God as the one who “created the heavens and stretched them out, spreading forth the earth”—who “gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it” (Isa. 42:5).

Without a doubt, it is the spirit of man that imparts godlike attributes to humans. It makes it possible for us to think and reason. Paul writes, “For who among men understands the things of man except by the spirit of man which is in him? (I Cor. 2:11). This confirms Elihu’s declaration, “But there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty gives them understanding” (Job 32:8).

King David praised God for the knowledge that He is the one who creates life in the womb. He understood that procreation occurs according to a set order or pattern: “I will praise You, for I am awesomely and wonderfully made; Your works are marvelous and my soul knows it very well. My substance was not hidden from You when I was made in secret and intricately formed in the lowest parts of the earth [symbolic of the womb]. Your eyes did see my substance, yet being unformed; and in Your book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there were none of them” (Psa. 139:14-16).

Today, the scientific name for newly conceived life, yet unformed, is still “substance.” The “members” written in God’s “book” of procreation are now called the “human genome.” By the power of God’s Spirit working through the spirit of man, all the “members” or parts of a newly conceived infant are fashioned throughout its nine months in the womb. The growing baby is the combined genetic expression of his or her father and mother. Moreover, every human being has ultimately descended from the original genes that God created in Adam and Eve. Thus, David proclaimed to God, “Your hands have made me and formed me” (Psa. 119:73).

This statement is true because God created the original genes and chromosomes in Adam and Eve—containing within them an almost infinite variety of human characteristics—from which all mankind would be produced through procreation. Thus, all human beings down through time have been formed by God.

God explained this to the prophet Jeremiah: “And it came to pass, the Word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the belly I knew you [this means God knew Jeremiah at the instant of his conception]; and before you came forth out of the womb I consecrated you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:4-5).

Indeed, each individual is unique; each newly begotten baby is a special creation, being “made and formed” by God. In human procreation, it is the father who begets the new human life in the womb of the mother. This begettal takes place when a sperm from the father penetrates the ovum of the mother and conception occurs. It is at this precise instant that God gives the spirit of man and a new human being is conceived. Jesus said, “It is the Spirit that gives life” (John 6:63).

Infused with the power of the spirit of man, the combined genetic material from the father and the mother of the newly conceived infant begins to develop immediately. Without the spirit of man there can be no human life. Since the spirit of man is invisible, science remains ignorant of this unique power from God that actually facilitates the creation of human life in the womb and that sustains one’s life until death—as “the body is dead without the spirit” (James 2:26).

At Conception a Miracle Takes Place: The Creator God is the greatest scientist of all. And men can know the reality of the Creator God by what He has created. Paul writes: “[T]hat which may be known of God is manifest among them, for God has manifested it to them; for the invisible things of Him are perceived from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that were made—both His eternal power and Godhead—so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:19-20).

Only God can create; men can only observe, study, and utilize what God has created. While the spirit of man is invisible, its power can be measured—at conception! At the instant of conception, a miracle from God takes place. In his book Young Again, John Thomas describes this “bio-electric/spirit” event:

“Human sperm makes the long trip into the woman’s fallopian tubes to fertilize the ovum with power generated by the mitochondria. The base of the sperm’s tail is heavily laden with mitochondria. When sperm fertilizes the egg (ovum), the electrical discharge of 480,000 volts of electricity comes from both the sperm and the ovum. Both are ‘energy’ bodies—one is HUGE, the other is miniscule....

“The electrical discharge the ovum generates is only 0.19 volts. The discharge by the sperm is 25,263,157 times greater than that of the ovum—a huge difference! There is a massive difference in physical size between the sperm and ovum. The volume of the ovum is 1,760,0003 microns; and the sperm 213 microns. When we divide the size of the ovum by the size of the sperm, we find that the egg is 83,809 times greater! These differences in physical size and electrical potential generate the release of the 480,000 volts, called bio-electric lightning!”

Thomas continues: “The electric ‘discharge’ coagulates [and seals] the ovum’s outer surface, preventing penetration by other sperm. This massive electrical event is the beginning of a new ‘life’! Death is a similar—but opposite—electrical event where ‘spirit’ energy exits the body and returns from whence it came” (John Thomas, Young Again! How to Reverse the Aging Process; Plexus Press, Mead, Wash. 2006; pp. 255-256, 252).

At the instant of conception, when this “bio-electric discharge” takes place, God gives the spirit of man—thus creating the beginning of a new human life. While this discharge can be detected by specialized instruments, it is invisible. It is the spirit of man from God Himself that is the “spark of life”—which empowers the combined genes and chromosomes from the father and the mother to begin developing a new human life. Though this new life is only the size of a microscopic speck of dust, it is still a unique human life. It already contains all of the genetic information it will ever need; all that is required is the time it takes to develop in the womb, to have a live birth, and then grow into an adult.

Thus, we have absolute proof from the Word of God and from modern science that human life begins at conception. Therefore, abortion is the murder of a human being!

Dates for the coming Feasts and Holy Days: Trumpets, September 14; Atonement, September 23; Feast of Tabernacles, September 28-October 4; Last Great Day, October 5

You will be receiving the messages for each Holy Day, and for every day of the Feast of Tabernacles. These are all new messages recorded for you ahead of time. If you have not yet made reservations for the Feast at one of our locations, you may get the necessary information on our Web site.

May you have a tremendous festival season!

Brethren, once again, thank you for all of your prayers and your love. Thank you for your tithes and offerings. As you know, every cent is used to feed the flock of God and preach the Gospel to the world. We pray for you every day that God the Father and Jesus Christ will bless you and be with you spiritually—to strengthen you, help you, heal you, and encourage you. Remember, we stand in grace, walk in faith, believe in hope, and live in love!

With love in Christ Jesus,

Fred R. Coulter

FRC

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