App
August 15, 2017
Dear Brethren,
In about five weeks we will begin observing the fall holy days—starting with Trumpets on September 21, Atonement on September 30, the Feast of Tabernacles, October 5-11, and the Last Great Day on October 12. As we do each year, we will be sending you all new messages for each holy day, as well as messages for each day of the Feast. The Word of God teaches us that the Sabbath and holy days reveal, in sequence, the “framework” of God’s plan of salvation for all mankind—from Adam and Eve to the New Jerusalem!
But God did not reveal all of this knowledge at one time. In fact, He has “hidden it in plain sight” throughout the Bible. It can be found in the Old Testament, where it is mostly sealed as with a lock. Much more is found throughout the New Testament, especially in the book of Revelation. The New Testament is the key to the “locked” portions of the Old Testament. This is how God has revealed His purpose for man—eternity in the glorious Kingdom of God!
Five additional factors are needed in order to understand God’s secret plan, called the “Mystery of God.” These five factors are: 1) Obey the voice of God. Today, we have the voice of God—His spoken word contained in the Bible; 2) The love of God for all mankind, as stated in John 3:16; 3) Our personal love for God (Deut. 6:1-6; Matt. 22:36-40; Mark 12:28-29) and our love for the brethren, our neighbors, and even for our enemies; 4) The begettal of the Holy Spirit of God within us; and 5) Rightly dividing the Scriptures (II Tim. 2:15).
When all of these are in place—combined with love, humility, and a genuine desire for the truth—God will reveal His mystery to us. The apostle Paul writes: “But according as it is written, ‘The eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things—even the deep things of God.
“For who among men understands the things of man except by the spirit of man which is in him? In the same way also, the things of God no one understands except by the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but [we have received] the Spirit that is of God, so that we might know the things graciously given to us by God; which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit in order to communicate spiritual things by spiritual means. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (I Cor. 2:9-14).
What Paul writes agrees with God’s promise to the prophet Daniel: “And I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, ‘O my lord, what shall be the end of these things?’ And he said, ‘Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and refined. But the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand’ ” (Dan. 12:8-10).
As promised, God has revealed this knowledge “bit by bit” over time. He also promised that “a good understanding have all those who do His commandments” (Psa. 111:10). Indeed, it all begins with “obeying His voice.” And a key area of obedience is the keeping of the weekly Sabbath and the holy days (annual Sabbaths). In Exodus 31, we find that at Mount Sinai God established Sabbath-keeping as a special, perpetual covenant “sign” between God and His people: “And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, ‘Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, “Truly [in truth] you shall keep My Sabbaths [plural; includes the annual holy days], for it [the keeping of God’s Sabbaths] is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations to [so that you may] know that I am the Lord Who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath therefore, for it is holy to you.
“ ‘ “Everyone that defiles it shall surely be put to death, for whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
“ ‘ “Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed”’ ” (Exodus 31:12-17).
While God was speaking these words to Moses, Aaron and the children of Israel made the golden calf—the sun god of Egypt—and worshiped it. Thus, they rebelled and suffered greatly by rejecting God’s commands.
It is the same today with the “Christian-professing” world. To them, the Sabbath and holy days have little or no meaning, because they are all wrapped up in their “golden calf”—the observance of Sunday and occult holidays.
As a result, just like the children of Israel, they are all spiritually blinded by their own false beliefs, choices, and actions. Jesus said: “For this reason I speak to them in parables, because seeing, they see not; and hearing, they hear not; neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, ‘In hearing you shall hear, and in no way understand; and in seeing you shall see, and in no way perceive; for the heart of this people has grown fat, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and should hear with their ears, and should understand with their hearts, and should be converted, and I should heal them’ ” (Matt. 13:13-15).
In time, God will strip away their delusions and their make-believe world—along with their sanctimonious goodness, idolatry, and false salvation. These practices actually constitute open rebellion against God, just as Isaiah writes: “ ‘Woe to the rebellious children,’ says the Lord, ‘who carry out a plan, but not of Me; and who form an alliance [the coming one-world religion], but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin….
“ ‘Now go, write it before them in a tablet, and note it in a book [the Bible], so that it may be for the time to come forever and ever [the end times], that this is a rebellious people, lying children. They are children who will not hear the law of the Lord. Who say to the seers, “See not,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions; go out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” ’
“Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, ‘Because you have despised this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on them; therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant. And He shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is smashed in pieces. He shall not spare, so that there shall not be found in the fragments a shard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water out of the pit’ ” (Isa. 30:1, 8-14).
Proof of this rebellious attitude against the Word of God is found in one profound fact: In the “Christian world,” there is probably not a single minister, pastor, priest, or bishop—even the pope himself—who does not know that the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, Saturday. They can all quote the Fourth Commandment. But they refuse to believe and obey God. As a result, they blindly believe in and observe Sunday, as instituted by Rome, claiming that it is the New Testament day of worship. To make matters worse, they have convinced themselves and their followers that Satan’s pagan, occult holidays are actually “Christian”! But as God declares, He despises and rejects such false worship: “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies” (Amos 5:21).
It is exactly as Jesus said in the parable of the sower: “When anyone hears the Word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the wicked one comes and snatches away that which was sown in his heart. This is the one who was sown by the way. Now the one who was sown upon the rocky places is the one who hears the Word and immediately receives it with joy; but because he has no root in himself, he does not endure; for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the Word, he is quickly offended. And the one who was sown among the thorns is the one who hears the Word, but the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Matt. 13:19-22).
This same closed-mindedness is even more pronounced in the agnostic/atheist world and exhibits itself with greater hostility. They believe in evolution—that everything came from nothing, all by itself! By refusing to prove and believe that there is a Creator God—who has created everything in the heavens and on the earth—they are more blinded, hostile, and rebellious than the religionists. And God has promised that His judgment will come upon both of them: “And the Lord said, ‘Because this people draws near Me with their mouth, and with their lips honor Me, but their worship of Me is made up of the traditions of men learned by rote, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandments of men; therefore, behold, I will proceed to do again a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise ones shall perish, and the wisdom of their intelligent ones shall vanish.’ Woe to those who go deep to hide their purpose from the Lord! And their works are [done] in the dark, and they say, ‘Who sees us? And who knows us?’ Surely, you have turned things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the potter’s clay; for shall the work say of him who made it, ‘He did not make me?’ Or shall the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘He had no understanding?’” (Isa. 29:13-16).
How Satan the Devil Keeps the World in Spiritual Blindness: Not only do people “close their own eyes,” but Jesus reveals that Satan the devil, the “wicked one,” is actively deceiving the whole world (Rev. 12:9). As Paul writes, Satan, who is the “god” of this present age, keeps the masses spiritually blinded from the truth of God: “Therefore, having this ministry, according as we have received mercy, we are not fainthearted. For we have personally renounced the hidden things of dishonest gain, not walking in cunning craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth, we are commending ourselves to every man’s conscience before God. But if our gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those who are perishing; in whom the god of this age [world] has blinded the minds of those who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (II Cor. 4:1-4).
Satan himself appears as an “angel of light” and his ministers and agents as “servants of righteousness.” Paul writes: “For such are false apostles—deceitful workers who are transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And it is no marvel, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his servants also transform themselves as ministers of righteousness—whose end shall be according to their works” (II Cor. 11:13-15).
Today, Satan’s method is new age postmodernthinking. It permeates thinking at every level of society—religion, government, education, entertainment, media, and finance. In fact, its deceptive tentacles have nearly captured the entire world. As a result, the world is caught in a powerful, spiritual vortex of evil that will ultimately leave nothing untouched. This is brought out in the Preface of our book Occult Holidays or God’s Holy Days—Which? The following is an excerpt from that preface:
A carefully crafted worldview being disseminated in Western society today is one which is not founded on the moral absolutes of yesteryear—a time when most people agreed on what was right and what was wrong, what was good and what was evil, who was wicked and who was righteous, and which things were true and which things were false. Instead, this new mindset tenaciously maintains that individuals must “consider” all the different religious and lifestyle alternatives of a culturally diverse world, accepting all beliefs and customs as equal and valid (with the exception of the Christian viewpoint, which is rejected with hostility and disdain). In the name of “tolerance,” judging moral behavior is simply not permitted.
The inevitable outcome of this approach is a world where it is believed there is no absolute truth, or if there is, it cannot be known. The individual becomes his own god, creating his own “reality”—and “truth” is whatever one wants or imagines it to be. This pervasive “postmodern thinking,” as it is called, has gone mainstream in just one generation.
In his book The Death of Truth, Jim Leffel writes: “Postmodernists believe that truth is created, not discovered…. In a recent series of more than twenty interviews conducted at random at a large university, people were asked if there was such a thing as absolute truth—truth that is true across all times and cultures for all people. All but one respondent [a Bible-believing Christian] answered along these lines:
‘Truth is whatever you believe.’
‘There is no absolute truth.’
‘If there were such a thing as absolute truth, how could we know what it is?’
‘People who believe in absolute truth are dangerous.’ ”
Leffel continues: “Truth, declares a growing collective consciousness, is relative: what is true, right or beautiful for one person isn’t necessarily true, right or beautiful for another. Relativism says that truth isn’t fixed by outside reality [especially by a Creator God in heaven], but is decided by a group or individual for themselves. Truth isn’t discovered, but manufactured. Truth is ever-changing not only in insignificant matters of taste or fashion, but in crucial matters of spirituality, morality, and reality” (pp. 20, 31, bold emphasis and bracketed comments added).
It is not difficult to follow this mindset to its logical conclusion. If twenty people have twenty different concepts about what is right and what is wrong, where does law and order fit in? Eventually, total lawlessness—even anarchy—is certain to follow. In trashing the truth of God, one falls prey to his own corrupt nature and his life becomes empty, void of purpose and understanding. As King David noted: “Behold, You have made my days as a handbreadth, and my age is as nothing before You. Surely every man at his best state is altogether vanity…. Surely every man walks about in a vain show! Surely they are in an uproar in vain. He heaps up riches and does not know who shall gather them” (Psa. 39:5-6).
The apostle Paul prophesied of a time when lawlessness would reign in men’s hearts. “Know this also, that in the last days perilous times shall come; for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, braggarts, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, despisers of those who are good, betrayers, reckless, egotistical, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; having an outward appearance of godliness, but denying the power of true godliness. But as for you, turn away from all these…. They are always learning but are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (II Tim. 3:1-5, 7).
Although knowledge in the sciences has increased exponentially in this postmodern age, secular society has become spiritually atrophied, crippled and incapable of attaining the truth of God in Christ Jesus because it has repudiated the Word of God.
Paul wrote that creation itself is a witness to all mankind of the truth of God—and that in renouncing His visible truth as displayed throughout His creation, man becomes vulnerable to countless deceptions and chicanery: “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; because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but they became vain in their own reasonings, and their foolish hearts were darkened. While professing themselves to be the wise ones, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed creatures, and creeping things.
“For this cause, God also abandoned them to uncleanness through the lusts of their hearts, to disgrace their own bodies between themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie; and they worshiped and served the created thing more than the one Who is Creator, Who is blessed into the ages. Amen” (Rom. 1:20-25).
Satan the devil, who is “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2) and anti-Christ, is behind the many deceptions that elevate the created above the Creator. One vehicle he utilizes to accomplish this in society today is, paradoxically, public education.
A former teacher, Beverly K. Eakman, is the current executive director of the National Education Consortium and the author of Cloning of the American Mind: Eradicating Morality Through Education (Huntington House). In her insightful article “Bushwhacking Johnny,” published in the September 2002 issue of Chronicles Magazine, Eakman expounded how the educational system is destroying truth, morals and independent thought in today’s young students by using what is called “cognitive dissonance” to psychologically disorient them. She writes: “When cognitive dissonance is employed against an unsuspecting person—or worse, against a captive audience such as schoolchildren—the short-term objective is to prompt insecure individuals to find company, leading to a group (mob) mentality. This makes it easier to reverse values held by the majority. ‘Truth’ can even be turned against itself—for example, ‘freedom of speech’ is now used to legitimize pornography [and other degrading, immoral lifestyles]. The very people freedom of speech was designed to protect are left not only vulnerable but suspicious of the principle itself.
“What ‘new values’ are educators trying to instill? Here is a seven-point list, given to educators in North Carolina at an in-service workshop:
- There is no right or wrong, only conditioned responses.
- The collective good is more important than the individual.
- Consensus is more important than principle.
- Flexibility is more important than accomplishment.
- Nothing is permanent except change.
- All ethics are situational; there are no moral absolutes.
- There are no perpetrators, only victims.
- “Notice that all of the items on this list involve no particular issue; rather, they reflect ethical ‘outcomes’ that a child is supposed to ‘internalize.’ ”
Eakman continues: “Cognitive dissonance ‘is a stressful mental or emotional reaction caused by trying to reconcile two opposing, inconsistent, or conflicting beliefs held simultaneously [double mindedness].’… So cognitive dissonance is not quite brainwashing, and it’s not quite subliminal advertising, either. It’s more like setting somebody up for a psychological fall. It plays with the mind by pitting various perceived ‘authorities’ against one another [parents, teachers, friends, political leaders, religious leaders and especially God and obedience to Him], exacerbating tensions [in the minds of the students]. After a while, intellectual deliberations shut down, and emotions take over. Only the strongest-willed individuals can hold out—[and they are labeled as] ‘the troublemakers.’
“Thus was my generation (the Baby Boomers) educated to ‘need’ our peers more than we needed our principles, making us easy marks for such tactics as cognitive dissonance. Our children are now sitting ducks, with civilized norms forever under attack … [wherein] all choices are equally legitimized…. Today, cognitive dissonance is an institutionalized method used to force-feed whatever is politically expedient” (www.BeverlyE.com, bold emphasis and bracketed comments added).
The use of cognitive dissonance is not limited to education. It is used in religion by clergy, in government by politicians and bureaucrats, in music, in entertainment, and in all other forms of media. Consequently, many societies around the world are seemingly caught in a downward spiral of immorality (lawlessness multiplied) that is rapidly approaching the degradation and hyper-immorality of Sodom and Gomorrah. Few voices of sanity are raised to warn against the onslaught of wickedness and immorality—and such voices are generally rejected, ridiculed or silenced.
Analyzing the marketing methods purveyors of evil have used in the past fifty years to achieve their goals, David Kupelian writes: “As Americans, we’ve come to tolerate, embrace, and even champion many things that would have horrified our parents’ generation. Things like abortion-on-demand virtually up to the moment of birth, judges banning the Ten Commandments from public places, a national explosion of middle-school sex, the slow starvation of the disabled, thousands of homosexuals openly flouting the law [with government sanctioned public displays of gross, lewd hetero- and homosexual sex acts] and getting ‘married,’ and online porn creating late-night sex addicts in millions of middle-class homes.
“At the same time, our courts have scrubbed America’s classrooms surgically clean of every vestige of religion on which this nation was founded—Christianity.
“The plain truth is, within the space of our lifetimes, much of what Americans once almost universally abhorred has been packaged, perfumed, gift-wrapped, and sold to us as though it had great value. By skillfully playing on our deeply felt national values of fairness, generosity, and tolerance, these marketers have persuaded us to embrace as enlightened and noble that which all previous generations since America’s founding rejected as grossly self-destructive—in a word, evil” (The Marketing of Evil, pp. 11-12, bold emphasis and bracketed comments added).
As a result, today’s world is upside down! Because people have rejected God’s truth, God has given them over to their own delusions. Truth, especially the truth of God’s Word, has been branded as error and lies, and error and lies have been packaged as truth. A well-known quote by Dresden James illustrates this paradox:
“When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.”
(End of excerpt from Occult Holidays or God’s Holy Days—Which?)
Considering the world we live in, we must be on guard so that we are not trapped by Satan’s schemes—which would subvert our love, faith, and obedience to God. We must believe the truth, love the truth, and obey the truth of God—every word of Scripture. Remember, our understanding of God’s plan is His gift to us through the revelation of His Word.
Isaiah emphasizes that we are to keep our eyes on the goal of the Kingdom of God. It begins with the Sabbath, which includes the holy days: “Thus says the Lord, ‘Keep justice and do righteousness; for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed [Jesus’ return is near]. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it; who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it; and keeps his hand from doing any evil.’… For thus says the Lord, ‘To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths [and holy days], and choose things that please Me, and take hold of My covenant; even to them will I give within My house and within My walls [New Jerusalem] a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name [eternal salvation] that shall not be cut off.’… [This blessing will be on those who join themselves to the Lord] to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, everyone who keeps from profaning the Sabbath, and takes hold of [His] covenant” (Isa. 56:1-2, 4-6).
Let us approach the coming feasts and holy days with these things in mind—with love and joy, knowing that through these wonderful high days God has revealed to His people the knowledge of His plan and purpose for mankind. Paul encourages us to remember that “our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost over, and the day is drawing near; therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom. 13:11-12).
Brethren, once again we thank you for your love, faith, and prayers. We realize that all of our strength comes from God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Head of His Church. We pray for you daily—for your health and healing, and for God’s blessings to lift you up when you are down, to encourage you in times of distress, and to strengthen you in times of trial. We thank you for your continued faithfulness in sending God’s tithes and offerings, so that all of us can continue together to love and serve God with all our hearts and minds.
With love in Christ Jesus,
Fred R. Coulter
FRC
