March/April 2004

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COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> Pete Fleming, Elder </div> <div> Greetings to God's called scattered brethren, </div> <div> By the time you receive this Elder's letter in the current issue of "Prove All Things," we will be only a short time from the Passover and Spring Holy Days. Hopefully, we have all been using the time allotted to us by the Great God to examine our spiritual state and prepare for this all important Holy Day season ahead of us. </div> <div> There is probably no better time than this to quickly review the beginning of God's Master Plan - Passover: </div> <div> The great God of the universe created mankind for a stupendous and awe-inspiring purpose! That purpose was first revealed on the 6th day of the week of re-creation, in the Garden of Eden. God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness" (Gen. 1:26). God made mankind for the ultimate purpose of being fashioned into the very character "image" of God - ultimately to be born as spirit members in the universe-ruling Family of God! </div> <div> God has mapped out a plan by which He is fulfilling His awesome purpose for mankind. God's master plan is outlined in the form of seven annual festivals that true Christians are to observe every year in order to keep themselves in the knowledge of God's plan. </div> <div> However, it was not until after the Israelites were delivered from Egypt that God revealed His annual festivals that depict that plan. Through Moses, God formally introduced these festivals to His nation Israel - His "church in the wilderness" (Acts 7:38). </div> <div> God used the yearly agricultural harvests of Palestine as symbolic types of His spiritual "harvests" of mankind. In Palestine there is a spring harvest followed by a much larger fall harvest. We understand from the teachings of Christ and the apostles in the New Testament, that God intends the spring festivals of Passover, Unleavened Bread and Pentecost, to illustrate to His Church yearly, that all those He has called to become His Spirit-begotten children since Christ's first coming are only the "first fruits" (Jas. 1:18) - only the relatively small beginning of His great spiritual harvest of mankind into His spiritual Family. Later, during the much larger autumn harvest season, pictured by the fall holy days, God will call the rest of the billions of humanity to salvation and sonship in His glorious Family - after Christ's return. These annual festivals of God have great significance for true Christians today. </div> <div> These festivals are not the "feasts of the Jews" as so many so-called "Christians" believe. They are God's own feasts that are to be kept year to year by His people. "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts'" (Lev. 23:1-2). Lev. 23: 4, "These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times" (See also, Exo. 12:1-14, 21-27). </div> <div> The Passover, the first of God's commanded annual festivals, is the beginning, the very first step, in God's great master plan of salvation for mankind. Although the original Passover was to be a yearly memorial to remind Israel of God's intervention in delivering them from slavery in Egypt [a type of sin], it also pictured, in advance, the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our Passover lamb and sin offering. The sparing of the Israelites' firstborn from the death angel through the shed blood of the first Passover lamb is a type of our being spared today from the eternal penalty of sin - death - through Christ's sacrifice, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6:23). </div> <div> Passover was commanded to be kept forever (Exo.12:14,24), but since the symbolism of the Old Testament Passover was fulfilled by the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ; now after Jesus' death, the New Testament Passover is to be celebrated as a yearly memorial, with the new symbols of bread and wine. Jesus became the reality that the Passover lamb had just foreshadowed. </div> <div> It is obvious from scripture, that Jesus Christ observed the Passover - both as a child and an adult (Luke 2:41-50, John 2:13,23). Jesus kept the annual festivals. After all, He, as the God of the Old Testament, was the One who originally gave them to Israel! And, despite the nay-sayers, Jesus did observe the Passover with His disciples on the night before He was crucified, "And on the first unleavened came the disciples to Jesus, saying to Him, ‘Where will you we may prepare for You to eat the Passover?'" (Matt. 26:17 Interlinear Bible by J.P. Green) "And He said, ‘Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, ‘My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.' So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover. When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve" (Matt. 26:17-20). Also, "Then He said to them, ‘With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer'" (Luke 22:15). </div> <div> During this last Passover meal, Christ issued His disciples a new command regarding the observance of the Passover - the foot washing ceremony: "And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded" (John 13:2-5). </div> <div> Why did Jesus institute this new observance of foot washing during His last Passover meal? "So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them'" (John 13:12-17). </div> <div> Foot washing in Jesus' time was a menial task that only servants performed, when visitors entered a house. Jesus was illustrating to His disciples that He had come to earth to serve mankind. Shortly afterward, He proved the extent of His extreme service for this world when He gave His very life for the sins of all mankind! Foot washing depicts the attitude of humility and service to others that Christ desires every Christian to have and Christ plainly stated that He expected His disciples [then and now], to wash each other's feet (Vs.14-15). </div> <div> Prior to His death, Christ instituted a completely new way of observing the Passover as He ate that last Passover meal with His apostles. "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.' Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom'" (Matt. 26:26-29). </div> <div> Jesus did not abolish the Passover - He merely changed the symbols used. Instead of shedding the blood of the lamb and eating the roasted body, we are now to use wine and unleavened bread. The Passover is now to be kept as an annual memorial of Christ's death. It reaffirms year by year "till He comes," the true Christian's faith in the blood of Christ, "our Passover" (1 Cor. 5:7) - for the remission of sins, as symbolized by the drinking of the wine. </div> <div> Eating the broken bread symbolizes our faith in the body of Christ, broken for our physical healing. Jesus Christ allowed His body to be literally ripped open in dozens of places by scourging, until He could not even be recognized. He suffered this torture so we, through faith in His broken body for us, may have the forgiveness of our physical sins - the healing of our bodies when we are sick (Isa. 53:5, I Pet. 2:24, Jas. 5:14-15) - as well as the forgiveness of our spiritual sins through Christ's shed blood. And so the bread is a reminder to us that it is by "His stripes we are healed." </div> <div> As Christ Himself commanded, true Christians today should be observing the Passover on the eve of His death - on the 14th day of the first month of God's true "ordained calendar," - in the evening, after the beginning of the day. </div> <div> If you have not done so, it is vital that you study to honestly prove when we should begin the 1st day of the new year, in order to keep the Passover and all the Feasts of God at their proper appointed time. The Church of God, In Truth, will provide you with an abundance of information - available for the asking, as well as the informative articles in this issue of "Prove All Things," to help you prove for yourself exactly which "new" moon should be used for counting. You may also listen to the weekly Sabbath sermon over our internet connection on www.postponements.com, or by calling our conference line, 1-617-328-1785, then entering code, 428 (11:30 AM Pacific time). </div> <div> The Apostle Paul taught New Testament Christians to keep the Passover by partaking of the new symbols of bread and wine, just as Jesus had done and commanded: "Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor 5:7-8). </div> <div> Paul also reinforced the manner in which Christ taught that the New Testament Passover should be kept: "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.' In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes" (1 Cor. 11:23-26). </div> <div> The original true Church that Jesus built, annually kept the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread - not Easter, or some other paganized "Christian" holiday. </div> <div> Jesus commanded His disciples to keep the Passover in remembrance of Him until He returns. The apostles kept it, and today, God's true Church is still keeping the Passover. </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Church of God, In Truth </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>