All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand
The demise and interment of my mother inspired the writing of this article. Her death had some interesting coincidences, she died on April 9, 2006, exactly ten years to the day father was buried in April 9, 1996. She was buried on April 22 the day her fourth child was born in 1943. That son happened to be me, one of their ten children. When father was still alive, people in their church used to say to him that he was like the patriarch Job for they both had seven sons and three daughters. My family was converted to the protestant sect (Baptists) in 1956 one jubilee years to the day mother died. Everybody in the family are Baptists except me who is a member of The Church of God, in Truth. Long ago when called into the Worldwide Church of God, considered myself a tithe, just like Joseph, the son of Jacob (Israel) who was sold by his nine brothers to the Midianites who brought him to Egypt. When Joseph rose to power in Egypt his brethren was forced to submit to his authority just as Joseph dreamed they would bow down to him
The book of Genesis recorded what Joseph said to his brothers to allay their fears, “Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God”(Genesis 45:5-8). These words of Joseph were written here for our admonition. Ever felt that you are alone in the faith in your area? God is working with you as He had worked with Joseph who was alone in the prison in Egypt for more than twelve years. The knowledge that God is working with and through us should make us strong in the struggle.
The final hymn that was sung during the interment of my mother was an old protestant song, titled, The Solid Rock. It was the chorus that brought reality of their spiritual condition and futility of their faith. Their hope could be liken to the calamity that happened last February 17 in St. Bernard in Southern Leyte in the Philippines. Leyte was made famous because it was the island where Gen. MacArthur landed when he made good his equally famous, “I shall Return” promise in 1942. Barangay Ginsaugon is a cozy place of more than a thousand residents. The mountain is not directly above them and the rocks appear solid and hard. Their ancestors had been in the place for hundreds of years with no record of a major landslide. The residents have placed their trust and hope in the firmness and security of the area, then it happened.
On February 17, 2006, Barangay Ginsaugon, St. Bernard in Southern Leyte was gone, covered by many feet of mud . International attention was attracted and much aid was brought in from as far as the United States ,Japan, and Germany in Europe. Almost a hundred was confirmed dead and more than nine hundred were missing. The school building was completely covered with mud, including teachers and their students. After more than a month of digging, no recovery was reported.
Like my brethren’s faith and hope to the hymn, the solid rock that they were singing. The rock is solid, firm and strong but their trust and faith is of the wrong direction. They believe in the rock which is Jesus Christ, they put their trust and confidence in Him yet they won’t obey Him. The book of Luke made it very clear, “And why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”(Luke 6:46). This shows that to Christ obedience is a must. The last three verses of Luke chapter 6 shows the answer to most so called Christians, “Whosoever cometh to Me, and heareth My sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged, deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon the house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great” (Luke 6:47-49). Obedience to the words of Jesus Christ is the sure foundation . There is no other way, no other foundation solid and firm as Christ Himself tell us. He is the Rock that we read of in 1 Corinthians 10:4, “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” The apostle Paul tells us that a wise master builder cannot lay any other foundation than Jesus Christ, “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1Corinthians 3:10-11). So the solid foundation had been laid, it is only on how we lay on that foundation that matters.
Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong was used by God mightily for through him the Philadelphia era of God’s work was established. Many lost truths were restored. He had recognized that God’s word is the foundation of all knowledge, he had it etched in stone above one of the doors to Ambassador Hall, on what was then Pasadena Ambassador College campus. It reads, “The Word of God is the Foundation of all Knowledge.” The Word as we can read in the book of the apostle John is Christ. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth”(John 1:1,14). Mr. Armstrong used to say, Christ is the word of God in person, the bible is the written word of God.. In a sense, the Bible is simply the mind of Jesus Christ expressed in writing. Jesus shows the importance of His words, “He that rejected Me, and receiveth not My word, hath one that judgeth him: the words that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48 ). This is why Paul was bold enough to tell Timothy that, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:16). The whole Bible then is our strong foundation. God had inspired men to write in it all the necessary elements needed for salvation.
In the beginning, God had inspired Moses to write the book of the law. Through him God showed His creation and their purpose. God said to Moses in Genesis 1:14, “And God said, let there be lights in the firmaments of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.” This verse tells us that the sun the moon and the stars in the heavens each have their own purposes. Moses knew God’s plan even in setting up the calendar for God showed it to him. God had shown to Moses and to the Israelites the actual day and month and exact time His festivals are to be done or observed. Even to King David and the other prophets God had inspired them to write His plan and purpose. Let’s take for example the book of Psalms, in just one chapter God had recorded two truths previously not revealed to us, in Psalm 104:19, He said, “He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.” To a casual reader, only one fact about the moon is revealed, if properly understood, it points to the seven annual Holy Days. Nothing could be deduced in the sun knowing his going down, but to a spiritually lead mind, something is important to the going down of the sun following the appointing of the moon for seasons. It is the precedent to finding the true new moon. It tells that the true new moon starts exactly the moment the moon begins its dark phase just as the sun starts the night the moment the direct rays from the sun is no longer visible. We do not start keeping the sabbath at twelve midnight just to be sure its Sabbath already. Likewise, we do not start the month when the moon begins to appear as a faint crescent. The real reason why God inspired the writer of this verse in Psalm is that the going down of the sun is the precedent or guide to finding the true new moon. Note that if you have the wrong new moon you will have a different date for your festivals or Holy Days. Another truth that I want to bring out is in verse 26 of the same chapter, “There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.” The question to ask is what is this leviathan? And what is it doing in the verse with the ships? What is the leviathan doing in the place where ships go? The answer is, the leviathan is also a ship. An underwater ship, a submarine. The Bible answers itself, one need not go far for the answer, it’s found in the same verse or chapter.
The Bible is God’s word, it is a solid foundation, we can put our trust and faith on it. God said in John 17:17, “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.” These are red letter words in my bible, meaning Jesus Christ spoke them Himself and these are the words that will judge everybody in the future. All scriptures beginning from Genesis through Revelation are God’s word and are sure and solid foundation. It is only when this foundation are rejected or undermined or misinterpreted that one will find himself in danger. In the beginning God’s word, the foundation had been properly installed through Moses, and the Holy Days were observed in their right appointed times. Later on the Jews begun to make their own interpretation other than what Moses had told them and began to change the calendar that God had dictated to Moses. New Moons were moved or postponed and so are the festivals, they no longer follow what God had established through Moses. They are destroying God’s word, God’s foundation. The result could be disastrous as what had happened in Saint Jean Vianney in Quebec, Canada in May 4, 1971. You can browse or read about this incident in the internet how Saint Jean Vianney a small town in Quebec vanished.
There were ominous warnings. Earlier that spring strange things had begun happening in the small community. Cracks began appearing in some asphalt streets; some driveways sank as much as 5 to 8 inches. Telephone poles were observed `to sway even without wind. Dogs dashed around in circles barking and sniffing the ground. One woman complained to her husband that she heard water flowing under her house. He checked the basement and when he couldn’t see any water there, just told her she was crazy.
One evening in April many residents heard a loud thump that seemed to come from under their houses. They checked their basements and looked out of their windows, but no one could detect anything unusual. That is, no one except one family, who lived in the east edge of the town. After hearing the noise, they rushed out to their front porch to see what was happening, and to their shock, could see the lights of the larger town of Chicoutimi six miles to the east. Normally a 40-ft-high hill blocked that view. They immediately drove over to investigate and found that the hill had vanished. In its place was a giant hole-80 ft deep and the size of a football field.
Several weeks later, at about 10:45 pm on May 4,1971, one resident of the town was in her kitchen washing dishes when she heard an awful cracking noise coming from next door. It sounded like a huge tree falling. She looked out of her kitchen window and was shocked to see her neighbor’s house, with its lights still on, disappearing from view as it sank down into the ground. The woman jumped backwards and screamed in horror. Quickly she ran to the bedroom, grabbed her two daughters and ran to the front door. She swung it open, but just before she stepped out, saw that the porch wasn’t there-and the front yard and the street were also gone- all she saw was an expanse of blackness. So dragging her children behind her, she ran to the back of the house. She flung open a window only to see that the ground was at the level of the windowsill and rising. She shoved the two girls out of the window and then scrambled through herself, just seconds before the whole house slid away behind her, vanishing into a massive hole. She had to claw her way up the side of an expanding abyss. One of her little girls looked back and said,, “Mommy, our house has melted”.
They made it, but others were not so fortunate. Another family was sitting in their living room. Suddenly the man, his wife and two children felt like they were dropping - as though they were going down a fast-moving elevator. When the movement stopped, they worked their way outside to find themselves standing on a large cake of slippery clay. Waves of semi-liquid clay battered them and began coming up over them. The man watched helplessly as his children disappeared one by one, then his wife. Somehow he managed to grab the roots of a standing tree and pull himself up to safety.
Another man driving a school bus saw the tail-light of a car in front of him disappear as though it had gone over a hill. He had driven that road for years and knew there was no hill there, so he slammed on his brakes and jumped out. He watched in horror as a huge crater developed right in front of him. He grabbed a high-powered flashlight and walked over to the edge where the road stopped and pointed it down. But even that powerful light could not penetrate far enough to reveal the size or depth of the crater. It just ended in blackness. He heard screams for help, and then the cries grew fainter and fainter as though they were being swept down a river. These are just few of the events that occurred the night that the town of Saint Jean Vianney sank into the earth and disappeared forever.
The foundation of that town was undermined. In this part of Quebec, the material right under the topsoil is clay mixed with pockets of sand. This material goes down about 100 feet. In 1971 there was an unusually wet spring with warm weather that produced a fast thaw of the snow pack. No one realized the water from all the rain and melted snow was not running off. Instead it was seeping deep into the soil and slowly liquefying that substratum of clay.
This small community had its foundation undermined by water to the point that it collapsed into the ground. Two extremely important principles concerning foundations had been violated in that community. First, they overlooked the most simple of all principles. They failed to build on a strong foundation. And, secondly, the residents failed to recognize when that poor foundation was being watered down - they didn’t discern what was happening right under their very feet.
Lets apply these principles to the churches of God. I mentioned previously that God had used Mr. Armstrong mightily, and that through him the Worldwide Church of God was established, many right doctrines were restored. But Mr. Armstrong died without God opening his understanding concerning the determining of the true new moon which will point to the true appointed Holy Days instead of the postponed or late ones. The finding of the true New Moon is “Another Mystery of the Ages” which God had reserved to the new generations of followers that will obey God in all truth that He reveals in His word. They are the believers who are determined to start their faith on the true foundation, the Rock or Jesus Christ and the words He has written for them in the Bible. Because they obey God, God has given to them His Spirit of power and of understanding. This is why most churches of God had remained stagnant in spiritual growth. Only the church whose foundation is not undermined by wrong doctrines and traditions of this world is truly founded on the Solid Rock.
Because the residents of Ginsaugon in St. Bernard, Southern Leyte built their homes in what they believed to be safe from landslides, they ended buried under many feet of clay, with almost a thousand people missing. This is the fate of people who reject or won’t obey God in His word. They are like my brethren who sang the chorus, “On Christ the solid Rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.” As I mentioned previously, my brethren believed in Christ yet they don’t obey His words, this is a wrong kind of believing, the kind that God and Christ want is belief that obeys, total trust and obedience. Another error that my brethren violated in their foundation is that their foundation appears solid yet it had already been undermined by false practices and traditions. Satan long ago had already intervened and made the founders of their religion believe in a false or counterfeit Christ for this Christ died on a Friday and rose on a Sunday not conforming to the true day of the week that Christ died. For the scriptures reveal that Christ died on a Wednesday not Friday that most believe. Also Christ was a full three days and three nights in the grave, 72 hours. This is confirmed by the sign that Jesus Christ gave to the Pharisees in Matthew 12:39 -40, “But He answered and said unto them, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’ belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The sign of Jonah then is the clue that points to the true Christ. Many people cannot understand scripture because they don’t have God’s spirit, they thought there is only the weekly Sabbath not knowing that the Sabbath first mentioned in the so called holy week was an annual Sabbath, the first day of unleavened bread. Instead of looking for the true Christ who stayed the full 72 hours in the grave, they only try to justify that the three nights mentioned could be the three darkness that occurred from Friday to Sunday. So it’s alright to say that all those people who worship a Christ who died on a Friday and rose on a Sunday morning are worshiping a false Christ. They thought they are standing on Christ the solid Rock but the truth is they are standing on sinking ground all because they failed to heed the admonition that the word of God is saying to them in the Bible.
If the residents of Saint Jean Vianney in Quebec, Canada perished because they failed to built their houses on solid ground, and secondly because they failed to recognize the fact that their foundation is being watered down they didn’t discern what is happening right under their feet. The members of the churches of God today should ask themselves, am I still standing on solid ground? Am I aware that my foundation had already been undermined by Jewish traditions and practices that even Jesus Christ said He hates? In the book of Isaiah , God said, “Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth. they are a trouble unto Me; I am weary to bear them” (Isa. 1:14) Why? Why does God hate their new moons and their appointed feasts? Because God knew that as early as this the Jews have already undermined the foundation He had given to Moses. All those who continue to follow Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong and the young crescent for the new moon disregards God’s word in Genesis 1:1-5,14 and Psalm 104:19 as examples. “He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down” (Ps 104:19). “In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen 1:1-5).
All these people have violated the principles of God’s foundation by building their faith on false and undermined religion. They have built on sinking sand.
The solid Rock has been revealed and established, Jesus Christ is that Rock, and the Bible He has given us as His word to know and obey. There is no other word that will judge us in the last day. This is our sure and firm guide, presently our solid foundation, all other ground is sinking sand.
Sotero Sonza