Did You Take the Second Passover in 1997?

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=100 BGCOLOR="#CCCCFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04000640egdysm.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000066" FACE="Arial" ><B>Church of God, In Truth</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT><B>   |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Church of God, In Truth"><B>home</B></A><B> | </B><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id52.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Postponements and Hebrew Topics"><B>Up Level</B></A></FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="id56.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Why Count 177 Days Backwards?">Why Count 177 Days Backwards?</A>   |   <A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dehioth: The Rules of Postponement">Dehioth: The Rules of Postponement</A>   |   <A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Why was Passover a month late in 1997?">Why was Passover a month late in 1997?</A>   |   Did You Take the Second Passover in 1997?   |   <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Have You Robbed God of Holy Time?">Have You Robbed God of Holy Time?</A>   |   <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Does It Matter to God?">Does It Matter to God?</A>   |   <A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Questions to Ask?">Questions to Ask?</A>   |   <A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Building Gods Calendar!">Building God's Calendar!</A>   |   <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Postponements and the Mark of the Be">The Postponements and the Mark of the Beast</A>   |   <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Which New Year do You Keep?">Which New Year do You Keep?</A>   |   <A HREF="id202.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="New Year Moon">New Year Moon</A>   |   <A HREF="id204.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Man made traditions">Man made traditions</A>   |   <A HREF="id210.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The gray areas">The gray areas</A></div> <div>    |   <A HREF="id235.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Why Passover April 14th, 2003?">Why Passover April 14th, 2003?</A>   |   <A HREF="id255.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ten reasons why Postponements are wrong">Ten reasons why Postponements are wrong</A>   |   <A HREF="id379.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Question about Postponements">A Question about Postponements</A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#0000BF" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>Church of God, In Truth</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id56.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Why Count 177 Days Backwards?">Why Count 177 Days Backwards?</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dehioth: The Rules of Postponement">Dehioth: The Rules of Postponement</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Why was Passover a month late in 1997?">Why was Passover a month late in 1997?</A></div> <div> <B>Did You Take the Second Passover in 1997?</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Have You Robbed God of Holy Time?">Have You Robbed God of Holy Time?</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Does It Matter to God?">Does It Matter to God?</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Questions to Ask?">Questions to Ask?</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Building Gods Calendar!">Building God's Calendar!</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Postponements and the Mark of the Be">The Postponements and the Mark of the Beast</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Which New Year do You Keep?">Which New Year do You Keep?</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id202.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="New Year Moon">New Year Moon</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id204.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Man made traditions">Man made traditions</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id210.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The gray areas">The gray areas</A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id235.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Why Passover April 14th, 2003?">Why Passover April 14th, 2003?</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id255.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ten reasons why Postponements are wrong">Ten reasons why Postponements are wrong</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id379.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Question about Postponements">A Question about Postponements</A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=380 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Did You Take the Second Passover in 1997?</I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Don't Be Too Sure!</B></div> <div> Does it matter to you, whether you took the first or second Passover? Are you sure you understand what taking the SECOND Passover signifies? If you had a choice, which passover would you have taken in 1997? We ask this question because you <B>did have this choice</B>, and many of God's people, by following the Hebrew calendar, had chosen to take, the passover on April 21, 1997, one month <B>and one day</B> too late. By following the Hebrew calendar this year, they missed not only the true Passover, but the second also. How tragic!! </div> <div> 1997 is a critical year and unique in that the proponants of the Hebrew calendar and Postpone- ments, have taken the Passover exactly one month and one day later than those who do not follow the Hebrew caledar and the postponing of God's Holy Days. In effect, those who took Passover on April 21, will be taking it on the day <B>after</B> the second Passover (from those who observe the true Passover on March 22). In other words, April 20 is the <B>true second Passover date</B> for those keeping the first Passover on March 22. (It is <B>usually</B> only two or three days that separate the disputed dates for Passover). </div> <div> Passover was so late this year because this is a leap year <B>according to the Hebrew calendar,</B> with a thirteenth month intercalalated, when a 13th month was not needed to keep Passover "in it's season". This 19th year of the 19 year time cycle, <B>of the "set" Hebrew calendar</B>, is a leap year and REQUIRES an added 13th month, when one was NOT needed. </div> <div> Both the 19th year and the 8th year, of the 19 year cycle, are leap years that occur after only a two-year interval, following the preceding leap year. Thus there are two years in every cycle when Passover is late in the spring. (The set leap years of the Hebrew calendar are the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th years; 7 set leap years out of a 19 year cycle). According to Rabbi Saul Leeman in the "Jewish Bible Quarterly" (Vo.25, No.l, 1997), "In 1967, (an "8th year") Pesach (Passover) fell on April 25, the latest it has been so far." </div> <div> <B>Is God pleased with those who partake of the second Passover?</B> The purpose for the second Passover was because the priests (ministers) and their congregations were unprepared, unclean, and not ready for the first Passover. "And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel. For the king and his leaders and all the congregation in Jerusalem had agreed to keep the Passover in the second month. For they could not keep it at that time, because a sufficient number of priests had not sanctified themselves, nor had the people gathered together at Jerusalem. And the matter pleased the king and all the congregation" (II Chron. 30:1-4). </div> <div> As you just read this second Passover pleased the king, priests and the people, but no mention of pleasing God. It was because of Hezekiah, not the people, that the Lord pardoned them and accepted their second Passover. " Then they slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were <B>ashamed</B>, and sanctified themselves, and brought the burnt offerings to the house of the LORD. For a multitude of the people, many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet <B>they ate the Passover contrary to what was written</B>. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "may the good Lord provide atonement for everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he is not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary. And the Lord listened to Hezekiah and healed the people" (II Chron. 30:15,18-20). </div> <div> This is the same scenario that has taken place at the Passover in 1997. The only difference is, God is going to seal only those who will obey His Word and keep the Passover in its <B>appointed time</B> as God requires! </div> <div> The book of Hosea, which is numbered among the minor prophets because of the shortness of the book, is by no means secondary in its importance. Hosea provides a telescopic preview of the march of Israel down through the pages of history. Hosea warns the people of impending judgment for their sins, making it clear to them that they would not escape punishment if they persisted in transgressing the commandments, statutes and judgments of the Lord and partaking of idolatrous practices of the nations around them. </div> <div> Hosea reminds Israel of their <B>willful ignorance</B> by saying: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for me; because you have <B>forgotten the Law of your God, I also will forget your children</B>" (Hosea 4:6). </div> <div> What was the knowledge people were rejecting? "They do not direct their deeds toward turning to their God. With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn Himself from them. They have dealt treacherously with the Lord, for they have begotten pagan children. <B>Now a month shall devour them and their heritage. </B>The princes of Judah were like them that remove the boundary: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water" (Hosea 5:4,6,7,10). They were practicing syncretism, committing idolatry with other gods, mixing religious practices with the true God. It was the princes of Judah (the Pharisees) of today that have removed the boundary of God's Holy Days. </div> <div> Let me quote to you out of the S.D.A. Bible Commentary (Vol 4, page 902), under the title of: <B>"NOW SHALL A MONTH DEVOUR THEM."</B> "Some have suggested that this implies that only a short time remains before the destruction of the kingdom. According to the alternative translation of the R.S.V. Now the new moon shall devour them. The meaning is conveyed that their sacrificial feasts celebrated at THAT season will not save them from divine wrath. The whole chapter is a record of the peoples substitution of idol worship for the worship of God, and this passage may thus be an allusion to the substitution that had been forced upon the nation of Jeroboam" (I Kings 12:33). Jeroboam postponed God's feast by a month, keeping it in the eighth month and not the seventh month as God commanded." </div> <div> Jeremiah was inspired to prophesy about the <B>ABOMINATION THAT THE CHILDREN OF JUDAH HAVE SET IN THE CHURCHES OF GOD</B>. "For the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the <B>generation of his wrath</B>" (Jer.7:29). We are living today in <B>that generation</B>, when God is going to pour out His wrath on those that postpone His annual Holy Days and continue practicing syncretism. "For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it" (Jer.7:30). God uses this same word "abominations, " in describing the abomination that Makes desolate in Daniel 12:11. What abominable and polluted thing has Judah influenced into God's Church today? Remember, GOD IS <B>addressing JUDAH, not the Catholic Church</B>. We know the Catholic Church is responsible for changing the seventh day Sabbath to Sunday. But now we read, where Judah has polluted God's house, The Church of God. "But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the Living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (I Tim.3:15). Pollute means: to be foul, especially in a ceremony; contaminated; ethically unclean; wrong doing. "For ye, brethren, became followers of the Churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men" (I Thes. 2:14-15). </div> <div> Passover 1997 was in a postponement year <B>according to the rules of the Hebrew calendar</B>. Those who delayed taking Passover in 1997 by one month, will find as Hosea stated in verses 6-7 of chapter 5, "They (the shepherds) shall go with their flocks and herds (congregations) they shall go to seek the Lord, but they <B>will not find Him</B>; He has withdrawn Himself from them. They have dealt treacherously with the Lord, for they have begotten pagan children. Now a month shall devour them and their heritage" (Hosea 5:6-7). It behooves you to <B>PROVE ALL THINGS, before it is too late</B>. </div> <div> <B>Did you take the Second Passover in 1997, because you were NOT READY for the First!</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>