Below is a prime example of what some men in the COG do to bastardized the law to fit their absurd and idiotic belief that the law is more important than Jesus, grace, justification, and mercy. They never talk about Jesus but come up with this asinine bullshit to manipulate their followers into believing they are actually following some creature they claim is god. Even Herbert Armstrong finally realized that this idiocy was unnecessary!
This is the latest from the Chief Pharisee and bastardizer of the law, James Malm. It is more important for him to weigh down his followers with heavy yokes of burden than it is to revel in grace.
If that is not confusing, get a load of this legalistic mumbo-jumbo where the Chief Pharisee expects his followers to set aside TWO days to keep the Feast of Trumpets, just in case. Seriously? Jesus weeps!The next High Day is the New Moon Feast of Trumpets. The first possible date that the New Moon could be observed from Jerusalem is after sunset ending 10 September. It is impossible that the Feast of Trumpets 2018 could occur before 11 September by the calendar that God gave to Moses. Please see our articles on the Biblical Calendar which God gave to Moses and how HWA accepted that calendar but was later led astray, believing that the modern Rabbinic Calendar was scriptural when it is not; go ahead and read his own words on the subject!In fact a sighting at sunset ending 10 Sep is extremely unlikely and if not seen that evening the Feast of Trumpets will be on 12 Sep. I will have more information about local conditions closer to the anticipated date.
What to do?Since the first day of the seventh month is a high day I always recommend that two days be set aside ahead of time. First the expected day and second the next day, just in case the moon is not seen as expected.The High Day is still only ONE DAY, but for advance scheduling it is prudent to set both days aside, unless the day happens to be the first day after a 30 day month; and then to observe only the one day as the sighting is confirmed.This year I think that the chance of a sighting on the first day is improbable and the second date is the most likely, but I must cover all the bases to avoid misinforming people.Personally I do expect Christ to restore the planetary cycles with the original creation of twelve 30 day months making one solar year when he comes, as part of the restoration of all things [again please see the calendar articles for more on this]. If that happens all of this difficulty will vanish and if not I am quite certain that he will instruct us further.
Galatians 5:4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
Acts 15:10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke (the law) upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear.
Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled in the yoke of bondage. [the law]
heavy jokes of burden Yumpin' Yiminy, that's hiwarious!
ReplyDeleteActually Jews outside of Israel add an additional day to some of the Mo'adim (appointed times). Coordinating the lunar calendar across the Roman Empire was one of the issues of the Council of Nicea.
In Acts 15:10, Peter is most likely referring to the rules on how Jews were to deal with Gentiles, which came about in the first century BCE. For example, Peter told Cornelius it was "against the law" for him to enter a Gentile's home -- this was one of the rules.
Look, if it was cloudy or obscure, and the moon could not be witnessed, then it was fine with God to bump it a day or two.
ReplyDeleteSeems like God is a lot more pragmatic than legalists like Malm want to make him out to be.
The problem with a 30 day, 12 month calendar is that the Earth rotates around the sun evey 365 days and 7 hours. Hence a reset (ie, days are added) is done every so often in oder to synchronize this calendar with the seasons. Meaning, this calendar is also messy.
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ReplyDeleteJames Malm wrote: "...First the expected day and second the next day, just in case the moon is not seen as expected...."
ReplyDeleteIf the new moon occurred and nobody saw it, does it mean the new moon didn't occur?
If a tree topples over in the woods and nobody saw it or heard any noise, does it mean the tree didn't topple over?
What did God inspire to write about His annual Holyday of Trumpets?
Psalm 81:3 "Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day."
Were 2 days involved? Trumpets was a feast day to occur at an appointed time, which was in a new moon. Does anybody have a problem figuring that day out? It is not appointed (times)! Would a calculated calendar be available? Does one really need to have a pair of eyeballs in the Jerusalem area to observe the waxing/waning of the moon...looking for the simultaneous absence of waxing and the absence of waning, and then some sliver of light?
How did David know which day was a new moon?
1 Samuel 20:5 "And David said unto Jonathan, Behold, to morrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third day at even."
It's interesting that David hadn't even seen the new moon yet, but he knew it was the next day. What method was David using? A calculated calendar?
Oh, then, there was another "witness" available who agreed with David:
1 Samuel 20:18 "Then Jonathan said to David, To morrow is the new moon: and thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty."
It is implied that Saul also knew when the new moon would occur.
1 Samuel 20:24 So David hid himself in the field: and when the new moon was come, the king sat him down to eat meat.
What did David, Jonathan, and Saul know about the specific time of a new moon that James Malm does not know?
A day is coming, a great day is coming, a "last day" is coming! Well, a great last day is coming when David, Jonathan and Saul will live again, and if James Malm hasn't figured out by then how David, Jonathan and Saul knew ahead of time when the new moon was, then James Malm can just ask either one of them.
Time will tell...
John
Yes and No to HWA, June 9, 2018 at 9:14, wrote: "...While the Father is the Lord of hosts in Zec 13:7 it does not follow that He is the Lord of hosts in 2 Sam 6:2 as there are two Lord of hosts:
ReplyDeleteZec 2:8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me [selaphani] unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.
Zec 2:9 For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me.
“While many think “me” refers to Zechariah, other maintain that, in the light of the language and the full scope of these verse, it looks towards the messianic Servant Messenger, the Angel of the Lord (so Baron, Feinberg, Leupold, Unger). If the latter view is correct as seems likely, the speaker, identified as the Lord Almighty “[LORD of hosts,” AV] at the beginning of the verse, is the Messiah himself, the Angel of the Lord” (Kenneth L. Barker, Zechariah, EBC, Vol.7, p.618)..."
Interesting thoughts, Yes and No to HWA, but when "many think" one thing and "other[s] maintain" another thing, well, which one is it?
If you know that "me" is referring to Zechariah, then that "LORD of hosts" is a reference to the One God we know today as the Father. Currently, I prefer this particular view for the LORD of hosts.
Earlier you wrote: “…So God and Jesus Christ was/were “God” in both OT and NT. …”
In the NT, absolutely yes, but in the OT where do/did you find the phrase “Jesus Christ?”
Also, how would you explain the following verse?
Isaiah 44:6 “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.”
Can you find 2 Gods in that verse? You did write that God and Jesus Christ was/were “God” in the OT. There are other similar such verses as Isaiah 44:6 in the OT saying the same thing.
Jesus Christ today is called "God," but He still is not "The God." Even Jesus Christ knew who was greater than Himself.
You said that Rick Railston makes reference to such words as: "...the messianic Servant Messenger, the Angel of the Lord...the Messiah himself," what happened to "the Word?"
But, wasn’t the Word made flesh? Has "the Word" been swept under some "carpet," sort of speak? What happened to the phrase of “the Word?”
As an aside, say the Bible speaks about Christ’s “second coming,” while He came back to earth a “second time” after He was murdered, ceased living for 3 days and 3 nights, was resurrected by The God, and visited that God in Heaven. Someone added the phrase “second coming” like it came right out of the Bible, while, it appears, others subtract phrases. Is “the Word” one of those phrases? What happened to “the Word?” Just curious!
John 1:1 says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Did you see “the God” in that verse? The answer could be yes and no, but no; however, we should have seen it!. A definite article was subtracted.
John 1:1 says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with [[the definite article "the" should have been inserted here in the AKJV b/c the Greek (ton theon) for "the God" is τὸν θεόν 63 times in NT and as τὸν θεὸν 51 times in the NT for a total of 114 times.]] God, and the Word was God."
Jesus Christ had a beginning, and so did the Word, but there is only One who is the Highest and that is the One who said "For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever." Deuteronomy 32:40
There is no room in Deut 32:40 for the word "we."
Anyway, does Rick still talk about "the Word?"
John
ReplyDeleteInstead of rebelliously leaving the Worldwide Church of God to try to think for himself in 1985 while Herbert W. Armstrong was still alive, James Malm should have humbly listened, and learned, and used the calculated Hebrew calendar like HWA had taught.
Trying to think for himself has not worked out very well for rebel Malm and those who unthinkingly followed him in his rebellion and let him try to do their thinking for them.
I’m no fan of James Malm, or any other Pharisees, 8:33. But, the same could be said about HWA rebelliously leaving COG-7, which certainly didn’t work out well for all of us whom HWA trapped in his doomsday cult, doing all manner of obsessive-compulsive things, and then doomsday never came.
DeleteBB
Byker wrote:
ReplyDeletethe same could be said about HWA rebelliously leaving COG-7
That's one of the funniest, saddest, things about the modern ACOGs. Ministers browbeat and guilt members into staying put in abusive churches... and then it is the ministers who rebel when they can't stand receiving the same kinds of abuse they so regularly dish out.
WCG ministers told members not to rebel and join Global... then they rebelled and joined UCG.
Some top UCG ministers told members not to leave UCG... then they rebelled and joined David Hulme.
Global ministers told members not to leave GCG... then they rebelled and joined LCG.
Another group of UCG ministers told members not to leave UCG... then they rebelled and joined COGWA.
Which group will be the next to experience an exodus of rebellious ministers?
ReplyDeleteJames Malm tried to attract some of HWA's former followers and their wallets by claiming to think for himself and by criticizing HWA. Then James Malm came up with much worse theories, such as his calendar confusion.
xCOG ministers told members not to leave xCOG... then they rebelled and joined yCOG.
ReplyDeleteBob Thiel didn't tell members not to leave LCG... then he rebelled and formed CCOG. And (almost) nobody rebelled and joined CCOG!
Hi John, at the outset let me say that reading your post it appears to me that your interpretation of the Bible is too influenced by modern Western thought-forms and not enough by ancient near-Eastern thought-forms; and that you restrict the richness in the use of language.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to the former do you take “3 days and 3 nights” literally (72 hours) or idiomatically; cp. “I will be there in a minute”?
You writes:
“when "many think" one thing and "other[s] maintain" another thing, well, which one is it?”
[Thanks for pointing out the typo].
A 36 page article, with the above quote, which is a refutation of certain points in Rick Railston’s sermon explains which one it is.
As I noted God, the Father was God in the OT as he is God in the NT. But because God is so holy He needs someone else to act for him in the human realm, hence Jesus Christ.
I would also suggest that God’s holiness would also prevent him from walking in the garden before sin because of ritual impurity caused from Adam and Eve being human; Christ can bear our sins and ritual impurity but not God; or God can only bear them through Jesus Christ.
John writes:
In the NT, absolutely yes, but in the OT where do/did you find the phrase “Jesus Christ?”
I don’t, I was using the term proleptically:
“Opinion is divided as to whether Horeb is here called ‘the mountain of God’ because it was already a revered religious site or whether the title is being used proleptically, i.e. reflecting a later accepted usage (cf. saying ‘The Queen was born in 1926' and meaning ‘a baby who later became queen’)...” (Alec Motyer, The Message of Exodus, BST, p.48).
John quotes:
Isaiah 44:6 “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.”
If we add “before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me” (Isa 43:10).
Would you conclude from the above that Jesus Christ cannot be God? Cp. also
“Isa 43:11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour” with “our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 1:11).
Not sure on why the definite article in John 1:1 has much significance in the debate; we get the picture if it is translated with or without the article; 1 John 1:5 could be literally translated “the God light is”; but the translation “God is light” reads better in modern English. (The light is God? hence the definite article before the subject to distinguish it from the predicate).
Typology does suggests that God existed before the Word, aka Angel of the Lord - with Adam and Eve being antitypes (vertical typology) of God and Jesus Christ - God took of himself and made the Word. Hence a husband and wife are also antitypes of God and Jesus Christ.
Heb 7:9 And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham.
But there is a sense that Jesus Christ has always existed, just as Levi paid tithes in Abraham, Jesus Christ/the Word has also always existed in God.
ReplyDeleteThose who, like HWA, believe in using the calculated Hebrew calendar can look it up online, or buy one at a calendar store or even at some book stores.
Those who fell for Malm's mush will be stuck having to go to him for his wrong guesses about when things are. This is a sneaky way to keep them continually dependant on someone who cannot think for himself very well.
And those who fell for some other calendar confused rebel will have to go to their own particular goof for his wrong personal guess.
Followers of yet another, third, nut will likewise be stuck to their favorite nut for his own wrong, personally interpreted guess in the dark.
And so it goes.
Yes and No to HWA wrote:
ReplyDelete"...A 36 page article, with the above quote, which is a refutation of certain points in Rick Railston’s sermon explains which one it is..."
Is that 36 page article available? If yes, from where?
Thanks in advance,
John
Email me at mail@futurewatch.info
ReplyDeleteand I will send you a copy - hopefully it will past correctly
(Forgive the amateurishness and typos of it).