United Church of God has a member Bible reading program and it is currently on Deuteronomy. As they approach the Feast of Tabernacles they believe that they need to reread the law every seven years. Instead of focusing on grace, justification, and other salvation issues that have been accomplished, they continue to look back at the law of condemnation instead of forward to mercy.
Imagine if they spent as much time reading Romans, Hebrews, and Galatians!
As we approach the Feast of Tabernacles and Eighth Day and the return of Jesus Christ to this earth, we are reminded of something God commanded His people to do every seven years. We find it in Deuteronomy 31:10-13:
“And Moses commanded them, saying: ‘At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.’”
Brethren, as God’s people united in His Spirit and truth and led by our Savior and soon coming King, Jesus Christ, let’s together, everyone around the world, join in reading the words of Deuteronomy this year as we look forward to the Feast. Daily Bible Reading: The Book of Deuteronomy
Well now if they would check the Hebrew and read the law correctly (they don't): "times" in Ex 23:14 and Deut 16:16 is not seasons.
ReplyDeleteOne of the worst mistranslations of all time is the word "feasts" (should be "fixed times") in Lev 23:2, 4 which conjures up the deception of 7 feasts in the chapter when in truth there are only 3 feasts - Ex 23:14-16; Deut 16:16; 2Chr 8:13 and brings about transgression of the law (!) by splitting the feast of unleavened bread into two feasts in 8 days, when in truth the Passover on the 14th of Nisan is the first day of 7 days of unleavened bread and the feast commanded on the 15th is exactly that, a feast on one day, like the command to feast on the 7th day.
This comment only makes sense to the author. God Himself in Lev 23:2 & Ezekiel 44:24 remarks 'these are my feasts', 'my appointed feasts'
DeleteAre all Jewish translators of hebrew incorrect. Who are these people splitting Unleavened bread into two feasts?
I don't fault them for reading the book of Deuteronomy, or any of the other four books of Torah. It is possible to teach Jesus Christ from both the Law and Prophets - after all, the Hebrew Scriptures were the only Bible that Jesus and his disciples had available to them in the First Century. Nevertheless, as you suggested in this post, we can most certainly fault them for emphasizing the Law of Moses without the appropriate focus on how all of that pointed to Jesus and was fulfilled by him for us! Likewise, as 10:59 indicated, their focus on the commandments of Torah without understanding their relevance to Christians causes them to also disobey the very tenets they claim to uphold! Let's be clear, the Armstrong Churches of God do NOT obey even those limited portions of the Law which they have designated as applying to themselves!
ReplyDelete''Let's be clear, the Armstrong Churches of God do NOT obey even those limited portions of the Law which they have designated as applying to themselves!''
DeleteThese overly confident and non introspective preachers one sees gushing forth the Armstrong dogma via UCG would care nought for such excellent advice because the law gives rise to tithes and control
United Church of God has a member Bible reading program and it is currently on Deuteronomy.
ReplyDeleteUCG actually is RE-reading Deuteronomy, in the run-up to the Feast. The study material is from around 2003.
UCG never has brought out a B.R.P. for the New Testament, even though one minister (now deceased) said it was "essentially ready" 18 years ago. It finally finished the O.T. with Ecclesiastes in 2018, after a delay of several years.
This long wait has been blamed on short staffing. But it's become a sore point for some members (at least one left UCG for COGWA in part because of it) - and stands as a big embarrassment for UCG.
''As we approach the Feast of Tabernacles and Eighth Day and the return of Jesus Christ to this earth, we are reminded of something God commanded His people to do every seven years...
ReplyDelete“And Moses commanded them, saying: ‘At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel...''
How is it ''all Israel '' at the time of Moses becomes now equated with people in the US of A today??
Look out, UCG's "free" literature could end up costing you more than the Beverly Hills Country Club!
ReplyDeleteSo they don't do things the way you want them to, so you condemn them? That's about par for the course. You are guilty of the very things you accuse others of.
ReplyDeleteThe comments were trying in the main to understand UCG doctrine or practices in light of scriptures. Thus it is not a matter of what people ''want them to'' - the comment is not meaningful in this sense. Nor the latter argument
DeleteKnow how they have the "Doo Dah" Parade? I think we need to do a similar thing with the Feast of Tabernacles! Let's give it a nautical theme, in honor of the early fishernan-disciples, call it the Feast of Barnacles.
ReplyDeleteEveryone must leave their homes and dwell in temporary dwellings, in this case living on a boat for 7 days. Imagine! Brits living on the Thames for an entire week.
Catalina Island would be a great place to have this Feast. Or, maybe an Alaskan cruise. Wouldn't it be a gas to have one of the ships featuring 1960s Chicago Blues?
This might be more relevant as climate change takes its tolls. Instead of experiencing worse hurricanes in the tropics,, observing the calving of Arctic glaciers would provide much safer reality therapy.
ReplyDelete“UCG: Reading the law every seven years”
People do not go to the UCG to obey the laws of God. They go to the UCG because they do not want to obey the laws of God and because they know that they will not have to obey them in the UCG.