IAUA End Time Ministry
Preparing for the End of Time
The Lord is Coming! Are you ready?
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IAUA End Time Ministry |
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Preparing for the End of Time | |
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The Lord is Coming! Are you ready? | |
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Dear Brothers and Sisters in
IAUA
(ee-ah-oo-ah) our Father,
Greetings on this day of preparation for the weekly sabbath. I hope this newsletter finds you in good health and happy in the service of the Lord. The message of the Third Elijah: Malachi 4:4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. grows to the Fourth Angel's message: Revelation 18:1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. The powerful light of glory is the full restoration of God's law including the statutes: Matthew 17:11 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. The most significant part of the statutes is the yearly Sabbaths of God's Sacred Calendar. The weekly Sabbath is the most significant end time test of the Ten Commandments. The significance comes mostly because that is the part that has been changed and replaced by the great apostasy. Seventh-day Adventists clearly reject the pagan substitute of Sunday for the weekly Sabbath. They do not yet see the serious nature of the pagan substitute of holidays for God's yearly sabbaths. There is a dangerous controversy among those who follow God's yearly sabbaths. The Bible is not scientifically clear on how to know which date is correct. This message will be handicapped in a successful presentation unless this controversy is resolved. I struggled with this problem in prayer and meditation clinging to this promise. Matthew 7:7-8 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. I firmly believe that God has provided all the information necessary to accurately and assuredly determine His Sacred Calendar. God is not the author of confusion. God is the author of order but He does not always remove all opportunity to doubt. Those who do not have a love for truth and do not want to believe will still find occasion to doubt and believe a lie. II Thessalonians 2:10-11 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: The basics of dating the yearly sabbaths are agreed on well enough that dates usually agree but not always. Imagine the damage to the weekly Sabbath message if there was any dispute about the date! Thankfully God has preserved the tradition of weekly dating such that there is no doubt of the day when you accept that it is the seventh day of the week and not the first. Pondering these thoughts it was suddenly clear to me the dating of the weekly Sabbath is partly based on tradition! This was a bit of a radical thought to me, particularly because of my recent concerns and warning about traditions. The Bible is not scientifically clear on how to know which date is correct for the weekly Sabbath. I then realized the important part that faith plays in God's plan. Hebrews 11:5-6 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Just as we depend on some tradition for guidance in when to observe the weekly Sabbath. We can have some dependence on tradition for guidance in when to observe the yearly Sabbaths. With this concept I was able to construct a sound basis for the rules of how to determine dates for the yearly Sabbaths. This is going to be a detailed, somewhat complex, and long presentation. I have made a great effort to make it as clear, simple and short as possible. I apologize to those who may have difficulty with this presentation. I am open to any ideas about how to make it clearer and simpler without losing accuracy and completeness. I believe that this information is vitally important to those who seek to follow all of God's law. Do not to forget! We are saved only by accepting the Messiah as our Saviour. We obey the law because we love the Saviour. Obeying the law does not save us. Failure to obey the law indicates that we do not believe in the Saviour and love Him. John 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Luke 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? I have made every effort to carefully determine the accuracy and validity of this information. I apologize if some error is found. Please let me know if you find any problems or confusion. The tradition of the seven day weekly cycle is deeply ingrained into our society dating back to the time of the Messiah. The Jewish peole and the Catholic Church were the faithful preservers of the seven day weekly cycle. No reasonable person doubts this. The Bible is absolutely clear that the seventh day of the week is the Sabbath. We depend on tradition to know the days of the week. We can only know which date on the calendar is the Sabbath because of this tradition. There is a difference with the yearly Sabbaths. The weekly Sabbath is basically simple to determine. You count seven days. The only uncertain part is the exact minute that the Sabbath begins. The yearly Sabbaths are also based on counting days in the month. The uncertain part is when does the month begin. Determination of months and years is similar but more complex than determining sunset. The Bible is unquestionably clear that when the sun is up it is the daytime. When it is down it is the nighttime. The cycle of the day begins with the night. The transition we call sunset was traditionally determined by observation of the first stars to appear. It is a simple matter to guard the edges of the Sabbath by starting a few minutes early and later at the end of the day. Our scientifically based modern world uses precision to calculate the transition of sunset. Observation can be influenced by so many factors that it is not suitable to be used as the basis for determining sunset. Observation also cannot be used as the basis of advance determination so vital to modern scheduling. Clearly, the day cannot begin as long as the sun is in the sky. It is a simple matter to scientifically determine when the sun has gone below the horizon whether it is visible or not. It is also easy to determine in advance when the sun will set. Using the method for determining sunset to start the day we can begin to develop a method for determining the start of the month. Traditionally the start of the month was determined by the observation of the first sliver of the new moon immediately after sunset. Modern dependence on imprecise observation is not acceptable. The precise time of the new moon transition can be scientifically determined. The beginning of a scientifically based rule would then be that the first day to start after the new moon is the start of the month. It is immediately obvious that if the exact time of the new moon occurs minutes before sunset then it would be impossible to observe a sliver for the new moon. Attempting to specify an arbitrary offset of time to guarantee observation of a visible sliver is not acceptable. We are aided in this dilemma by carefully considering these words: Genesis 1:16-18 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. Since the moon rules at night, determining the month by the new moon is not applicable unless it is night. Therefore a scientifically specific offset of time is scripturally defined which also guarantees an observable sliver of the new moon. The month cannot begin any earlier than sunset after approximately twelve hours of daylight from the sunrise after the new moon. Traditionally the start of the year is claimed to have been determined by the observation of the condition of the barley ready for harvest. This ignores plain scriptural guidance that the sun, moon and stars determine years. Genesis 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: The barley harvest comes near the spring equinox which is actually a yearly equivalent to sunrise/sunset. We also have the guidance of the traditional Calculated Rabbinical Calendar (CRC) for determination of the new year. Even though the CRC has known major flaws and deliberate errors it is a valuable traditional guide. We can scientifically correct the CRC to almost compeletely overcome the flaws and errors. The beginning of a scientifically based rule would be that the first month after the spring equinox is the start of the year. There are some who stop here. Careful comparison with a corrected CRC shows that there is approximately a 14 day error in this rule. An arbitrary offset of time is not acceptable therefore we can expect some guidance from scripture.
Exodus 12:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
The first thing I note from these verses is that the concept of passover (pass over) has a compelling relationship to the equinox when the sun passes over the equator. I have read comments by many scholars who mention this. One point of confusion I have run across is those who claim that it is significant that Jerusalem is north of the equator. Careful consideration of practical astronomy will reveal that the time of the equinox is completely independent of latitude or longitude. From this the determination is that the Passover is the first 14th day of a month which is on or after the equinox. The second thing I see in verse two which supports this is that the determination of which is the first month is determined by the passover. The monthly cycle determines the day of the month when passover occurs but the presence of passover determines which is the first month. This determination is also supported by Catholic tradition which states that Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first 'full moon' (the 14th day after the new moon) that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox. Subtracting the Easter Sunday which replaced Passover and was never to occur on Passover leaves us with the determination of Passover. I believe that this analysis offers a sound basis for a scripturally based, scientifically accurate determination of the sacred calendar. I am now completely at peace with the determination of the Sacred Calendar. Others can disagree, so dissension is still possible but I believe the evidence is compelling. A minor point which some use in arguments about the yearly Sabbaths. Astronomy makes it quite clear that it is impossible to accurately determine the new moons or spring equinox for dates more than a few hundred years in the past. The planetary and lunar movements cannot be accurately predicted over long periods of time. Errors of a few seconds accumulate after a few years, minutes after a couple of centuries, and days after a millenium passes. Calculations must occasionally be adjusted based on observation. May we all find peace and unity in the soon coming of IAUShUO (Ee-uh-oo-shoo-oh) Messiah, the Son of God. Shabbat Shalom,
Frank T. Clark
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