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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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. This is the 15th day of the 3rd month of God's Sacred Calendar. It is fourteen weeks and five days until the beginning of the Fall Sacred Holydays starting with the evening of the 1st day of the 7th month which is Trumpets Sabbath (Thursday, September 13 on the Gregorian calendar). I have learned that there are many unusual teachings being presented by different people. A newsletter reader has been asking questions about a teaching that has been circulating lately called the "Lunar Sabbath". I have heard of this teaching and have studied the arguments presented. This is how I responded. _____ I read the material you sent me. I have heard these things in many different forms before. I believe that there are specific ways to recognize God's truth. Most importantly, the truth is to be found in the Bible. The guidance of the Holy Spirit must carefully be sought in prayer. Anything that requires a lot of support from non-Biblical material is suspect. This is specially true if it modifies an otherwise clear understanding of the Bible. Another way to recognize error is to understand that while the truth may not always be obvious or broadly accepted, neither should it be so complex that it requires a great deal of explanation to establish. There are two concepts which are being mingled here which I believe need to be carefully separated. This will help to make things clearer. The first concept is that the first day of the month (a new moon) is a sacred day of special observance. The second concept is that the weekly Sabbath should be observed on a lunar cycle instead of a weekly cycle. This is what I have observed in my study of the Bible texts and the concepts presented which leads me to consider them errors. The concept of the new moon as a sacred day of special observance is suggested by some Bible verses. The new moon is a special day because it is the basis of God's calendar. As you noted there is no commandment of God for a day of rest or a holy convocation to support this being considered anything like a Sabbath. The only commandment of God is: Numbers 10:10 Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God. The commandment is to take notice of the day. This we do by following God's calendar. Later chapters of the Old Testament record more observances being added as Jewish tradition. These were created by men and not a part of God's command. Special sacrifices are mentioned in Numbers 28:11 but of course sacrifices were completed at the cross. You may not realize it but the second concept would abolish the weekly Sabbath as a continual observance every seven days. Instead it creates an artificial "Lunar Based Sabbath" which removes days at the end of the month from the count of the weekly cycle and forces the Sabbath to occur on the same day of the lunar month. The complicated arguments to justify this concept are not Biblically based at all. The few texts that get used in the discussion do not show anything but are rather stretched to add more meaning than is there. The abolishment of the weekly cycle alone marks this as an obvious error to me. Whenever I read these outlandish ideas being presented I am reminded of the words of Paul.
II Timothy 4:3-4
Study carefully. I hope these observations will aid in recognizing and understanding the error of the concepts being presented. _____ There is an instructive teaching in this quote: While we must hold fast to the truths which we have already received, we must not look with suspicion upon any new light that God may send. {GW92 390.1} {GW 310.4} In this case, we do not even consider anything that would destroy the established truth of the weekly cycle and the weekly Sabbath. Recently I have been exposed to more and more strange and unusual teachings on different subjects. In times past I tended to completely ignore anything that did not agree with my understanding of standard SDA teachings. Since discovering that it is dangerous to assume that I know all the truth, I have been listening more to things with which I do not readily agree. I have learned it is necessary to study carefully to discern the truth or lack of truth in what I hear. When I accept or reject teachings now it is on the basis of careful study and not on acceptability to others or to the church. I also encourage people to study carefully for themselves and try to avoid telling them what they should believe. It is a fine line to walk to be willing to witness of my understanding of truth to others without telling them what they should believe. It requires great discernment to know when to speak of the truths I understand to those who are willing to hear and when to be silent to those who are not. Only by submitting carefully to the guidance of the Holy Spirit can we hope to do what is right. It has been my observation that many people who are open to hearing new truth fall into three general categories. The first is the idealogical gossip who grabs and runs with every new and interesting idea. They get together with other gossips and swap ideas but tend to avoid drawing attention to themselves. It is interesting to observe that they are sometimes all talk and don't even put into practice what they talk about. The second category is the self-appointed evangelist who thinks it is their job to push the new truth on everybody whether they are interested or not. In the extreme these people also become self-appointed martyrs and deliberately seek to bring persecution on themselves. It is interesting to observe that they also are sometimes all talk and don't even put into practice what they talk about. The third category are those who carefully study new truth and put it into practice in their own lives as well as sharing it with others when there is an interest. I am amazed by the people I have observed who talk about the yearly Sabbaths as if they believe in them but don't actually practice them. It is amazing the number of conversations I have had discussing the feasts and related subjects with people who are trying to convince me of some extreme idea where the conversation suddenly ends when I ask if they practice the observance of the feasts we were talking about. This subject leads back to the thoughts expressed concerning love versus criticism and judgement. Consider carefully the words of Paul in Romans. "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." The 14th and surrounding chapters is very valuable reading on this subject. I pray that we may all continue to strive for love, peace and unity in truth preparing for the soon coming of IAUShUO (ee-uh-oo-shoo-oh) Messiah, the Son of God. Shabbat Shalom,
Frank T. Clark
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Revised 2007-06-08 |