The Church of God has no creed. We accept the Bible as the only rule of
Faith, from Genesis to Revelation. We do not interpret the Bible, we allow the Bible to interpret itself. We
believe God marks out sin for us. (1 John 3:4) We do not decide for ourselves as
to what sin is. We simply believe God.
We do not bow down to idols, or pieces of word or stone, and we do not burn
candles or genuflect before pictures or models of men or women. We do not
worship the “Host of Heaven.” (Deuteronomy 4: 15-20) {Vs. 15} Jerusalem Bible
“Take great care what you do, therefore: since you saw no shape on that day at
Horeb when Yahweh spoke to you from the midst of the fire, {Vs 16} See that you
do not act perversely, making yourselves a carved image in the shape of anything
at all: {Vs 17} Whether it be in the likeness of a man or a woman, or of
anything, man or beast on the earth. {Vs18} or of any bird that flies in the
heavens, {VS 19} or of any reptile that crawls on the ground, or of any fish or
anything that lives in the waters, or under the earth. {VS 20} When you raise
your eyes to heaven, when you see the sun, the moon, the stars, all the array of
heaven, do not be tempted to worship them and serve them. Yahweh has taken you,
and brought you out from the furnace of iron, from Egypt to be a people all his
own, as you are still today.”
Lack of Knowledge of God’s Law and Commandments
Hosea the prophet is counted among the Minor Prophets because of the shortness
of his book. In graphic detail, sometimes symbolic terms, Hosea tells the story
of the rejection, the punishment, the re-gathering and the ultimate restoration
of the House of Israel in one bold sweep across the centuries. He begins with
the dispersion of the House of Israel and climaxes in their redemption,
resurrection, and the restoration of the Kingdom. Israel was divided into two
separate entities- The House of Israel and The House of Judah. The Northern
ten-tribed kingdom of Israel is depicted symbolically as an unfaithful wife whom
God divorced and sent away into Assyrian bondage {728 B.C.}. Hosea had warned
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 God and partaking of the idolatrous
practices of the nations around them. Marking the downward steps in the great
apostasy in Israel, he, Hosea, predicted their national demise in terms of
“burial” of the House of Israel in the “graveyard” of Assyrian captivity, and
loss of IDENTITY.
The prophet looked forward to the day when Israel would be ransomed from the
grave. This, the prophet makes plain, will be the outcome of the sacrificial
work of Jesus Christ, our NEAR KIN REDEEMER.
What did God mean when He said they have transgressed my commandments,
statutes and judgments? {Hosea 4: 1-3} Hosea 4:1 “Hear the word of the Lord, ye
children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the
land, because there is not truth, nor mercy, not knowledge of God in the land.”
Hosea 4:2 “By swearing and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing
adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Hosea 4:3 Therefore shall
the land mourn, and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the
fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.”
We may also look to Ezekiel to see just how great this apostasy had become
with ancient Israel, and modern Israel of today. {Chapter 22 quoting from the
JERUSALEM BIBLE verse 5 through 12} [vs5] “Near and far, they will scoff at you,
the turbulent city with a tarnished name: [vs6] where all the princes of Israel
live, each one busy shedding blood, and a law to himself, [vs7] where people
despise their fathers and mothers; where they ill-treat the settler; [vs8] where
they oppress the widow and the orphan; [vs9] where you have no reverence for my
sanctuaries and PROFANE MY SABBATHS; where informers incite to bloodshed; where
there are people who eat on the [vs10] mountains and couple promiscuously; where
men uncover their father’s nakedness [vs11] where they force women in their
unclean condition; where one man engages in filthy practices with his neighbor’s
wife, another defies himself with his daughter-in-law, another violates his
[vs12] sister, his own father’s daughter; where people take bribes for shedding
blood; you charge usury and interest, you rob your neighbor by extortion, you
forget all about me—it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks. [verses 26 through 31]
[vs26] They have eaten the people, seized wealth and jewels and widowed many
inside her. Her priests (preachers) have violated MY LAW and desecrated my
sanctuaries; they have drawn no distinction between the sacred and profane they
have not taught people the difference between clean and unclean; they have
turned their eyes away from [vs27] MY SABBATHS and I have been dishonored by
them. Her leaders in the city are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood
and killing people to steal their [vs28] possessions. Her prophets have white
washed these crimes with their empty visions and lying prophecies. They have
said: Yahweh has not spoken. The people of the country have taken to extortion
and banditry; they have oppressed the poor and needy and ill-treated the settler
for no reason. [vs30] I have been looking for someone among them to build a wall
and man the breach in front of me, to defend the country and prevent [vs 31] me
from destroying it; but I have found no one.”
{Ezekiel 23 verse 37} “They have been adulteresses, their hands are dripping
with blood, they have committed adultery with their idols, as for their [vs38]
children they had borne me, they made them pass through the fire to be [vs 39]
consumed, and the same day and have profaned MY SABBATHS. The same day as
sacrificing their children to their idols, they have been to my sanctuary and
profaned it. Yes, this is what they have done in my own house.”
Paul wrote to Timothy this warning, [2 Timothy Chapter 3:1-9] [vs1]” You may
be quite sure that in the last days there are going to be some difficult times.
[vs2] People will be self-centered and grasping; boastful, arrogant [vs3] and
rude; disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious; heartless and
unappeasable; they will be slanderous, profligates, savages and enemies of
everything [vs4] that is good; they will be treacherous [vs5] and reckless and
demented by pride, preferring their own pleasure to God. They will keep up the
OUTWARD APPEARANCE OF RELIGION but will have rejected the inner power of it.
Have nothing to do with people like that. [vs6] Of the same kind, too, are those
men who insinuate themselves into families in order to get influence over silly
women (and men) who are obsessed with their sins and follow one craze after
another [vs7] in the attempt to educate themselves, but can never come to
knowledge of the [vs8] truth. Men like this, defy the truth just as Jannes and
Jambres defied Moses: their minds are corrupt and [vs9] their faith spurious.
But they will not be able to go on any longer; their foolishness, like that
other two, must become obvious to everyone......”
HAS THE LAW OF MOSES BEEN DONE AWAY
OR
FULFILLED AS THE RELIGIONISTS OF TODAY SAY?
Has the Law of Moses been fulfilled or been abrogated? Has God’s Law, Sabbaths,
and Commandments been changed as the Protestants and Catholics say? We shall
see!!!
It seems that every preacher, [Christian or so called Bible student] claims
that they believe every word of the Bible. Let us see if that is to be true!!
[Gen. 1:5] “And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night,
and the EVENING and the MORNING were the first day.” As you can see from this
verse, God’s day starts with the evening first and then the light or day
portion. [Gen. 2: 1-3] {vs1} “Thus the heavens and the earth were
finished, and all the host of them {vs2} And on the Seventh day God ended his
work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which
he had made. {vs3} And God BLESSED the Seventh DAY, and SANCTIFIED IT: <Set it
apart for special use> because that in it he had rested from all his work which
God created and made.”
[Genesis 7:2] Of every CLEAN BEAST thou shalt take to thee by SEVEN, the male
and his female: and of the beasts’ that are not clean by TWO, the male and his
female.
[Exodus 13:6-16] “God established the feast of Unleavened Bread as a sign upon thy hand and a memorial between thine eyes, that God’s law may be in thy mouth—Before the children reached Sinai. [Exodus 1:12-31] God rained manna and provided quail, re-established the Seventh Day Sabbath, asked in [verse 28] How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?
[Exodus 21:12-17] God spoke to Moses, “Speak to the Sons of Israel and say,
You must keep MY SABBATHS CAREFULLY, because the SABBATH is a SIGN [vs 13]
between myself and you from GENERATION TO GENERATION to show that it is I,
Yahweh, {or Eternal} who sanctify you. You must [vs 14] KEEP THE SABBATH, then;
it is to be held SACRED BY you. The man who profanes it must be put to death;
whoever does any work on that day shall be outlawed [vs15] from his people. Work
is to be done for six days, but the seventh day must be a day of complete rest,
consecrated to the Eternal. Whoever does any work on the [vs16] Sabbath Day must
be put to death. The SONS OF ISRAEL are to keep the SABBATH, observing it from
GENERATION TO GENERATION; [vs17] this is a lasting covenant. Between myself and
the Sons of Israel, the Sabbath is a SIGN forever, since in six days Yahweh made
the heavens and the earth but on the Seventh day he rested and drew breath.”
As anyone can SEE this covenant cannot be broken, IT IS FOREVER. This is also
the FOURTH COMMANDMENT, and [1 John 3:4] plainly states that anyone who SINS,
BREAKS THE COMMANDMENTS. It is also true that the fourth commandment was not
stated as such, in the New Testament. IT IS ALSO TRUE THAT NO OTHER DAY FOR
WORSHIP AND REST WAS EVER STATED. By the fact that God had already given the
commandment and made a separate covenant in [Exodus 31:12-17] and pronounced it
FOREVER is sufficient, or should be sufficient for anyone who believes the
Bible. Paul has been credited with doing away with the Law of Moses, and the
commandments, {those old Jewish Customs.}
The simple truth is, Paul has been used by Satanic forces, to distort,
confuse and change the commandments of God, and in their place, the
commandments, and doctrines of men are taught and practiced by every SUNDAY
KEEPING CHURCH in the world. [2 Peter 3:14-18]
Paul’s letter to the Romans clears up much of this error of the doctrine and
commandments of men for us. Each person who is trying to come to God, through
the knowledge of His book, the Bible, MUST PROVE ALL THINGS. Trust no man with
the knowledge of your salvation, God said, “Prove me in all things.”
Study Romans carefully [Romans 1:18-32] [Romans 2:1-8] verse 8 states......that
unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey
unrighteousness indignation, and wrath, [vs9] Tribulation and anguish, upon
every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
[vs11] for there is no respect of persons with God. [vs13] For not the HEARERS
OF the law are just before God, but the DOERS OF the LAW shall be justified.
[vs26] Therefore, if the un-circumcision be counted for circumcision? [vs29] But
he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and CIRCUMCISIONS that OF THE HEART, IN THE
SPIRIT, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
The Jews of Paul’s time thought circumcision, “saved” you. [Acts 15:1] And
certain man {Jews} which came down from Judea taught the brethren, and said,
Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye CANNOT be SAVED.
This meeting in Acts chapter 15 took place at Jerusalem, and was called the
ANTIOCH CONTROVERSY. Peter spoke to the brethren and told how God had called a
people out of the Gentiles, as the prophets had said. James, the head of the
Church at Jerusalem, made this ruling. [Acts 15:19] Wherefore my sentence is
that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: [vs.
20] But that we write to them, that they abstain from pollution's of idols, and
from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. [vs 21] For Moses
of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the
synagogues every SABBATH DAY.
The problem here was not the Law of Moses, but men who were teaching that none
could be saved, except my circumcision. This was wrong. So James ruled that the
Pagans were not to be circumcised but taught the Law of Moses. Gentiles or
pagans in those days ate blood, and strangled animals. Under the Law of Moses,
it was forbidden. James also stated that the Old Testament was read or preached
every Sabbath day from old times, so there was no need to re-write the Old
Testament, to the Pagans in the Letter that JAMES WROTE.
[Acts 13:42-44] Paul angered the Jews and they left the synagogue, the Gentiles
besought that these words might be preached to them the NEXT SABBATH [vs 44] and
the NEXT SABBATH DAY came almost the whole city gathered together to hear the
word of God. [Acts 16:12-14] Paul is in Philippi, a Gentile city in Macedonia, a
colony of Rome [vs 13] and on the SABBATH DAY we went out of the city by a river
side, where prayer was want to be made; and we sat down and spoke unto the
women, which were gathered there. {Now we move on to Acts 17:11} These were more
noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the work with all
readiness of mind, and searched the SCRIPTURES daily, whether those things were
so.
What SCRIPTURES? Was there a New Testament at this time? NO!!! The New Testament
was being written, the Old Bible was what they used to see whether Paul was
telling it like it was or not.
At Corinth, Paul preached every Sabbath for 18 months. [Acts 18:18] Paul took
the vow of the Nazarite, also in Acts 21:17-27, Paul had just returned to
Jerusalem after many years in Asia. There was a great out-cry against Paul. Many
Jews were accusing Paul of teaching against the customs of the Fathers and
against the Law of Moses. Now James and all of the elders were present. [vs 19]
Paul told them all the things God had wrote among the Gentiles by his ministry.
[vs 20] They said to Paul you see brother, many thousands of Jews there are
which believe: And they are all zealous <keepers> of the Law: [vs 21] James
tells Paul that the Jews are informed of him as teaching the Jews among the
Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying they ought not circumcise their children
NEITHER walk after the customs of our fathers. [vs 22-23] James tells Paul the
people will hear that he is there, and advised Paul to take the four men who
have a vow!! [vs 24] Take them and purify yourself with them and be in charge of
them, that they may shave their heads. {Vow of Nazarite} [Numbers 6} and all may
know that those things, {teaching against customs of fathers and our people}
where for they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself
also walkest orderly, and KEEPEST THE LAW. [vs 25] James reminds Paul of the
letter written to the Gentiles in Acts chapter 15. [vs 26] Paul goes to the
temple in Jerusalem to give notice of when the period of purification will be
completed and sacrifices would have to be made for each of them. [Acts 28:17]
Paul had called the chief Jews together in Rome: and when they were come
together he said unto them, Men and Brethren, I have COMMITTED NOTHING AGAINST
THE PEOPLE OR CUSTOMS OF OUR FATHERS. So Paul has been misaligned, lied about,
and Satan and his horde of preachers and Sunday keepers, have TAUGHT the
COMMANDMENTS and DOCTRINES of MEN to make God’s word of none-effect......
What is Sin?
We will deal with this subject at length from the Jerusalem Bible, because it is
translated from the original code B, and written in modern language, which is
easy to understand. [1 John 3:4] John says Sin is the transgressing of the law.
In Exodus 20:1-20, Moses had assembled the whole House of Israel, and God spoke
to them face to face. God gave them the commandments. In verse 20 Moses said
this! “Fear Not: for God is come to prove you, and his fear may be before your
faces, that ye sin not.”
God gave the commandments and said not to sin, sin is the transgression of
God’s Commandments. [Leviticus 19:2] “Speak unto all the congregation of the
children of Israel, and say to them ye shall be holy: for I am the Lord your
God, I am Holy: [vs 3] Ye shall fear, {honor} every man his mother, and father,
and keep My Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God.”
In the entire chapter of Leviticus 23, God makes his High Holy Days and
feasts all Holy Convocations. These are mandatory forever, and to be proclaimed
in their seasons. The Passover to be done in the evening of the first month of
Nisan on the 14th day, and on the 15th day starting in the evening starts the
Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days we shall eat unleavened bread. The first
and last days of unleavened bread are “High Sabbaths.”
Now in Exodus 31:12-17, God tells Moses, The children of Israel are to keep
his Sabbaths as a sign, forever to show who the creator God is. Those who won’t
keep God’s Sabbaths are to be put to death. [Romans 7:7] “What shall we say
then? Is the law sin? God forbid: Nay, I had not known sin, but by the
LAW.........[vs 12] Wherefore, the Law is Holy, and the commandment Holy and
just and good. [vs 14-25] [vs 14] The law, of course, as we all know, is
spiritual; but I (we) am unspiritual: I have been sold as a slave to sin. I can
not understand my own behavior. [vs 15] I fail to carry out the things I want
[vs 16] to do, and I find myself doing the very things I hate. When I act
against my own will, that means I have a self that acknowledges that the Law Is
[vs 17] Good, and the thing behaving in that way is not myself, but sin living
[vs 18] in me. The fact is, I know of nothing good living in me—-living, that is
in my unspiritual self— for though the will to do what is good is in me, the
performance [vs 19] is not, with the result that instead of doing the good
things I want to do, I [vs 20] carry out the sinful things I do to want. When I
act against my will, then it is not my true self doing it, but sin, which lives
in me. [vs 21] In fact, this seems to be real, that every single time I want to
do good it is something evil that comes to [vs 22] hand. In my inmost self, I
dearly Love God’s Law, but I can see my body follows a different law that [vs
23] battles against the Law my reason dictates. This is what makes me a prisoner
of the Law of Sin which lives inside my body. [vs 24] What a wretched man I am!
Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death? Thanks be to God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. [vs. 25] In short, it is I who with reason serve the Law
of God, and no less I who serve in my unspiritual self, the Law of Sin.”
Paul’s letter was to the Romans, who were not Israelites. Now look at Romans
10:1 “Brethren my heart’s desire and prayers to God, Israel, is this, that they
might be saved. [vs 2] I can swear to their zeal to God, but their zeal is
misguided. [vs 3] Failing to recognize the righteousness that comes from God,
they try to promote their own idea of it, instead of submitting to the
righteousness of God.”
[1 John 2:3-4] John says [vs 3] “We can be sure that we know God only by Keeping
His Commandments [vs 4] Anyone who says “I know Him” and does not keep his
commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him.” We can be sure that we
love God’s children if we love God himself and do what he has commanded us. This
is what loving God is—-keeping his commandments—and his commandments are not
difficult.
[2 John verse 6] “ To love is to live according to his commandments; this is the
commandment which you have heard since the beginning, to live a life to love.
[Leviticus 19:17-18] [vs 17] “You must not bear hatred for your brother in your
heart. You must openly tell him, your neighbor, of his offense. [vs 18] This way
you will not take a sin upon yourself, You must not exact vengeance, nor must
you bear a grudge against the children of your people. You must love your
neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh, YOU MUST KEEP MY LAWS.”
[2 John verses 9 & 10] “ If anyone does not keep within the teachings of Christ,
they cannot have the Father and the Son with them, but if anyone keeps the
teachings of Christ, they can have the Father and the Son with them. [vs 10] If
anyone comes to you bringing a different doctrine, you must not receive him in
your house or even give him a greeting.”
What is the Name of the Church?
Does the Church name make any difference? Did Christ leave any instructions
concerning this? Was the Church to be named after John the Baptist? Was it to be
named the Church of Christ? There is reported to be somewhere, between 350 and
2200 denominations of the Catholic Church, that call themselves Protestants.
All Protestants came out of the Roman Catholic Church. They all believe pretty
much the same things, with a few variances here and there. All protestant
preachers will tell you in a “New York second” that they don’t like or agree
with the ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH in any way, shape or form. But if this is the
case, some Churches say “When the Bible speaks, we speak. When the Bible is
silent, we are silent.” We shall check through-out the New Testament, to see if
these things be so.
[John 17:11] Jesus said, “and not I am no more in the world, but these are in
the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep THROUGH THINE OWN NAME those
whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.” [vs 12] While I was
with them in the world, I kept them in THY NAME; [vs 14] I have given them thy
word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as
I am not of the world.”
Paul tells the people of Asia, in Acts 20:28, “Take heed therefore unto
yourselves, and to all the flock, which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers,
to feed THE CHURCH OF GOD, which he hath purchased with his own blood,” Now look
at [ 1 Corinthians 1:2] “Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth......[1
Corinthians 10:32] Give none offense neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles,
not to the CHURCH OF GOD. [1 Corinthians 15:9] For I am the least of the
apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the
CHURCH OF GOD...[2 Corinthians 3:5] For a man know not how to rule his own
house, how shall he take care of the CHURCH OF GOD?”
As you can see from these many examples, the name of the church is THE CHURCH
OF GOD. One verse in the New Testament, in Romans 16:16, Paul gives a greeting
from the Churches of Christ. “Salute one another with an holy kiss. The Churches
of Christ salute you.” This is the only place in the Bible which the term
Churches of Christ is used. It is just a general term, giving greetings from all
the churches of Asia. This {one-time} use, was not intended to over-ride all the
other 12 places where the name of the Church was stated CHURCH OF GOD.
This is a typical example of the claim of many who say “When the Bible speaks,
we speak. When the Bible is silent, we are silent.” In this case it would
appear, “when the Bible speaks, we are silent, and when the Bible is silent, we
speak.”
No, the Church was not named after John the Baptist, nor called any other
name, not Roman Catholic or Lutheran or Methodist, etc. All of these Churches,
which are Protestant or Catholic and keep Sunday worship, Christmas and Easter,
Regeneration at Baptism, teach transubstantiation or call themselves Reverend,
Father, or Holy Father, are not the CHURCH OF GOD of which Jesus Christ is the
High Priest, in the new order of Mel-chis-ed-ec. [Hebrews chapters 6,7,8,9,10
and 11] “JESUS CHRIST IS THE SAME YESTERDAY, AND TODAY AND FOREVER. [Hebrews
13:8]
The Lord’s Day:
The Sabbath, Saturday or Sunday
Where is it mentioned in the Bible? Is it Sunday, or is it the Seventh day of
the week or is it something else all together?
Almost everyone who has read the Bible will tell you the Sabbath is the
Seventh day of the week. Most people who are ignorant of the Bible and what it
teaches are easily fooled by their preachers. By the way, “ignorant” according
to Webster’s Dictionary means: 1. uneducated, 2. unaware, 3. deceived (misled).
What is the Seventh Day Sabbath today? We all know God blessed and hallowed and
sanctified the Seventh Day, WHICH IS SATURDAY on the Roman Calendar, which is in
general, used through America today.
But wasn’t it changed? “You know brother, no one knows when the Sabbath is.
It was lost!!!!” I have heard this many times from Reverends and lay people
alike. It isn’t so!! Paul said to the Romans in Romans 3:2, That the ORACLES OF
GOD WERE COMMITTED TO THE JEWS.
The many people who say “no one knows when the Sabbath is” should visit a
synagogue some Saturday morning and see if the Jews know when the Seventh day
Sabbath is. In Acts 28:17, Paul told the leading Jews in Rome, “Men and
brethren, though I have done nothing against the people or the customs of our
fathers”.....this was about 67 A.D. around 35 years after Christ’s Death. Acts
21:17-27, Paul takes the vow of the Nazarite {Numbers 6:1-20} at the direction
of James, Jesus’ half brother who was in charge of the church in Jerusalem, to
prove that he walked orderly and “kept” the Law of Moses. Acts 20:16, Paul
wanted to keep the HIGH SABBATH OF Pentecost, at all costs if possible: Acts
20:6, they kept the Days of Unleavened Bread, {the first and the last days of
the feast are High Sabbaths}. Acts 18:18 Paul in Syria, took the vow of the
Nazarite in a Gentile country, so he certainly wasn’t trying to impress some
Jews as some would have you believe.
Most people are never taught that the Pagans or Gentiles had a religion in
Asia. Acts 19:23-29, Paul ran afoul of the worshipers of Diana, a great goddess
who was worshipped all over Asia in great temples and all over the civilized
world!! Today they call her “Mary.”
In Acts 15, Paul was having problems with certain men which came down from
Judea and was teaching the brothers that they must be circumcised after the
fashion of Moses or they couldn’t be saved!! Now James, Jesus’ brother, gave his
ruling in Acts 15:19-21. He ruled that it was not necessary to circumcise the
Gentiles, but they were to listen to the preachers of Moses, which the Law was
read every Sabbath from old times.
In Mark 2:27, Jesus told the Pharisees, who were trying to tell him how to keep
the Sabbath, the Sabbath was made for Man, and not man for the Sabbath; [vs 28]
Therefore, the Son of Man is LORD also of the SABBATH. [Matthew chapter
12:8] “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath Day”, so the Lord’s Day is the
Sabbath!! Thirty-one (31) places in the Bible the Great Day of the Lord is
proclaimed and prophesied. [Exodus 31:12-17] God makes a covenant with Moses and
the children of Israel Forever. “The Sabbaths of God are to be observed through
their generations as a “sign” to show who their GOD is. [vs 15,16] God says six
days may work be done, but in the Seventh is the Sabbath of rest, Holy unto the
Lord...Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the
Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. [vs 17] It is a
Sign between me and the children of Israel forever...for in six days the Lord
made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.”
The Sabbath is a SIGN. What is a sign? Well, Coca-Cola has a sign that every
one in the world recognizes. They know what a Coke is.
So the God who became Jesus Christ said, “The Sabbath is a sign, and forever.
[Ezekiel 20:12] “Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths to be a SIGN between me
and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctified them. [vs. 16]
Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted
my SABBATHS for their heart went after their idols: [vs 20] And hallow my
Sabbaths, and they shall be a SIGN between me and you THAT YE MAY KNOW THAT I AM
THE LORD THY GOD.”
Look!! Do you see? How do you know who your God is? By hallowing and keeping
the “SIGN”, the Sabbaths of the God of Creation, or “if you will” THE LORD’S
DAY.
Most churches make the claim that in Revelation chapter 1, when John in verse
10 says “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s Day”, they say it means Sunday for
the first day of the week. The Jerusalem Bible renders this verse in this way
which is more accurate. [vs 10] “It was the Lord’s day and the spirit possessed
me and I heard a voice behind me shouting like a trumpet....I was Alpha and
Omega, the First and the Last, Jesus Christ.”
Now, you must remember, Jesus is the LORD OF THE SABBATH, LORD OF CREATION, GOD
OF CREATION, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. Why wouldn’t Jesus Christ, who
told Moses, Ezekiel, and all the prophets that the Seventh Day Sabbath was a
SIGN, show us who our God is? Why then didn’t he come right out plain and say
“The First Day of the Week or Sunday is the New Worship Day?” The Catholics and
Protestant leaders, the Reverends and the Holy Fathers take much on themselves
when they say the day of worship is Sunday. Jesus Christ stated in Revelation
22:18-19, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy,
God shall take away his part out the book of life, and out the Holy City, and
from the things written in this book.
Refer to page 1 in this book.
History of the Church of God
“I will build my church and the gates of hell [the grave] shall not prevail
against it.” Matthew 16:18. Christ’s Church is to last through the ages! It has.
It is alive and well today, doing the work of God!
The world looks at the wrong church. Almost everyone for these past nineteen
(19) centuries has been looking in the wrong place for the church Jesus built
and is building.
What really happened after A.D. 70 to the Church of the Bible? Let’s look
back into the pages of history to see how the Church, Jesus built, came to be
where it is today.
A great gap lies between the Apostolic Church Jesus founded and the earliest
beginnings of today’s professing Christian Churches. Nearly all the writings of
that period after A.D.70 have perished, but Bible prophecy remains, as does the
slanders of our enemies.
Where has the true Church been all of these past nineteen (19) centuries?
The first three chapters, of the book Revelation, contains the amazing
prophecy revealing more than 1,900 years of Church history!
The seven Churches listed in time order are the past and present epochs of
God’s one true Church, with an amazing description of the Church of God today.
The professing Christian Churches of today do not understand these prophecies
relating to the church Jesus built. Most churches and their commentaries ignore
these prophecies, explain around them or deny they have any prophetic meaning.
Why?? These prophecies expose counterfeit Christianity, “if you will”.
God’s Church is a spiritual body. It is made up of those in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, those who obey and teach HIS COMMANDMENTS. [Revelation 12:17, 4:12 Mark 7:6-13] God’s Church did not grow big and become a great powerful organization, ruling over the nations during the Middle Ages. That Church was the visible Satanic organization, described in the prophecy of Rev 17 as a fallen woman dominating the political ruler’s of this world.
That visible organization was calling itself “The Christian Church” and the
daughter churches, [The Protestant Reformation] during the purges from Nero,
down to the late 1800’s. Yes, even today, the false churches killed and murdered
one hundred and fifty million (150,000,000) people in the name of Jesus Christ.
The true Church continued a tiny “little flock” almost unnoticed by the world at
large, almost unknown to the later historians. The Church of God has with-stood
the murderous on slaught of every Satanic effort made by the false Church to
destroy the “little flock.”
The Church of God has taught through the years that the MESSAGE for each of
the seven churches is for the whole Church throughout time.
The spiritual state or attitude of each of the seven churches is a lesson for
all. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the
churches.” [Revelation 2:7,11,17; Revelation 3:6,13,22]
Today, the Church of God teaches that the letters to the Seven Churches are
not dead history as some scholars have proposed. They are a message for God’s
church in every century. A prophetic history of 1900 years of experience of
God’s people.
The true Church did not die after A.D.70! It has continued to this day. The
Jerusalem Church of God began as the mother church in 31 A.D. at Pentecost, and
was the headquarters of the church until 69A.D.
Josephus’s Histories, states, while the people were assembling for the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, on the eighth (8th) of April at three in the morning, so
bright a light shone around the Alter and the Sanctuary that it might have been
mid-day. This lasted half an hour. The inexperienced took it for a good omen,
but the sacred scribes at once gave the true interpretation before the events.
During the same feast, the east gate of the inner Sanctuary had opened of its
own accord. A gate made of bronze and so solid that every evening twenty strong
men were required to shut it. It fastened with iron-bounded bars and secured by
bolts which went down in the mount along the way.
A few days after the Feast, on the 21 of May, a supernatural apparition was
seen, to amazing to be believed. It was vouched for, by many eyes witnesses, and
followed by disasters that bare out the signs.
Before sunset, they were seen in the sky over the whole country. Chariots and
regiments in arms speeding through the clouds and encircling the towns. Again,
at he Feast of Pentecost, when the priests had gone into the Temple at night to
perform the usual ceremonies, they declared that they were aware, first of a
violent movement and a loud crash, then a consecrated cry: “Let us go hence!”
Titus was the Roman Commander of the armies which sacked Jerusalem in 69 and
70 A.D. Josephus states that one million one hundred thousand (1,100,000) Jews
were slaughtered or starved to death during this siege. The temple was
destroyed, all but one wall and tower and temple mount was all that remained.
Ersebius HISTORY OF THE CHURCH {page 118} “Forty (40) years after the Saviors
Passion; all that time most of the apostles and disciples, including James, the
Lord’s brother, the first Bishop of Jerusalem, were still alive, and by
remaining in the city furnished the place with an impregnable bulwark.
But, the all powerful God called the Church out of that city and they
migrated to Pella, a town east of the Jordan River. The Pella congregation still
pastor of “Jerusalem”, was in exile because of the Jewish Wars with Rome.
In the first 38 years, as congregations and conversions grew and multiplied, the
distant churches had frequently appealed to the authority of the head church in
Jerusalem. A period of declining zeal set in for the whole Church, because Jesus
had not returned at the height of the crisis over Jerusalem in A.D.66 TO 70 as
many Christians expected.
Meanwhile, in the Greek world to which the apostle Paul was sent, Antioch
became a secondary headquarters. It was equally accessible from Jerusalem and
Syria, as well as from the Greek speaking area in Western Asia Minor. Paul,
Barnabus and other leaders continued to work in Pagan or Gentile lands in Asia
Minor from Antioch.
Long after the apostolic days, Antioch remained a chief center for the
Christian movement.
In Europe, the headquarters was Ephesus. [see Acts 19:1,10 and 1 Corinthians
16:8] It was from Ephesus that “of your own selves shall men arise, speaking
perverse things to draw away disciples after them” [Acts 20:30]
Ephesus was so important, a city on the Aegean Sea, that it naturally served as
the later headquarters of the Ephesian Era, to which Jesus spoke of in
Revelation 2:1. It was the first Church he spoke of in conjunction with the
Seven Churches of Revelation.
John, the last survivor of the original twelve (12) apostles, and Philip, who
was a deacon, both died in Ephesus.
About A.D. 90, the Roman emperor Domination, who was the brother of Titus, who
destroyed Jerusalem in 69 and 70 A.D. began the second imperial persecution.
John was imprisoned on the isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea, where he received
the Revelation and the command to write it down. John was finally released.
After John’s death, the Ephesus Church let down. It had not continued its work
to all nation. {Matthew 28:19}
After John’s release from prison on Patmos, he trained Polycorp, elder of
Smyrna, a city near Ephesus in the province of Asia.
Polycorp and Polycrates, elders at Smyrna in the second century, are the last
leaders of the Church in this part of the world of which we have any record. At
Smyrna, Polycorp presided over the Church of God for half a century after John’s
death. Polycorp stood up for the truth boldly, while many fell away and began
having fellowship with the Catholic bishops of Rome.
Some of the letters, of Polycorp’s time that he wrote, are still in existence
in an edited form today.
In old age, he was about 85 years, Polycorp journeyed to Rome over the matter of
Passover. His mission was to preserve the communion in the form he had leaned
from John. His mission was a success.
The following year, Polycorp was burned and hacked to death by a mob in Smyrna,
when he would not curse Christ.
The true Church of God was not stamped out of the Roman Empire all together.
This was accomplished when Constantine, the emperor of Rome, established his
brand of “Christianity” as a state religion by the Council of Nicene A.D. 325,
and then issued edicts favoring his brand of Christianity and anathematizing
[making illegal] all others. Eusebus, always a supporter of Constantine,
especially states that Constantine expelled every other Church from the Roman
Empire or exterminated them.
The next 1,260 years, the true Church of God, centered in Armenia [the
religion of Eastern Turkey today] and later in Alpine Europe, which was in the
isolated Pelisse Valley in Northern Italy. They were called Waldensians. The
Roman Catholics persecuted them for several centuries and forced them to ally
themselves with the Reformation in 1532. They were almost wiped out in 1655, but
a few survivors returned to the valleys in 1689.
There are almost 100,000 Waldensians left in Italy today. They are not Sunday
keeping protestants.
In A.D. 650, God raised up an inspired leader to correct His people and to
spread the Gospel.
Constantine of Mananali [not Constantine the Emperor] was a well-educated man.
He was given a gift of portions of the Bible. Upon studying it, he was amazed at
the truth he found revealed in it. Soon he was preaching, with the help of many
evangelists, and ministering to tens of thousands now being converted to the
true Church of God.
These “Pergamos” Christians, whose ancestors had fled to Armenia were called
Paulicians just as the world had called “Smyrna” Christians Ebonites and the
“Ephesus” Christians Nazarenes and Heretics. In its original Armenian, the word
“Paulicians” meant a follower of wretched little Paul”.
The Arabs began to contest the Byzantine power of Armenia about 650 A.D.
Persecution drove some Paulicians to hide in Moslem territory. About 750, the
Emperor Constantine Copronymus re-conquered the upper Euphrates region from
Armenia and removed many Paulicians to fill the deserted cities of Thrace.
From here, we can begin to trace the development of the Church of God in Europe,
because of its constant persecution and hiding. It is doubtful, if any, two of
the scattered groups believed exactly the same doctrine.
But Christ preserved, AMONG these people, a remnant of His church in the few who
were faithful to His rule over their lives.
This began the Thyatira Era of this Church. In the Middle Ages, the
geographical area of Southern France was the very center of the textile industry
of Europe.
Furthermore, the itinerant cloth merchants carried the woven silks of
Byzantium and the east to the eager markets of the West, which included
Paulicians.
The Pope, in 1096 described the Valley Louis in Dauphiny, France, as infested
with heresy. It was a result of Paulician evangelization of the Alpine Regions.
About 1104, a man from this valley, Peter of Bruys, began at Ebrum to preach
repentance throughout Languedoc and Province.
Later PETER WALDO brought the same message and Gospel as the Paulicians had.
As he preached, others added their efforts to his. They dedicated their lives
and their resources to spreading Christ’s Gospel. The world called them and
other groups by the name WALDENSIANS.
In the Netherlands, Waldensians had become known by their enemies as
Lollords. From a Flemish word, Lollen or Lullen, meaning to sing or speak
softly, or to mumble. Because of their practice of memorizing scriptures, in the
vernacular, by mumbling it to themselves or repeating it to each other.
These “wandering and hypocritical fellows” [as their enemies, the Catholics
called them] were noted in Holland as early as 1301.
In about 1309, Walter the Lollord, a chief Waldensian minister, with his brother
Raymond, carried the Gospel of Christ to England.
It is recorded that they spread the Waldensian Doctrine all over England
converting 800,000 people before he was caught and burned alive in Oconogne,
Germany, in 1322. [PAR BRASSE, AUTHENTIC DETAILS OF THE WALDENSES; ORCHARD, A
CONCISE HISTORY OF FOREIGN BAPTIST]
John Fox (or Foxe) was born at Boston in Lincolnshire, England, in 1516 and
educated at Oxford. He held a fellowship at Magdalen College for seven (7)
years. Fox had to leave England in 1553, when BLOODY MARY became queen, a
staunch Roman Catholic. Fox wrote his famous history of the persecution and
martyrdoms in England, from John Wycliffe through the early 1500’s.
His manuscript was finally printed in 1563 as “The and Monuments of These
Latter and Perilous Days” It came to be known as “The Book of Martyrs”. Revised
in 1570, the second edition, greatly improved, has held up under any attempts to
disprove his accounts made by future generations. Fox died in 1587 at the age of
seventy-one (71). His boldness in Christ gave him the courage to speak the truth
before the great and small. He won the friendship of Sir Francis Drake who read
his book aloud on the Western Seas as he made his way to the New World!
John Fox etched a detailed account for all time. The English Reformation and
persecutions and martyrdoms, which would have otherwise remained unknown.
“Foxe’s Book of Martyrs” is a must. Everyone who professes to be a Christian,
should read it. It is a historical account of a man who lived through some of
these persecutions.
He wrote about the men and women that triumphantly donned the armor of God—-The
Helmet of Salvation, the Shield of Faith, the Sword of God’s Word. They faced
torture and death in their fight for the faith, willing to stand for their
beliefs and the Word of God, regardless of the costs.
Men who wrote the history of God’s own true Church, such men as Eusphbius,
Pahmpilus, Polycorp of Smyrna, Josephus, Peter Waldo, Walter the Lollord, John
Wycliffe, also John Huss, William Tyndale, and so many, many others, gave their
all to the struggle for the preservation of God’s truth.
From Constantine’s decree, in A.D. 325, and the consequent annotations of the
persecution on Non-Catholics, 1260 years brings us to the time immediately
following 1585. About 1585, after the end of her 1260 years in the wilderness,
God’s Church was to move openly, this time in England.
In the reign of Elizabeth [1585 to 1603] stated in Chamber’s Encyclopedia,
article “Sabbath”, many conscientious and independent thinkers advocated the
seventh day. Sabbath keepers, now commonly came into historical view. Books were
published urging the keeping the seventh day.
Almost as early as local congregations are known to have existed in England, the
Church of God spread to America. In 1664, Stephen Mumford was sent from the
“Bell Lane” Church of God in London, England, to Newport , Rhode Island. For a
while, he associated with the members of a Sunday Baptist church. He persuaded
several of them to embrace his views.
After seven years, a Seventh-Day congregation of seven members was raised up
from these people. They identified it as (a part of) the Church of God.
(Seventh-Day Baptist Memorial Vol. 1, p. 36)
The Church, in Rhode Island, became the mother Church in the United States. It
grew slowly for about 30 years. Then in 1708, they enlarged and geographically
widespread. The Newport congregation was officially constituted into two
congregations.
The “Westerly” or “Hopkinton” congregation retained the original
records—being recognized as the headquarters location.
One of the most important local congregations was founded at Piscataway, New
Jersey, in 1705. The record of its founding uses the name “The Church of God”.
By 1800, Protestant Doctrines were prevalent in some of the Sabbath-keeping
congregations. Many began to form a denomination. This group officially adopted
the name “Seventh Day Baptist” in 1818.
Ten or twelve congregations in the Pennsylvania to Rhode Island area alone would
not at first affiliate with this denomination of men. Even as late as 1828, only
16 to 20 congregations were being represented at the Seventh Day Baptist
Conference Meetings, while they spoke despairingly of the “fanatical and
unworthy” Sabbath keepers. (The Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America p.
153-175.)
As always, the FEW had refused to go along, and had remained faithful to the
name and doctrine of “The Church of God!”
About 1850, these remnants of God’s people are found in fellowship with
Sabbath-keeping people who were part of a great Advent movement.
When the Adventists organized themselves as a denomination in 1860, only a
few mostly in the states of Ohio, Iowa and Missouri did not go along. The
printing plant and the magazine formerly published in the name of The Church of
God, were taken over by the Adventists.
But a group of the faithful, in 1861, began the publication of a new monthly
paper called “The Remnant of Israel”, later changed to “The Sabbath Advocate”
and finally to the “Bible Advocate.”
Strong families such as O.D. Dodd, D.N. Dugger, and many others provided a
tenacious continuity. These came to be located mainly in Missouri, Oklahoma and
Oregon. Some of these people retained the knowledge of God’s Holy Days and the
identity of modern Israel.
Church of God ministers began work of (The Seventh) in Mexico, Chile,
Argentina, and the Philippines. A few thousand of their converts and/or their
descendants remain throughout Latin America to this day.
There are still, here and there, small groups of God’s people carrying on with
the task of preaching the Gospel to anyone who will listen.
Small groups, some larger, here and there, have been shunned by their friends
and relatives, even their own families have turn against them, all for the sole
reason that they follow Christ and not men!!