Dear Brethren, Co-Workers and Friends!
It is hard to believe that summer is almost over. We are now looking forward to the annual Fall Holy Days, beginning with the Feast of Trumpets on September 29, 2011. Most of us have already been making plans and reservations to attend the Feast of Tabernacles this year, either in Pismo Beach, California, or in Deganwy, North Wales. Both of these locations are inspiring sites.
Keeping the Feast of Tabernacles together with like-minded people will be a small foretaste of the love and fellowship that we can look forward to when Christ sets up God’s Kingdom here on earth. We know that in due time, all humanity will be given the opportunity to observe God’s weekly and annual Holy Days, including the Feast of Tabernacles, and they will finally forsake all pagan holidays. Instead, they will worship the God of the Bible in spirit and in truth.
Those who are being called now are being trained to carry out the tremendous future opportunity to literally reshape this world. But they are not attempting to do so today, knowing that their opportunity will only come after Christ’s return. Under Christ’s leadership, it will be given to them to bring peace and harmony to this war-torn, totally perverted confused world. At that time, the current god of this world, Satan the devil, who deceives the whole world, will be banned. He will be no longer allowed to deceive mankind. As a consequence, the overwhelming majority will be receptive to God’s Way of Life, and they will be offered the gift of the Holy Spirit. Most will accept this gift, thereby experiencing the kind of love, peace, joy, patience and faith which had been unknown to them before.
Man will know on what days to worship God. Eventually, most will be happy to keep the weekly Sabbath which was established by God Almighty at the time of man’s creation. When Christ told the Pharisees that He was Lord of the Sabbath, He pointed out that He had not only created it, but also, that He spoke with authority when He told them how to keep it holy. He was condemned by some for healing the sick on the Sabbath, and His disciples were being criticized for picking heads of grain on the Sabbath. We read in Luke 6:1-5:
“Now it happened on the second Sabbath after the first that He went through the grainfields. And His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands. And some of the Pharisees said to them, ‘Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?’ But Jesus answering them said, ‘Have you not even read this, what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he went into the house of God, took and ate the showbread, and also gave some to those with him, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat?’ And He said to them, ‘The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.’”
As the Lord and Creator of the Sabbath, He could dogmatically proclaim what was and is acceptable and lawful to do and not to do on the Sabbath. The Pharisees, because of their many man-made regulations and traditions, were unjust in their condemnation of Christ’s and His disciples’ actions on God’s Holy Day. They did not allow Christ to show them the true spiritual intent of the Sabbath law. This is not different today in regard to the way in which many orthodox Jews observe the Sabbath, while, on the other hand, most people around the world do not observe the Sabbath at all. Some may keep Friday, others may not keep any day. Even in the “Christian” world, most have been deceived to think that the Sabbath was replaced by Sunday—a pagan day dedicated to the worship of heathen sun gods.
There is also great deception and confusion regarding God’s annual Holy Days. The overwhelming majority knows nothing about God’s command to continue to observe these days faithfully. After all, Christ established them at the time when He began to bring Israel out of Egyptian slavery. They are to be kept forever by physical Israel (including the modern descendants of the ancient houses of Israel and Judah, such as the USA and the British Commonwealth nations) as well as by spiritual Israel (the Church of God). But even many of those who observe them today may keep them on wrong days, or they do not keep them in their entirety or in the correct way, because they knowingly or ignorantly refuse to apply the spiritual intent of the law, as explained and taught by God’s true Church.
Living in a future world when religious confusion has been completely removed will be a great blessing for all. We have now been given our part in supporting the most important Work
today, and that is, proclaiming to this sick and dying age the only message of true hope and lasting change—the Gospel or Good News of the soon-coming KINGDOM of God.
Nothing could be of greater importance! If we fulfill our individual responsibility, by accepting and acting upon our role in the Body of Christ, as and where He placed us, God promises us even physical protection in the future.
What we see today is an ongoing deterioration of world conditions, with more wars and conflicts, more earthquakes of greater frequency and intensity, and more unusually destructive weather patterns—be it too much sun and drought, or too much rain and flooding caused by hurricanes, and other abnormal weather phenomena.
Satan knows that we are fast approaching the end of this evil age, and his wrath is very great, being fully aware that the end of his rule over this earth is near. Although we do not set dates, we can tell by the signs of the times that the prophesied Great Tribulation is not too far off. Then conditions will even deteriorate so much more rapidly, that God will have to intervene “for the elect’s sake” to shorten those dreadful days and to save mankind from total annihilation.
Thankfully, some will survive and those worthy of God’s protection will be able to stand before Christ when He returns. We are to pray to God that He will establish His Kingdom very soon, thereby CHANGING today’s terrible world conditions and, more importantly, the hearts of man.
Man doesn’t know today how to rule himself, and he is heading down the road of total destruction. The way of peace and harmony has been explained in the Bible all along, but man has been ignoring and rejecting God’s Word.
Once Satan is removed and God’s righteous government is established on this earth over all nations, we will see lasting peace and prosperity, and man will worship God with one voice on the correct weekly and annual Holy Days, which picture His plan for mankind.
Thankfully, that time is not too far away, and it behooves us, collectively and individually, to remain dedicated to and engaged in doing the Work of God that has been laid before us. We have to be persistent and patiently waiting for God to open before us doors of proclaiming the Gospel, since He sees our hearts, and He will honor our desire to finish the job that He has given us.
We must also continue to grow in Christ’s grace and knowledge, maintaining a right relationship with God which is based on faith in Christ’s Sacrifice and obedience of His wonderful laws, for our own good. If we remain faithful and don’t give up and become complacent, bored and disinterested, we will be able to stand as glorified God beings before the all-powerful Son of Man, ready and willing to bring REAL and positive change to a downtrodden and destructive world.
The immediate future is wrought with trials, but our future joy of working with, under and for Christ in continuing to proclaim and teach the eternal Gospel in the Millennium and the Great White Throne Judgment is a wonderful and enduring goal.
Let us ensure that we don’t lose heart in our responsibilities, so that we can stand before Christ when He returns. Mankind needs us. We must not let them down.
In Christ Service,
Rene Messier
