The Church To Deceive The Elect
(1995)
Has the prophesied church that is to deceive the very elect of God come to fulfill it's role in history? Is it the Holy Roman Catholic Church? Or is it the Church of God and or one of it's off shoots? There is no doubt that the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church as it calls itself is the very one that God calls MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT, MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE WORLD in the book of Revelations. This is hardly a title for a church that would deceive the very elect of God. An organization that does not observe the TEN commandments, does not observe the Holy Days and other ordinances and is led by a priesthood that goes by the name of Father and or Pope is hardly a description of a church that would deceive an elect of God.
God's people are the ones who remember the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week and who keep it Holy by doing no servile work therein. In order to deceive such a lot it seems to me that the deceivers would have to observe the Sabbath. They would also have to observe the other seven Holy Days and the ordinances given by Jesus to remember Him by. To be deceivers they would have to do these things in a way that God would not and does not approve of. Is it possible to observe these days and have God disapprove? Yes it is. Believe me and believe your Bible.
Jesus defended the apostles when they were accused of eating without washing their hands. There is at least one group that I know of today who have their adherents wash each others feet once a year before eating of the broken body of Christ and drinking of His blood which was shed for the forgiveness of sin. Aside from the obvious repulsiveness of the sequence of these actions, the acceptance of the sacrifice of Christ is absolutely necessary for entrance into the kingdom of God, the washing of the feet follows the acceptance as a symbol of being clean and ready for entrance. Christ washes the feet. He is from God and so is authorized to allow entry. This ceremony should not be used to ridicule and humiliate the followers of Christ by making them eat with fetid hands.
Most disturbing and demoralizing also is the practise of giving our hard earned tithe to a number of sexually immoral radio and television operators to spend exorbitantly on their preferred life styles. I hate it.
I tell the truth. That is not to say that I am without error nor do I know all things. It is imperative that you prove all things for yourselves and keep what is right. I believe that God has given me His Holy Spirit as you should believe that you have received His Spirit through Baptism, the laying on of hands and or an anointing with oil. If God reveals anything to me it is because it is His will, not because of some special feeling, intuition or natal ability that I have. If He reveals something to me it is through His Holy Spirit that dwells in me. I do not feel any different than I did before having received this gift. My learning skills have not apparently changed. My interests and my pastimes have changed dramatically. I read and learn however in exactly the same way that I did before my conversion. I learn by reading, hearing and by observation much like a scientist, medical doctor, lawyer, engineer, farmer, mother, father, student or child. I also learn through meditation and thought. God has provided me with the faith required to believe in His Son Jesus the Lord of the Bible.
Let me point out from the scriptures that God does sometimes hate the observance of His Holy Days and ordinances. At the same time I will show you that He expects us to observe His appointed feasts, months and New Moons.
Psalm 81:3, 4
Blow the trumpet at the new moon, At the full moon, on our feast-day. For it is a statute for Israel, An ordinance of the God of Jacob.
When was the last time you heard a trumpet being blown at a Feast, at a New moon or at a full moon at a Feast?
Isaiah 1:13-20
Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies,-- I cannot away with iniquity and the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary of bearing them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.
Hosea 2:1, 2,...11
Say to your brethren, 'My people,' And to your sisters, 'Mercy is shown.' " Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! Let her put away her harlotries from her sight, And her adulteries from between her breasts; ... I will also cause all her mirth to cease, Her feast days, Her New Moons, Her Sabbaths -- All her appointed feasts.
Amos 5:18, 20, 21
Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! For what good is the day of the LORD to you? It will be darkness, and not light. Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it? " I hate, I despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies.
2 Peter 2:12-22
But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit," and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire."
You will notice that the feasting is going on here in the "New Testament" and is seen as righteous and proper but there are some who are not righteous in their observations.
Jude 12, 13
These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
Ezekiel 46:1
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened.
The "Churches of God" do generally speaking observe the Feasts according to God's months and therefore do indirectly observe the new moon. However to my knowledge there is absolutely no event that announces the new moon every month. The world has lost the meaning of a month. They disregard God's creation and follow traditions of men long dead, men such as Augustus and Julius Caesar. The observance of the months according to the Gregorian calendar is a sign that we are still under the rule of the Holy Roman Empire. The western world is still under the Roman Empire and is influencing all the nations that have anything to do with it. We should strive to become aware of the moon cycle and the days of the month according to God's calendar. We in the western world use the clock to rule the day and the month. We do not use the setting of the sun nor the cycle of the moon. The year is a mathematically derived cycle as well rather than a seasonal cycle. We have separated ourselves from creation with thick wool over our eyes.
The observance of the new moon, that is the day of the beginning of the moon cycle, is a practise that was taught in the "new" Testament as well as the "old". The tradition of God was passed on to the apostles and to the disciples. Jesus in His teachings rebuked the religious leaders of the time. They were the rabbis and scribes of the Jewish Sabbath keeping and Holy Day observing religion from God. They observed a month that was regulated by the moon as it should be and as a month is truly timed.
Colossians 2:16
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day:
Contrary to popular belief this verse does not imply let no man judge in respect to Sundays and the refusal to observe the beginning of the month. It says rather to let no man judge those who are obedient to God, to His commandments and ordinances. It is not promoting eating pork nor getting drunk either. It is promoting the idea of the liberty that God has given us to observe these things.
Matthew 15:1,3-9
Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ... He answered them, "And why do you transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, `Honor your father and your mother,' and, `He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die.' But you say, `If any one tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is given to God, he need not honor his father.' So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: `This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'"
Note again that Jesus is not speaking to people who do not observe God's Holy Days but rather to people who do. So often I have heard these words used to refer to non Sabbath keepers, their sins are blatant. It is also common practice to refer to this fifth commandment of honor your mother and your father as one of the six that tell you to love your neighbor. As plain as the toes on your feet and the fingers on your hands God has divided the commandments five and five. Five to love God and five to love your neighbor.
Matthew 22:18
But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?
Realize that Jesus is speaking to the Jewish religious leaders of His day. They were outwardly doing the will of God. Jesus customarily referred to them as hypocrites.
Matthew 23:13
"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in.
Matthew 23:15
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Matthew 23:23
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
Matthew 23:25
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity.
Matthew 23:27
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
Do not think that this dilemma is restricted to Jews. This infiltration of Satan's work is very present on this continent as it is in any other continent. Just Because a church or organization calls itself by God's name does not make it His. The third commandment is 'you shall not take my name in vain'. Most people who use God's name use it in vain. The church that is to deceive the very elect uses it in vain.
Matthew 23:29-33
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, saying, `If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' Thus you witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
Mark 7:7-9
in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.' You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men." And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition!
Luke 13:15-17
Then the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?" As he said this, all his adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.
There is no question that we are to observe God's seventh day Sabbath and His Holy or high Days, seven of them. In the New Testament there is a sprinkling of evidence of this but the practise was well observed by the priesthood of the time. The 'Old Testament' makes these observances abundantly clear, it is like a chest full of gold coins. I have picked out only a few verses below that illustrate this point.
Genesis 17:9, 10, 18:19, Exodus 13:10, 15:26, 16:28,
Exodus16:29
See, for that Jehovah hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
Exodus 19:5, Exodus 20:6
and showing loving kindness unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Exodus 20:8
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exodus 23:14
Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Exodus 23:15
The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep: seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it thou camest out from Egypt); and none shall appear before me empty: "and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field. "Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
Exodus 12:15-17
'Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 'On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat -- that only may be prepared by you. 'So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. [This was the night of the crossing of the Red Sea from Egypt to Sinai.] Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. [It is better know as 'the night to be much remembered, the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.]
Exodus 31:13
Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily ye shall keep my SabbathS: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am Jehovah who sanctifieth you.
Exodus 31:14, Exodus 31:16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
Exodus 34:18, Leviticus 18:4
My ordinances shall ye do, and my statutes shall ye keep, to walk therein: I am Jehovah your God.
Leviticus 18:5, 26, Leviticus 18:30
Therefore shall ye keep my charge, that ye practise not any of these abominable customs, which were practised before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am Jehovah your God. [This of course condemns any other practice.]
Leviticus 19:3, 19, 30, 20:8, 22, 22:31, 23:32, 23:39, 41, 25:2, 18, 26:2, 3, Numbers 9:2 Moreover let the children of Israel keep the passover in its appointed season.
Numbers 9:3, 4, 29:12 And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month ye shall have a holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work, and ye shall keep a feast unto Jehovah seven days:
Deuteronomy 4:2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish from it, that ye may keep the commandments of Jehovah your God which I command you.
Deuteronomy 4:5, 6, 40, 5:10, 12, 15, 29, 6:2, 17, 7:9 Know therefore that Jehovah thy God, he is God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and lovingkindness with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations,
Deuteronomy 7:11, 12, 8:2, 6, 10:13, 11:1, 8, 22, 13:4, 18, 16:1,
Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto Jehovah thy God; for in the month of Abib Jehovah thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.
Deuteronomy 16:10 And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks [Pentecost] unto Jehovah thy God with a tribute of a freewill-offering of thy hand, which thou shalt give, according as Jehovah thy God blesseth thee:
Leviticus 23:24 "Say to the people of Israel, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclai med with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation.
Leviticus 23:27-32 "On the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves [fast, go without food or water]... And you shall do no work on this same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God. For whoever is not afflicted on this same day shall be cut off from his people. And whoever does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no work: it is a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves; on the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your sabbath." Deuteronomy 16:13 Thou shalt keep the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in from thy threshing-floor and from thy winepress:
Deuteronomy 16:15, 17:19, 19:9, Deuteronomy 26:16 This day Jehovah thy God commandeth thee to do these statutes and ordinances: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.
Deuteronomy 26:17, 18, 27:1, 28:9, Deuteronomy 28:45 And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee: Deuteronomy 29:9, 30:10, 16.
This old covenant continues, in a sense, in the 'New Testament' with the scribes, the Pharasees, John the Baptist and his followers and with Jesus and His followers.
Matthew 19:17, And he said unto him, Why askest thou me concerning that which is good? One there is who is good: but if thou wouldest enter into life, keep the commandments. Matthew 26:18, And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Teacher saith, My time is at hand; I keep the passover at thy house with my disciples. Mark 7:9 And he said unto them, Full well do ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your tradition. Luke 11:28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it. Luke 12:15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and keep yourselves from all covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. John 8:55 and ye have not known him: but I know him; and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be like unto you, a liar: but I know him, and keep his word. John 12:47 And if any man hear My sayings, and keep them not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. John 14:15 If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments. John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John 15 :10 If ye keep my commandments