Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with Christ,
Greetings from Charlotte, NC! As America and our British-descended friends descend further and further into disobedience to God’s Laws, the results of our sinful ways are beginning to catch up with us. A recent article in the Charlotte Observer described the tragic results of the sexually loose lifestyles of American teens: “About one in four teenage girls in the United States—and nearly half of black girls in the country—have at least one sexually transmitted disease, according to a study released Tuesday, providing the first snapshot of infection rates among this age group…. Those numbers translate into an estimated 3.2 million adolescent girls infected with one of the four most common STDs. Many may not even know that they have a disease or that they are passing it to their sex partners” (March 12, 2008).
In ancient Israel, the prophet Ezekiel—in a prophecy that definitely applies to us today—describes the attitude which all God-fearing people should have toward the heinous sins of our peoples. Ezekiel described how an angel was to be sent through Jerusalem and “put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within.” Then God said to the angel, “Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark” (Ezek. 9:4-6).
Dear brethren and friends, do you “sigh and cry” at the increasing abominations, and for our peoples? Are we aware and genuinely sorry that our nations are turning more and more away from the God of the Bible—and from every vestige of true Christianity? This ancient prophecy of Ezekiel’s does, in type, apply to the attitude we should have about these things in our very own land!
Interestingly, we seem to be letting every form of sin and perversion come into our homes, our schools and even our churches almost without protest. Yet even the Muslims in Great Britain have been willing to stand up against the abominable sex teachings being promulgated in some of their public schools there! It appears that two primary schools in Bristol, England, have withdrawn story books about “same-sex relationships” after objections from Muslim parents! These books were aimed at pupils as young as five years old! A book and DVD entitled, “That’s A Family!” teaching children about different family set ups—including gay or lesbian parents—has also been withdrawn. What is notable is that the outcry had to come from the Muslim parents—rather than Christian parents—for any action to be taken! They were “threatening” some kind of action, which must have been somewhat intimidating to the authorities over there.
We are not advocating any type of violence or intimidation but, sometimes, it takes an outside group such as these Muslims to really stand up and forcibly object in order to get the authorities to be willing to depart from this kind of abominable behavior which ought not even to be thought about if our society were truly “Christian.”
Thousands of years ago, the Eternal God warned our forefathers, “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you” (Deut. 28:43-45). As most of our readers know, we—the British-descended and American peoples—are physical descendants of the ancient “Lost Ten Tribes” of the House of Israel. Therefore, in type, these prophecies are referring directly to us! And those who do not understand or are unwilling to believe this will soon be faced with the exact conditions foretold in these God inspired prophecies for our day!
Indeed, the Gentiles are rising up higher and higher—just like God said—and it is even getting to the place where the very highest offices in our lands may be involved. This is in no way intending to “put down” those of other ethnic backgrounds. As this prophecy makes clear, it is the fault of our peoples, who have been unwilling to recognize who they are and obey our Creator and His commandments which we used to have clearly posted in many of our public places. As verse 44 of the above quoted prophecy indicates, the alien “shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him.” It is increasingly taking the Chinese, the nation of Abu Dhabi and others to “bail out” some of our major banks and financial institutions in the present day financial crisis! And foreigners now hold so many hundreds of billions of dollars in United States treasury notes and bills that they could “pull the plug” almost overnight and send our entire nation into an economic tailspin!
Think! These prophecies are specific—and their present day fulfillment is very real! Sorrowfully, just as an illustration—another news clipping has come to my desk explaining how the United States dollar has fallen: “India’s Tourism Minister Thursday said that U.S. dollars will no longer be accepted at the country’s heritage tourist sites, including the famed Taj Mahal!” Around the world, Americans are going to be increasingly humbled and humiliated as they come to realize how far we have actually fallen. When will we wake up?
Dear friends and brethren, we really do need to “sigh and cry” for the abominations of modern day Israel! For our nations have gone so far away from the God of the Bible and His Laws and ways that even most churchgoing people have no idea of the degree of our sinfulness as a nation, and as individuals.
At this time, we in this Work are preparing to observe God’s Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. As I have described to you many times, we in this Work are trying to Restore Original Christianity—the very Christianity of Jesus Christ and the early apostles. Near the end of the apostolic age, the Church was already being infiltrated by false teachers and preachers to the extent that Jude had to warn God’s people, “ Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude vv. 3-4).
Jude exhorted the true Church of God to “contend earnestly” in order to get back to the faith “once for all delivered” to the true saints of God. As we noted, Jude described how certain men crept in—turning the “grace” of God into “licentiousness.” That is, these false teachers were developing a false theology wherein people would “just believe” on the name of Christ, but have the “license” to disobey God and live an immoral life. That very way of life increasingly took over the “name” of Christianity! The doctrines and practice of ancient Babylon and Egypt were brought into the apostate church, yet the name “Christian” was stamped on the outside of the package! If any of you reading this are new to our Work, please call or write immediately and ask for a free copy of our powerful booklet fully explaining this. It is entitled, Satan’s Counterfeit Christianity.
However, in our desire to get back to the “faith once for all delivered,” we are keeping the true Passover given by God in the Bible—followed by the Days of Unleavened Bread. These practices are referred to a number of times in the New Testament and were, in fact, observed for hundreds of years by the true Church of God until most of these practices were stamped out by the apostate church. Only a “little flock” (Luke 12:32) were able to retain these practices—often having to “hide out” in the Alps and other places away from the predominant church during the Dark Ages.
In 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, the Apostle Paul describes the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread observance. He states, “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (v. 7). When Christ gave His life on the cross, He was the ultimate “Passover Lamb.” Yet, this practice of observing the Passover was commanded to be continued by the Christian church—using only the symbols of unleavened bread and wine rather than the flesh of a slain lamb with bitter herbs. After the Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread were to be observed in order to teach true Christians to “come out” of sin—leaven is described as a type of sin throughout the Bible.
Therefore the Apostle Paul instructs these Gentile Christians, “ Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (v. 8). So here is a New Testament command to Gentiles to “keep the feasts”—that is the Feast of Unleavened Bread!
It behooves each of us to do everything we can to obey Jude’s inspired instruction to get back to the “faith once for all delivered” to the original saints! May God help each of us “examine himself” during this time of year and realize how much each of us needs to come out of this present world and fully surrender so the Jesus Christ of the Bible may live His live within us (Gal. 2:20). This is what true Christianity is all about. This is the “faith once for all delivered.”
I pray that all of you dear brethren and co-workers may be drawn ever closer to God at this time of year. May He open all of our minds more and more to His Truth and grant that we may be the genuine “overcomers” who will eventually rule with Christ in His Kingdom. Then, as the nations around us crumble—and as God punishes His people Israel in a special way—we may be taken to the Place of Safety God describes in Revelation 12:13-17. If we truly obey God and learn to practice true Christianity, we will be “under the blood” of the true Passover Lamb just as surely as the death angel “passed over” the peoples of ancient Israel who were willing to obey God and keep the physical Passover at that time.
The end-time prophetic events are moving swiftly forward! May God help each of us understand and do all we can to warn this world of what is just ahead, and also to personally “walk with God” and learn to fulfill the purpose for which He has called us and opened our eyes at this time.
With Christian love,
Roderick C. Meredith