Cleansing the Temple (No. 241B)

Each year in Adar we begin Preparing for the Passover (No. 190) and the Sanctification of the Temple of God (No. 241).

We begin the Sanctification process on the New Year on the New Moon at 1 Abib. The entire period lasts the full 14 days to the Lord’s Supper beginning 14 Abib with the Fast on 7 Abib for the Sanctification of the Simple and Erroneous (No. 291). We know from the historical records that Christ and the apostles and the entire church kept this fast as detailed in the appendix to 291 above.

The Passover is the most important period in the Church calendar. Preparation to take part in the Passover is a problem central to every Christian. Many did not prepare to take the Passover correctly over the years and have paid for the error, or lack of diligence, with their spiritual lives.

The Churches of God have failed to prepare for and hold the Passover correctly for decades and many even for centuries. It is for that reason that the Sardis and Laodicean eras are not to be included in the First Resurrection (cf. The Pillars of Philadelphia (No. 283)).

A complete time cycle ago many people from another Church of God tried to join us and take over the church to get rid of the true doctrines and relieve the open pressure on them. They had failed to understand and keep the Passover correctly and as a result carried all of the errors and corruption into CCG. Hence they continued to keep the Passover incorrectly, and when they were exposed for not going out of their gates and returning to work on the Feast days, they were removed from consideration for voting membership and they could not carry out their plans and so left rather than repeat the trial period.

Some things and some people are simple and their sins go before them and are easily exposed. Other’s sins lie deep in the heart of the people that seemingly keep the letter of the Law but their sins lie in their own self-righteousness.

We saw the necessity of the Sanctification process as it was covered in the papers Sanctification of the Nations (No. 077); Sanctification of the Temple of God (No. 241) and Sanctification of the Simple and the Erroneous (No. 291). As we stated above, Christ and the apostles kept the entire Sanctification period right up to an including the Fast on 7 Abib in the Sanctification of the Simple and the Erroneous and the process on up to and including the Lord’s Supper and the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread outside of their gates (Deut 16:5-8). This fast and sanctification process was undertaken by the entire church and the apostles for centuries except for the apostates at Rome. The Churches of God under the Sardis and Laodicean systems never kept the sanctification and the entire feast at all and that is just another symptom of their failure to make the grade for the First Resurrection.

The Cleansing of the Temple undertaken by Jesus Christ and mentioned in the Timing of The Crucifixion and the Resurrection (No. 159) is not readily understood even by those that keep the Sanctification period and so we need to go through those aspects so that we of the faith are able to cleanse ourselves more thoroughly of our sins instead of attributing them to others. Instead of removing the logs that are in our own eyes we are more concerned looking for the specks in the eyes of others.

Aspects of the Cleansing of the Temple, which Temple we are.

As Christ went in and purged the Money Changers from the Temple over the period of the Sanctification and in the period leading to the Passover, so also are we to purge ourselves of the carnal attitudes towards polluting ourselves with the corruption of our bodies and minds in the pursuit of money and of worldly goods. As we remove the carnal activities from the church so also we remove them from ourselves.

Many spend time on removing leaven from their homes yet pay little attention to cleansing their minds and bodies from carnal lusts and the judgmental self-righteousness that attributes sin and evil to the minds and attitudes of others. We are righteous in our own eyes and fail to purge the leaven of sin and of malice and wickedness in our own minds yet point the finger at others. It is an old saying that when we point the finger at others there are another three pointing back at us.

Remember our sins will find us out and the purpose of the Lord’s Supper and the Passover is to get us to reflect on them and purge them from us. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is to prepare us for the Omer Count from the Wave Sheaf to the Feast of Pentecost when we are given the Holy Spirit in renewal.

The period of the Sanctification and the Passover and Unleavened Bread is 21 days and the 50 days from the Wave Sheaf to Pentecost minus the days from the Wave Sheaf to the Last Holy Day of Unleavened Bread. This period represents the life of the human as an annual simplification of the Calling of the Elect, and The Elect as Elohim (No. 001) and the preparation to become the Temple of God (No. 282D). Each of us is called according to our Predestination (No. 296).

Before we were formed in the womb our deeds were foreknown and we were predestined and chosen to be called and justified and then glorified and our works were set out according to the will of God (cf. Jer. 1:5; Rom. 8:29-31).

Cleanse ourselves as with Hyssop and ask for God’s Help. If God is for us, then who can be against us?

Love your neighbour as yourself and show thereby that you love God.

In addition to the judgmental self-righteousness that we get coming from the Churches of God of the Sardis systems in WCG and offshoots and the COG (SD) we also get those coming to us now more and more from the Adventist system with their fundamental errors of refusing meats (cf. Vegetarianism and the Bible (No. 183)) and to undertake the consumption of wine even at the Lord’s Supper where they attempt to get away with taking grape juice rather than the 5-10 mils of red wine (cf. Wine in the Bible (No. 188) and Doctrines of Demons of the Last Days (No. 048)). Christ was adamant regarding this requirement and unless you “eat the body and drink the blood” of the Messiah at the Passover you have no part in him.

We have refused admittance to entire churches over this doctrine and we have removed ministers that have penetrated us under this false pretence and tried to teach the consumption of grape juice at the Feast of the Passover. This heresy is so critical that it will prevent the holder from entering the First Resurrection. If you have not got the self control to take the thimbleful of wine at the Passover you are unfit for the Kingdom of God. We can honestly say we have never seen anyone in CCG intoxicated at the feasts or at any other time. Remember that God commands us to go to the feasts with our tithes and to purchase the things we desire whether sheep or cattle or wine or strong drink or anything that our appetite desires (Deut. 14:26).

For most of us the feasts are the only breaks we get and the periods of Passover/Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles are the holidays for our workers who are also our tithe payers. The ones that go to the feast and do drink alcohol are never the ones measuring what goes down the throat of their neighbour. It is always the parsimonious self-righteous that do not drink that are measuring the consumption of others in all things. I have even heard some refer to the Feast of Booths as the Feast of Booze as though the brethren sin in some way. These same hypocrites make no reference to the Feast of the Passover and UB as they have never kept it as a feast in their entire lives.

It is this decay that has to be removed from our minds along with all other sins in self- righteousness and also our own sins that we need to be cleansed of in preparation for the Lord’s Supper and the Passover period in its entirety. Remember that it is the Lord’s Supper that is the Second Sacrament of the church and for good reason. It is our rebaptism on a yearly basis so that we might be cleansed of sin again as we progress in the faith.

We have seen those of the offshoots gather information on others from the past on hearsay and gossip and attribute sin to others who have been baptised for years. From whence cometh our baptisms? Did Christ and the apostles preach to us in vain? Our sins are placed as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12). It is for this attitude of defamation and gossip that the Sardis system, and especially of the offshoots, are consigned to the Second Resurrection and the Great White Throne Judgment (No. 143B).

Christ whipped the Money Changers from the Temple because they were bringing this infected thinking into the House of God. So also the Rabbis and the Pharisees were even then trying to infect the Temple of God with the traditions they had carried into the faith from other lands such as Egypt and Syria and Babylon. By the time of Christ they had made the people joining the Temple system twice the hounds of the demons that they themselves were. It was for that reason that the Jews were placed on trial and given 40 years from Messiah to the destruction of the Temple system and their dispersal into the Gentiles in 70 CE in accordance with the Sign of Jonah (cf. Sign of Jonah and the History of the Reconstruction of the Temple (No. 013) and also War with Rome and the Fall of the Temple (No. 298)).

Identifying the Body of Christ

It is our task to identify the Body of Christ because somewhere in the world it is operating, as Christ told us, and they are of one mind in the faith. We are to keep the Passover in its entirety with them. If those that are with you do not wish to keep the Passover in its entirety from the New Year and the Sanctification as did Christ and the apostles and the Churches of God then you are not of the elect and in the Body of Christ. Go and find the elect and keep it with them for your salvation depends on being part of the Body and in these Last Days. There are no second prizes, except the Second Resurrection; and that is choosing to do it the hard way. Only a fool would choose that route.

Remember that the Plan of Salvation is to establish Man as the Temple of God (No. 282D). That process is in and through the Churches of God as the Body of Christ. We have to ready ourselves so that God can occupy us in the Holy Spirit. If we do not ready ourselves before the coming of the Messiah we simply will not be acceptable. If you think you have no need of all these procedures and laws and God’s Calendar (No. 156) and you can do as you wish and keep the false system of the Babylonians (cf. Hillel, the Babylonian Intercalations and the Temple Calendar (195C)) then you will not be in the First Resurrection (No. 143A).

If you think that the laws of God are done away (cf. Antinomian Attacks on the Law of God (No. 164D)), and that when you die you go to heaven, and you keep Sunday, Christmas and Easter then you are not a Christian. You are a Baal worshiping infidel and you are consigned to the Second Resurrection (No. 143B) along with everyone else who won’t do as they are told and obey God. You will have plenty of company. Ninety-nine percent of the world will be there with you. It will be a 100 year school in two jubilees. Every Hadithic Muslim will be there as well, along with the popes, bishops and sheiks and Hindu teachers and Buddhists and Animists, Taoists and every other “ist” including the Atheists and Agnostics who will no longer have the excuse of not knowing.

The Wars of the End will see the attempted destruction of humanity under Satan (cf. Wars of the End Part I: Wars of Amalek (No. 141C)). These wars will be followed by the Witnesses (cf. Wars of the End Part II: 1260 Days of the Witnesses (No. 141D)) and the Coming of the Messiah (cf. Wars of the End Part III: Armageddon and the Vials of the Wrath of God (No. 141E)). The whole world will march against the Messiah (cf. Wars of the End Part IIIB: War Against Christ (No. 141E_2)). Messiah will totally eradicate all false religion before the Millennium (cf. Wars of the End Part IV: End of False Religion (No. 141F)). We will then all be put to work restoring the world for the Millennium (cf. Wars of the End Part V: Restoration for the Millennium (No. 141G)). The whole purpose of the Plan of Salvation is to make Man as the Temple of God (see above) and to prepare the Elohim to rule as God (cf. Wars of the End Part VB (No. 141H)).