“Beware of False
Prophets”!
A New Look at Fred Coulter’s NON-Christian Passover!
The Great “Quail”
Controversy!
Fred
Coulter in his book The Christian Passover and
in a letter to me argues
that Exodus 16 is the FINAL
clinching "PROOF" that the Jews are wrong in keep-
ing Passover on Nisan 15.
He insists the true Passover
is to be observed at the beginning of Nisan 14. Rod
Meredith
and the Global Church of God use his book
as an authority on the subject. What is the truth? What
about the flight of the QUAILS? Let's take a new look
at the Passover and the Question of the Quail!
William F. Dankenbring
In a personal
letter to me, Fred Coulter took exception to criticism I have made of his stand
in favor of a Nisan 14 Passover, and his so-called "proofs" that the
Jews are in error when celebrating it on Nisan 15. Coulter claims:
"As you knows, the crux of the whole
Passover controversy in the
Old
Testament lies in the proper definition of ben ha arbayim, or
'between the two evenings.'
The problem was simply this: If
the
Scriptures
of the Old Testament, as preserved in the Hebrew, did
not give a clear definition of ben ha arbayim, or
'between the two
evenings,' and its relationship to ba erev, or 'even, evening,' then
the traditional Jewish definition would be the only one
which could
be used . . .
"However,
God did preserve the correct Scriptural definition as found
by His own personal usage of the terms as recorded in Exodus
16. There
can be no doubt whatsoever that ben ha arbayim comes after ba erev,
or sunset! . . . . In fact, it is
impossible that ben ha arbayim
can come before ba erev, unless you have God Himself
violating His Own Sabbath, which you and Rabbi Kaplan and
other rabbis must do in order to force ben ha arbayim to
come before
ba erev. "
What about Coulter's claim?
Is he right? According to Fred
Coulter, the Hebrew term ba erev refers
to precise sunset. But is this so? He also claims that ben ha arbayim therefore had to be AFTER
sunset. Is this really true? Is Fred Coulter wiser and more astute than
all the sages of Jewish history, who would vehemently, totally disagree with
him? What about this intriguing
question? What is the true explanation
of Exodus 16?
The Mystery of the Quail
When did the
quail mentioned in Exodus 16 come into the camp of the Israelites? Was in on the afternoon of the Sabbath day,
or after sunset, during twilight on the first day of the week? This is the CRUX of the whole question. Coulter argues that it could not have been
the Sabbath day -- for that would have the Israelites gathering quail and
preparing them up ON THE SABBATH.
According to him, that is impossible, for
it would constitute "work"!
And the Sabbath is a day of commanded rest during which no work may be
done (Exodus 20:9-11). What is the
truth?
The
assumption is that it would have been sin for the Israelites to gather or pick
up quail on the Sabbath, cook it, and eat it, during the late afternoon. But is this assumption true? Fred Coulter's "one and only"
proof that ben ha arbayim
has to refer to AFTER
sunset is based on this one argument. He
says, in fact, that I have God Himself violating His own Sabbath!
What about
this charge? Is he right? What is the answer to this riddle -- this
enigma?
Let's
understand this point, once and for all!
The Journey into the
Desert
It was a month
after the Passover. They had already
crossed the Sinai peninsula, and by a mighty miracle crossed the eastern branch
of the Red Sea, called the Gulf of Aqaba, west of modern day Saudi Arabia (see
our articles, "Where Is Mount Sinai?" and "The Mountain of
Moses") -- the true location of Mount Sinai. They were running out of food and water, and
their stomachs were beginning to growl, complain, and feel empty. So the congregation raised their voices to
accuse Moses and Aaron of leading them to starvation in the desert!
At this time,
God said, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people
shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them,
whether they will walk in my laws, or no.
And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that
which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily"
(Exo.16:4-5).
Moses then
told the people, "At even, then shall ye know that the LORD hath brought
you out from the
When was this
"evening"? Was it after
sunset? Or before?
Notice! First of all, God is not a harsh, vindictive
Monster. He is a God of compassion and
mercy. At the beginning of Exodus 16, we
find that the children of
complaining to Moses. They
thought they were going to die of starvation (verse 3).
Continuing in
Exodus 16, God tells
What do these
verses prove? According to Fred Coulter,
it proves that "even" [ba erev ] occurs BEFORE ben ha
arbayim. And, according to Coulter, ba
erev should be defined as "sunset." Therefore, if he is right, this would put ben
ha arbayim after sunset, or on the NEXT
DAY. Since the Passover had to be slain
on Nisan 14, the only time when this could occur would then be at the beginning
of Nisan 14, in the short time between sunset and dusk or twilight, when
the stars come out.
But does this
passage prove ben
ha arbayim refers to the time after
sunset and before nightfall? The Jews,
on the other hand, say that the word "erev" is a general word and
simply means "evening," and can refer to the latter portion of the
day (the afternoon) as well as the time after sunset until night. They characterize this as the
"first" and "second" evenings. The very expression ben ha arbayim means,
literally "between (ben) the (ha) evenings (arbayim, the
plural form of "evening")".
Thus this expression itself proves there were two evenings
to
the day!
The Truth about Ba
Erev
Any good
lexicon or Hebrew dictionary will show you that "erev" simply
means "evening." We should not
"split hairs" over this simple word, lest we become tripped up and
entangled in or by our own intellectual vanity.
Abraham's servant made his camels to kneel down by a well of water
"at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw
water" (Gen.24:11). This obviously
would have been in the afternoon -- not after sunset, with night only minutes
away. Goliath challenged the Israelite
army "morning and evening" (I Sam.16:17). Obviously, "evening" here means the
afternoon -- not after sunset!
The truth is,
therefore, Frederick C. Coulter in his book The Christian Passover, has
grossly misdefined ba erev. As
Strong's Concordance shows, the expression ba erev simply means, "even, evening,
eventide, dusk" (number 6153). Gesenius
Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon defines the word as
"evening." Neither authority
defines it as "sunset," as Fred Coulter attempts to do. His definition is not scholarly and totally
unreliable and leads to gross confusion and error!
Coulter
claims "ba erev" just means "sunset." However, the Scriptures prove to the
contrary. Further proof that ba erev can refer to afternoon, prior to sunset, is shown
clearly from Exodus
In other
words, Coulter's reasoning would have the Feast of Unleavened Bread fall from
the beginning of Nisan 14 till the end of Nisan 20! Therefore he contradicts himself,
because he teaches the Feast of Unleavened Bread is the 15th of Nisan through
the end of Nisan 21!
The fact that
the word "evening" refers to the ending of a day is also shown in
Leviticus 23:32. In verse 27 God tells
us the tenth day of Tishri in the Day of Atonement. No work is to be done on that day. Then He says, in verse 32: "It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest,
and ye shall afflict your souls: in
the ninth day of the month at even, from even to even, shall ye celebrate
your Sabbath" -- that is, the Day of Atonement. If "at even" of the 9th day meant
at the beginning of the 9th day, then lasted till the "even" of the
10th day, meaning its beginning, then the Day of Atonement would be the NINTH
day of Tishri! Obviously, the
"even" of the 9th day means at the END of the 9th day! And the "even" of the 10th day has
to mean the END of the 10th day!
Quail on the Sabbath
Day?
But what about the mystery of the quail on the Sabbath day? Let's get this scene properly in focus. The Israelites were extremely tired and
hungry. They felt like they were
starving to death. It was the Sabbath
day. However, because God is a merciful
and compassionate God, He took note of their distress and condition, and felt
for them. Therefore, in mercy, and
compassion, God brought them quail to eat late that
afternoon, before sunset -- on the Sabbath day!
Was this a
"violation of the Sabbath Day," as Coulter claims? Nonsense!
God is greater than the Sabbath day.
He used this opportunity, therefore, to teach
This is an
important point. Remember, even though
that day would normally have been a weekly Sabbath day, the Israelites were
not yet observing it as such -- for God had not yet "revealed" to
them the Sabbath until the following Sabbath, when He sent twice as much
manna on Friday, and none on the Sabbath!
(Exodus 16:22-30). Therefore, it
was not until the following Friday and Sabbath that God revealed the
weekly Sabbath to them, saying, "Tomorrow is the REST of the holy sabbath
unto the LORD: bake that which ye will
bake to day and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay
up for you to be kept until the morning" (Exo.16:23). In other words, God did not command them to
keep the Sabbath day until the following week AFTER the visitation of the
quail! Continuing: "And they laid it up until the morning,
as Moses bade: and it did not stink,
neither was there any worm therein. And
Moses said, Eat that today; for TODAY IS A SABBATH
unto the LORD: today ye shall not find
it in the field. Six days ye shall
gather it; but on the seventh day which is the sabbath,
in it there shall be none" (Exo.16:24-26).
Do you
see? For over two hundred years, while
captive in
Therefore,
what happened next, after God revealed the Sabbath to them, one week later
after they had eaten the quail sent to them?
"And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the
seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments
and my laws? See, for the LORD hath [now]
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 seven day. So the people
RESTED on the seventh day" (Exo.16:27-30).
Up until this point, then, God had not revealed to them the weekly
Sabbath, so He did not require them to observe the Sabbath, and they were not
observing it! How plain!
This clearly
means that they were not yet observing the weekly Sabbath! Therefore, God would have allowed them to do
things that day which normally would not be permitted or allowed!
The Two Holy Days of Unleavened Bread
Coulter himself admits that the 15th of Nisan, the first
day of Unleavened Bread, is a high holy day (Lev.23:6-8), in which no
"work" was to be done. Yet he also
admits that it was on the 15th of Nisan that Israel got up and marched
out of Egypt -- a very arduous, difficult task involving WORK
((Num.33:3). Thus in the year of the
Exodus, God permitted
Coulter also
admits that on the final or seventh day of Unleavened Bread,
that the Israelites crossed through the
Obviously,
things were a little "different" in the year of the Exodus. Special exigencies demanded special
provisions. And so it was concerning the
question of the quail. It did not matter
that God sent the quail on what would have been the sabbath
day, because at that time
God Takes Precedence Over the Sabbath
But would it have necessarily been wrong
for the Israelites to pick up quail from off the ground, prepare it and cook
it, and eat it on the Sabbath? Why
should we assume? This was a very
special event! God Himself was proving
to them that HE WAS GOD -- the LORD their Deliverer! As such, He is also the GOD OF THE SABBATH,
and He is the One who says what can and cannot be done on the Sabbath day! In this case, due to their great hunger
pains, they had a true "need" for food, and so God gave them special
permission to gather quail, prepare and eat
it,
as a special "feast" on that Sabbath day!
According to
Jewish reckoning, the quail came on the scene BEFORE SUNSET, in the late
afternoon, ON THE SABBATH DAY. Nowhere
do the Scriptures say that if God delivers quail into your camp, and they fall
right at your feet, dead tired from their long flight, that you cannot pick
them up on the Sabbath, and then prepare them, and eat them -- especially if
God Himself, by a miracle, provides them for you! God is greater than the Sabbath day.
If God
provides you food on the Sabbath to eat, in His presence, would it not be a
sign of disrespect and dishonor to Him if you refused to do so, saying in your
heart, "But Lord, it's the Sabbath!
I can't pick it up, or prepare it today!"? God is the One who sanctifies the Sabbath day
-- not the other way around. And He has
authority to make exceptions to the normal observance of a holy day, if and
when He chooses to do so! Let's not put
the Sabbath ahead of GOD, the HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL, in importance!
Jesus Christ
rebuked the Pharisees for a similar mistake to that which Fred Coulter is
making. They, too, were getting the
"cart before the horse." They
were getting mixed up in their priorities.
They thought the "gold" in an offering was more important than
the temple of God! Jesus upbraided them,
saying: "Woe unto you, ye blind
guides, which say, Whosoever shall sware by the temple, it is nothing; but
whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the
temple that sanctifieth the gold? And,
Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by
the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Ye
fools and blind: for whether is
greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar,
sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
And whoso sweareth by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that
dwelleth therein" (Mat.23:16-21).
The Example of Christ and the
Disciples
To prove that
it would not have been wrong to pick up quail from the ground on the Sabbath,
and cook and eat it, notice what Jesus Christ Himself shows us. We read in the gospel of Mark, "And it
came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the Sabbath day; and his
disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why
do they on the Sabbath day that which is unlawful? And he said unto them, Have ye never read
what David did when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that
were with him? How
he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the
high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the
priests, and gave also to them which were with him?" (Mark 2:23-26).
The God who
led Israel into the wilderness, and who sent the quail, is the very One who became Jesus Christ, the
Rock, our Saviour (I Cor.10:4). And
Jesus Himself said:
"The
Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the
Sabbath: Therefore, the Son
of man is Lord also of the
Sabbath" (Mark 2:27-28).
Coulter would
make the Sabbath an onerous bondage; Christ did not do so. Coulter says it would have been
"work" for the Israelites to pick up quail on the Sabbath or to
prepare it and eat it. But remember, this was a very unusual circumstance! God was proving to them Who He Was -- that
He was indeed the LORD -- including the LORD of the Sabbath day! He was also showing to them His great mercy
and compassion! Although it is normally
not proper to prepare meals on the weekly Sabbath, day, there are obviously
exceptions to this rule!
The gospel of
Matthew recounts the same story. The
Pharisees criticized the disciples of Christ of breaking the Sabbath by their
plucking of wheat on the Sabbath. In
their view, as apparently in Coulter's view, this was an outrage. They were insistent. They were angry. In their eyes, Jesus's disciples were
profaning the Sabbath!
But was this
real profanation of the Sabbath? Jesus
said no. In fact, in the Matthew
account, He goes further, and adds:
"Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the Sabbath days the
priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? But I say unto you, That in this place is
one greater than the temple. But if
ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would
not have condemned the guiltless.
For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day" (Matt.12:1-8).
Jesus was
present at that location, and time, and He as the "Lord of the
Sabbath" gave His disciples permission to pluck grain on the Sabbath --
thus proving Who He really Was! They
were therefore guiltless in what they did.
Even so, the One Who Became Christ was with the children of Israel in
the wilderness of Sin, when they, too, were very hungry. And He, the Lord of the Sabbath, sent them
quail on the Sabbath, showing
again that He was the LORD of the Sabbath!
It was therefore all right for them to
prepare and eat that quail on the Sabbath!
Therefore,
even though the disciples of Christ plucked wheat and ate it on the Sabbath,
which the stringent Pharisees condemned, Jesus Himself said it was all
right! Even so, just because Fred
Coulter condemns the very idea of Israelites picking up quail from off the
ground, cooking and eating quail on the Sabbath, does not make it wrong in
God's sight, who was showing mercy to the hungry people! God Himself is greater than the Sabbath
itself. What the children of Israel did,
therefore, was not a violation of the Sabbath day, since they had divine
permission to do so!
Hiding Under Traditions of the
Jews?
In his
letter, Coulter declares:
"So, if you are truly honest with the
Scriptures, you can no longer
hide
under the traditions of Judaism. It is
my hope and prayer that
you
can come to the knowledge of the Truth of the Scriptures of God
the
Father and Jesus Christ. Remember, everyone
will have to stand
before
the judgment seat of God, not men, and 'give an account of
himself
to God.'"
Is it right for Coulter to claim that I have been
"hiding under the traditions of Judaism"? In this article, I have proved from the
Scriptures -- not the traditions of Judaism -- the truth about the
Sabbath. I have quoted the very example
of Jesus Christ and His disciples.
Contrary to his assumption, I am not hiding anywhere. My question to him
is: Why does he reject the plain and
simple Word of God?
Jesus Himself
said that certain "traditions of the elders" of the Jews were nothing
more than the "traditions of MEN" (Mark 7:1-9). These particular "traditions," He
took exception with -- such as the failure of children to provide for and help
their aged parents under certain circumstances (Mark 7:11). In the gospel of Matthew we read:
"Then came to Jesus scribes and
Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem,
saying,
Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for
they
wash not their hands when they eat bread.
But he answered and
said
unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God
by
your tradition? For God commanded,
saying, Honour thy father and
thy
mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
But
ye say, Whosoever saith unto his father or mother, It is a gift, by
whatsoever
thou mightest be profited by me; and honour not his father
or
his mother, he shall be free. Thus have
ye made the commandment
of
God of no effect by your tradition" (Matt.15:1-6).
There were
certain traditions of the scribes and Pharisees which were wrong -- and Jesus
rebuked them for those wrong-headed traditions, which nullified the
commandments of God! He called them
"hypocrites" for adding these man-made traditions, and said,
"But IN VAIN they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of MEN" (Matt.15:9).
However,
Jesus did NOT condemn all the customs of the Jews. In fact, He and His family, Joseph and Mary
and their other children, all observed the Passover along with the other
Jews! We read in Luke's gospel:
"Now his parents went to Jerusalem
EVERY YEAR AT THE FEAST
OF
THE PASSOVER. And when he was twelve
years old, they went
up
to Jerusalem AFTER THE CUSTOM of the feast" (Luke 2:41-42).
Now Coulter claims it was not necessary to go up to
Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Passover -- that they could have remained home,
in Galilee, and have killed it there. He
claims it was only "Jewish tradition" which declared that the
Passover had to be slain at the Temple in Jerusalem! To justify this strange conclusion, he
asserts that Ezra the scribe REWROTE Deuteronomy 16, and inserted the passage
which commands the Passover to be kept only at Jerusalem! But would Ezra have nullified and abrogated
the words of Moses? That is
nonsense! Utter nonsense!
The
traditions Jesus condemned He obviously did not follow. Yet we see in Luke 2 that He and his parents
observed the Feast of Passover with the Jews, in Jerusalem, just as the
Law commanded (Deut.16:5-7, 16). They
also observed it at the same time as the other Jews -- not a day earlier, as
Coulter claims. If Jesus had kept the
Passover a day or night earlier, why didn't He even once rebuke and upbraid
the Pharisees for this dastardly act of changing the date of the Passover? Why
are all the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and all
the epistles of the New Testament completely SILENT about such a CHANGE?
Furthermore,
if Jesus and the Church observed Passover a day earlier, WHY didn't the
Pharisees and scribes rebuke, question, interrogate, and criticize Him on this
account -- WHY were THEY silent about it, since observing Passover at the same
time would have been required of all Jews, and any deviation would have been
denounced, excoriated, and condemned?
The Scribes and
Pharisees
As to the
question of whether the scribes and Pharisees observed the Passover at the
right time, Jesus Christ Himself declared that they sat "in Moses'
seat." He declared in plain words:
"The
scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat.
All
therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that
observe
and do" (Matt.23:2-3).
I believe
this Scripture. I obey my Messiah. The scribes and Pharisees were the ones who
preserved the sacred calendar, and the dates of all the holy days. This was part of the "oral law"
which they received from the time of Moses.
As Paul wrote
to the Romans, "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were
committed the ORACLES OF GOD. For
what if some did not believe? shall
their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid:
yea, let God be true, but every man a liar" (Rom.3:1-4). To the Jews were given the oracles, words,
testimonies of God -- the Scriptures, the sacred calendar, and the oral
decisions and regulations passed on down from the time of Moses.
We read in
the Mishnah, the codification of the "oral law," which came from
Moses' time,
"Moses received Torah at Sinai and
handed it on to Joshua, Joshua
to
elders, and elders to prophets. And
prophets handed it on to the
men
of the great assembly" (Pirque Avot 1:1).
This ancient authority, first put to writing by Judah the
Patriarch about 200 A.D., gives the genealogy of these ancient scribes and
sages, who continued the transmission of the "oral torah" from the
Great Assembly down to its own day. One
of the last survivors of the Great Assembly of Ezra's day was Simeon the
righteous; he passed it on to Antigonus of Sokho; from him to Yose ben Yoezer
of Zeredah and Yose ben Yohanan of Jerusalem; they passed it on to Joshua ben
Perahyah and Nittai the Arbelite; they passed it on to Judah ben Tabbai and Simeon
ben Shetah; from them it went to Shemaiah and Avtalyon; from thence to Hillel
and Shammai; then to Rabban Gamaliel (who taught the apostle Paul -- according
to Acts 22:3, Gamaliel taught the apostle Paul "according to the perfect
manner of the law of the fathers"!); and from him to Simeon his son.
Says Jacob
Neusner in The Oral Torah: The Sacred
Books of Judaism --
"Seen as a sequence of names, Pirqe
Avot 1 therefore makes a startling
point. Torah at Sinai is passed on in
unbroken chain through Moses
to
Joshua and onward . . . to the very sages cited in the Mishnah itself.
Now
since Torah at Sinai to others of that age -- to the Christians, for
example
-- meant only the written Torah (e.g., the Five Books of Moses,
and
prophetic books or the Hebrew Scriptures), the intent becomes clear.
The
Torah comes to Israel not only in the Scriptures. What sages teach
in
the Mishnah is part of the Torah, too" (p.53).
The Mishnah, too, in its original form, then, traces back
to Moses at Sinai, and is called the "oral law." However, it is subordinate to and dependent
upon the written Torah, or Scriptures, and any traditions which were
"added" by later generations of sages would have to be evaluated and
certified in the light of the Scriptures themselves. Nevertheless, the point in clear: There was an "oral law" handed down
from Moses, and the scribes and Pharisees were the custodians and inheritors of
it! That is why Jesus Christ said they,
and they alone -- not the Sadducees, or Essenes, or some other heretical sect
or group -- "sat in Moses' seat" and had authority to adjudicate the
calendar, determine the new moons, the feast days, and so forth. Jesus acknowledged their authority in this regard. To say otherwise is to make the Messiah out
to be a liar.
Therefore,
when we observe the same day for the Passover that the Jews do, who received
the Mishnah, and the traditions of the Pharisees, and who walk in the footsteps
of the Pharisees, today, we are literally obeying Christ Jesus, our Lord!
Fred Coulter,
by changing the date of Passover to the beginning of Nisan 14 -- regardless of
whatever "reasoning" tautology he uses to do this -- disobeys the
command of Jesus Christ, and dishonors Him, and obviates His plain and simple
statements and commandments, and His example which He set for us.
I personally
look forward to meeting Jesus someday, and appearing before His judgment seat
on this issue, because I am OBEDIENT to the words of my Lord. I rejoice in obeying His Truth! But Coulter and those who think like he does,
and who follow him -- such as Roderick C. Meredith and the Global Church of
God, and others, which endorse His conclusions -- are disobedient to the words
and commandments of Christ, the Law Giver.
A Hint of Anti-Semitism?
Coulter asks,
in his letter to me:
"Why should we put the people of God
in bondage to Judaism and
make
Christ of none effect?"
But it is not
"Judaism" which is at issue here -- it is simply which is the true
interpretation of Scripture itself! At
no time do I profess or claim that all Christians are to keep ALL the
commandments of Judaism, including traditions which Jesus Christ Himself
rejected, such as the washing of pots and pans, and very onerous laws about
Sabbath observance (see Matt.15, Mark 2, 7).
That is not the issue at all! The
issue is simply WHAT IS THE TRUTH? And
Jesus Himself said that insofar as the LAW of God is concerned, the 'Scribes
and Pharisees SIT IN MOSES' SEAT" (Matt.23:2). That fact seems to mean nothing to Fred
Coulter. He dismisses it as of no
consequence. But if it is meaningless,
then WHY DID JESUS CHRIST STRESS IT TO HIS OWN DISCIPLES?
It is really Fed Coulter who "makes
Christ of none effect" by rejecting His very own words!
It is not "bondage" to Judaism to acknowledge
that the Jews are the ones whom God used to transmit, preserve, and retain the
"oracles of God." It is not
"bondage" to admit that they preserved the correct calendar, the
correct holy days, and the weekly Sabbath!
The apostle
Paul did not consider it "bondage" to obey the LAWS of God, which He
gave at Mount Sinai, and which were
preserved by the Jews. He wrote,
"Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a
Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching
the righteousness which is in the law, BLAMELESS" (Phil.3:5-6). If Paul had been taught erroneously, by
Gamaliel, as to the correct day and time to observe the Passover, then he would
NOT HAVE BEEN BLAMELESS! But, he tells
us, Gamaliel taught him "according to the PERFECT MANNER OF THE LAWS of
the fathers" (Acts 22:3). Therefore,
Paul obviously observed Passover at the same time the Pharisees did -- there is
not even a whiff of a hint that he changed the day and time he observed this
high holy day after his conversion!
It was Paul who said, "Be ye
followers of me, even as I also am of CHRIST" (I Cor.11:1). Therefore, both Christ Jesus and the apostle
Paul observed the SAME DAY THE PHARISEES AND SCRIBES OBSERVED!
Striving about
Words
It seems as
if Fred Coulter seeks to make a great issue over words, particularly the words ba
erev and ben ha arbayim. It
is sad that he cannot see the forest because his nose is stuck up so close to
one single "tree." It becomes
onerous arguing over the definitions of words. The apostle Paul said of such,
that they are "proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and
strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
perverse disputings [Greek, gallings one of another] of men of corrupt minds,
and destitute of the truth" (I Tim.6:4-5).
Fred Coulter
has challenged me. Now I challenge him
-- to open his mind, to "think
it possible, in the bowels of Christ, that ye may be mistaken," as Oliver
Cromwell pleaded in his day. There is an
old saying: "You can lead a horse
to water, but you cannot make him drink!"
I can only
pray that God will have mercy on Fred Coulter, and those who follow him, and
who accept his book as if it were the "latest word" on the Passover
controversy, and open up their mind and understanding to the truth, before it
is too late. They are treading on very dangerous ground. They are rushing in
where angels fear to tread. They are walking straight into the quicksand of
error and falsehood. I urge them all to
repent, now, before God delivers them over to an evil spirit, or to the
destruction of the Great Tribulation and the wrath of God, because they have
rejected the word of the Lord!
The day is
coming soon when we will "all stand before the judgment seat of
Christ" (Rom.14:10). Indeed,
"every man shall bear his own burden" (Gal.6:5). I urge all of those ministers who came out of
Worldwide, to remember
the admonition of the apostle Paul who said:
"Be
not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever
a
man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal.6:7).
The apostle
Paul also wrote:
"Every
man's work shall be made manifest [revealed]:
for
the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed
by
fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what
sort
it is. If any man's work ABIDE which he
hath built
thereupon,
he shall receive a reward. If any man's
work
shall
be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he
himself shall
[possibly]
be saved [if his error was in true sincerity and
not
malicious or deliberate obfuscation and denial of the
truth];
yet so as by fire " (I Cor.3:13-15).
Whence Cometh Salvation?
It is truly
sad that so many former ministers who have left the Worldwide Church of God now
seem to evidence such an unwavering bias and bigotry in their total rejection
of all that is Jewish and related to Judaism.
For Jesus Himself said,
"Salvation
is OF THE JEWS " (John 4:22).
In the book
of Zechariah we read:
"Thus
saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come
to
pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of
the
nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a
Jew,
saying, We will go with you: for we
have heard that
God
is with you" (Zech.8:23).
Instead of
putting down the Jews, because of a spirit of hatred and anti-Semitism, isn't
it time we realize that God knew what He was doing, and that He is the One who
chose the Jews to preserve His Word down through the corridors of time, from
hoary antiquity? Isn't it time we
give credit where credit is due, and honor to whom honor is
due, and not argue over picky, hair-splitting, contrived definitions and
meanings of words?
Isn't it time
we develop an honest approach toward the Word of God, and a deep humility and
reverence for the "truth" (II Thess.2:8-12)?
"Answer a Fool according to
His Folly"
In his
letter, Fred Coulter said that he felt compelled to answer me, "Because
such ignorant, brazen, hateful behavior as you have demonstrated must be
answered! It must be answered publically
[sic]."
However, he
said he was were "torn" as to whether he should "answer a fool
according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceits," or "not
to answer a fool according to his folly lest you become like him."
Of course,
that quotation is a reference to the book of Proverbs, chapter 26:4-5. Solomon wrote, "Answer not a fool
according to his follow, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest
he be wise in his own conceit." I have answered his letter, and written this
article, for the sake of the hundreds, if not thousands, who may be wrongly
influenced by his allegations, the subtlety of his book, and the claims and
assertions he makes. BEWARE! Satan was very subtle in the garden of Eden,
when he deceived Eve (Gen.3:1; II Cor.11:3).
His servants are also very clever, extremely slick, and may even appear
righteous on the surface (II Cor.11:13-15).
Watch
out! Don't let Satan the devil deceive
you regarding the Passover. Don't let
him catch you in his devices, trap you in his snare, and enthrall you with his
deceptions. You are a free moral
agent. "Prove all things," as
the apostle Paul commands (I Thess.5:21).
Take nothing for granted!
Ask God to
search your heart, praying, "O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in
himself: it is not in man that walketh
to direct his steps. O LORD, correct me,
but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing"
(Jer.10:23). Remember, "The heart
is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer.17:9). Pray with David, "Search ME, O God, and
know my heart: try me, and know my
thoughts: And see if there be any wicked
way [Heb., way of pain] in me, and lead me in the way everlasting"
(Psalm 139:23-24).
David also
prayed, setting us an example -- and I urge EVERY MINISTER WHO PROFESSES TO
SERVE GOD -- to pray this prayer, as
well:
"Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Keep
back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have
dominion
over me: then shall I be upright, and I
shall be innocent
from
the great transgression. Let the words
of my mouth, and the
meditation
of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my
strength,
and my redeemer" (Psalm 19:12-14).
Think about
it, my friends. If you truly fear God,
then remember, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction"
(Proverbs 1:7). Are you
"teachable"? David writes,
"The MEEK will he guide in judgment: and the MEEK will he TEACH HIS WAY
" (Psalm 25:9). God says to
every true believer in Christ: "I
will INSTRUCT thee and TEACH thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will GUIDE thee with mine eye [Heb., I will
counsel thee, mine eye shall be upon thee]. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule,
which have no understanding" (Psalm 32:8-10).
What about
you? Are you teachable?