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FRANKLIN ENTERPRISES 7th
LAW OF SUCCESS SEMINARS: 1335 CHURCH OF GOD MANPOWER
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM 11 Cattleya Street, Via 93 Mindanao Ave. Bahay Toro, QC, 1101 Tel.
259-7932 Cel. 0927-4686463 E-mail:
[email protected] http://www.geocities.com/franklin_alcopra |
June 12, 2005
Sunday, 10:00 a.m.
SABBATH
LETTER 26:
Pentecost 2005
Wisconsin Shooting Rampage Flashback
Dear Brethren,
Greetings and happy Pentecost to all of you worldwide! It is 10:00 a.m.
as I begin to write my Sabbath Letter 26 inside Tropical Hut restaurant in
front of Skyland Plaza building. Of course I am looking through its glass wall
accross Sen. Gil Puyat Ave., which was formerly the familiar Buendia Street
during the old days of the Work of God in the Philippines. In fact the Skyland
Plaza building is the modern “resurrection” of the CCC building (Commercial
Credit Corporation) where the Information Service of the Church of God in the
Philippines officially started.
I had planned to observe Pentecost 2005 with my wife and son – and
daughter Dudes who is now married to Chris Pinili – at Philippines’ Women’s
Medical Association Hall with the Living Church of God. But this morning,
waking up, the first thought that came to my mind was to write my Sabbath
Letter 26 in the Skyland Plaza because Pentecost reminds me of God giving power
to his servants through the Holy Spirit. Brethren, in trying to organize the
1335 Church of God, it is important that I reestablish an office in the Skyland
Plaza for the SHORT WORK of God no matter how difficult that might be. So as we
rode the taxi at Mindanao Avenue, QC, I told my wife and son I will take off at
the MRT North Station before they proceed to PWMA hall through EDSA, East Ave.,
and V. Luna road.
Brethren, my topics today is of course about the Holy Spirit as well as the main program of the SHORT WORK of God, which is to
blaze the trail of the 1335 Church of God to the Place of Safety in a Teachers
Camp at the vicinity of Mt. Nebo and World Economic Forum in Jordan. Just like
the grueling, heart-breaking, hope-crushing, and thirst-hunger temptations
Israelites experienced for 40 years in the Exodus to the Promise Land, the SHORT WORK of God,
likewise, had already experienced among other things 15 years of financial
temptations since it formally started in the year 1989!
In Sabbath Letter 4, I wrote: “One of the greatest forms of humility is
never worship our own will but God’s will. I can assure you, Brethren, if God
shows me that I give up THIS SHORT WORK, I will give it up to whom so ever He
chooses before me. However, God is a faithful God. What ever he started with
you, he will finish it no matter the odds. Let me quote to you 1Cor. 4:9: ‘For
I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to
death: for we are made a SPECTACLE unto the world, and to angels, and to man’.
If you will read the whole chapter, Paul is saying the sufferings of the
servants of God (not only apostles but also prophets) have something to do with
the salvation of man and ANGELS! So take courage, Brethren, when you experience
trials like poverty as long as you are RICH in submitting your will to God’s
will”.
When I reached the front walkway of Skyland Plaza this morning I watched
with nostalgia the hard narra trees that grew in front of Skyland Plaza. I will
embed here the pictures of the original office staff in front one of the narra
trees that have grown half their sizes since we took the pictures 40 years ago in 1965!
Just to give you a glimpse of how unfriendly forces “in high places” (Ephes. 6:12) worked continuously to prevent me from establishing an office in Skyland Plaza for the SHORT WORK of God, a recollection was brought to mind when I circled Buendia Street to get to this place. I saw the new building beside and before this Tropical Hut, which is labeled and owned by PeoplesSupport. I thought indeed call centers are very progressive business today because one of my clients approved for a bank salary loan is employed at Peoples Support Call Center. Before I saw this new building, I already evaluated their company to be progressive as other call centers I have already encountered judging from their prestigious office in Philamlife Tower at Paseo De Roxas. But yes, watching this new building recalls to mind the “misfortunes” in my SHORT WORK for God. Because while I was beginning to make good income working as a freelance agent for a bank’s Salary Loan Department, circumstances worked out to abruptly curtail my bank salary loan activities. In one short period I accumulated almost 500,000 pesos approved salary loans then I have to temporarily abandon the process. Of course I will get back to it with greater determination in due time.
This last episode after 15 years since 1989 led me to conclude my lot
would always be “between the devil and the deep blue sea”— nowhere to go except
upwards to the throne of God! I might add if a Christian is determined to face
every trial with HUMILITY and THANK God for the OPPORTUNITY to have experienced
it, we will make it into his kingdom. I say this, brethren, because I have read
many articles in the internet about the Wisconsin
Shooting Rampage involving the Living Church of God. I wrote my Sabbath
Letter 25 before I knew some of the deeper details of Terry Ratzmann’s life.
Reading further details of his life from post mortem analysis of some writers
only confirm what I wrote in Sabbath Letter 25. Sometimes God allows us to look
unrighteous for various reasons and purposes of God. The final judge of every
individual is Jesus Christ alone.
Until recently I could not imagine how I could again fast every Tuesday
without fail for 1 whole year like what I did in 1989 as I related in Sabbath
Letter 13. But now having been confronted desperately with osteoarthritis, I
decided I might as well fast again every Tuesday without fail or compromise
until I see the face of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Place of Safety. As of
this writing I feel healthier and I might mention, Brethren, that when I fasted
every Tuesday for one whole year in 1989 God revealed to me the first and only
booklet I wrote and published “Who Are the Laodiceans and Where Is the True
Church of God Today?” which is the first thunder of Revelation 10. Not only
that but during that year I was fasting every Tuesday, I used to run every
morning at the oval of Benguet University in La Trinidad which was just in
front of our residence in Betag along the hi-way. Each time I jog in the oval
at that time, I close my eyes slightly lifting my face up to the cold wind and
imagine Elijah running somewhere recounted in the Books of Kings. I whisper
“like when you answered Elijah please give me enough capital to start a family
business and to carry on my work for God”. After I finished fasting for 1 year
every Tuesday God moved someone to provide me 150,000 pesos capital for a
family business. But as I recounted in paragraph 3 of this letter this SHORT
WORK of God has already suffered 15 years of financial trials.
I am editing my Sabbath Letter, Brethren, which I wrote Pentecost, June
12, 2005 and I would like to continue from the sentence “… until I see the face
of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Place of Safety when he will suddenly appear in
his temple” actually to his Church in the Place of Safety at the end of the 3
1/2 years which had been already cut short to 2 years.
Now I have many things to explain! Information Letter: Will God Delay the Great Tribulation and Sabbath Letter 15: Why “Stone With Seven Eyes” will explain why 3 ½ years will be shortened to 2 years. I will explain in a future Sabbath Letter the meaning of the 2300 or 1150 Days in relation to the fact that Jesus Christ will temporarily reside in a Teachers Camp in Mt. Nebo, Jordan when he returns to earth because the real Temple in Jerusalem will be BUILT not “presto chango” created. God of course will miraculously create the needed topography like the Mount of Olives splitting into two but the building of the temple itself demands character from those whom God will assign to build the holy temple.
Herbert W Armstrong has already explained the 2300 Days in Prophecy but as to when the prophesied days starts and
ends he did not know. Brethren, the 1150 days will start when the last vestige
of the original temple, the Wailing Wall, will crumble to the ground (“There
shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down”
in Mat. 24:2). This is the 4th thunder of Revelation 10, which is
the Abomination of Desolation. Of course Mr. Armstrong knew the 2300 or 1150
Days will end at the “cleansing” of the Temple, but when this will happen was
not revealed to him either. Now that we should know God will shorten the 3 ½
years to 2 years or 720 days (360 x 2), the rebuilding of the Temple in
Jerusalem will be finished 430 days (1150 – 720) after Jesus Christ returns to
earth. Brethren, the temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt 1 year and 6 months
after Jesus Christ returns to earth. That is why there is a need for him to
reside in a Teachers Camp in Mt. Nebo, Jordan after he returns, perhaps in an
Ambassador College Auditorium that might be built there? I think King Abdullah
will not resist the idea because he and his father, the late King Hussein knew
Herbert W Armstrong and the Ambassador Auditorium.
Today is Pentecost so I would like to discuss about the Wave Sheaf in relation to the counting of
Pentecost. The Wave Sheaf and the Pentecost always fall on a Sunday; the 50 days
count always starts on the Wave Sheaf and ends on the Pentecost. The Wave Sheaf
pictures Jesus Christ as the firstfruit while the Pentecost pictures baptized
Christians as the firstfruitS. I have been writing additional truths about the Passover,
Brethren, as part of the Second Thunder of Revelation 10 but I never thought
Pentecost would be subjected to further scrutiny among leaders of God’s
churches because I thought Herbert W Armstrong was done with it.
I have a CD containing all the audio and printed publications of Herbert
W Armstrong while he was the leader of the Worldwide Church of God and the
truth of the Wave Sheaf and counting of the Pentecost is preserved there. But
recently my wife commented the falling on a weekly Sabbath of the Passover was
rather unusual because that would make the preparation day before the first DUB
a non-working day. I concurred with my wife that it is rather unusual and I
suspected we did not have this kind of situation during the time of Herbert W
Armstrong. My doubts increased when I remembered having read an article in the
magazine of one of the Churches of God today (I thought but not sure it was the
Living Church of God or the Philadelphia Church of God?) that explained the
adjustment in the recent counting of the calendar tends to dispute the veracity
of the 19 year cycle explained by Herbert W Armstrong. I don’t really care
about who wrote the article because the responsibility of ascertaining the
correctness of the day we keep the Holy Days of God rest in the leadership of
God’s Church. When Herbert W Armstrong ordered us to keep the Pentecost on a
Monday in the early days of the Church we obeyed without question. God later
revealed to him the right day is on a Sunday.
So, on this light I will write my observations about the recent keeping
of the Passover on a Sabbath, which made the first
DUB fall on a Sunday. Also I will point out that the First DUB in
Gilgal, the first they kept upon reaching the Promise Land, after 40 years,
could not have been on a Sunday but on a Sabbath.
First, the First DUB should not fall on a Sunday because the preceding
Sabbath would be outside the Days of Unleavened Bread. Also, the only Sunday
that could be assigned to the Wave Sheaf would be the first DUB also. The problem
here, Brethren, is that the Sabbath and the Sunday Wave Sheaf should fall
within the 7 Days of Unleavened just like what happened after the crucifixion
of Jesus Christ where the first DUB was on a Thursday. Both the Sabbath and
Sunday Wave Sheaf where inside the 7 Days of Unleavened Bread at that time, and
as an exact fulfillment of the Wave Sheaf, Jesus Christ was received of the
Father on that fateful Sunday morning within the Days of Unleavened Bread.
Remember the 7 Days of Unleavened Bread pictures the resurrected life of Jesus Christ that is why we are
commanded to eat unleavened bread (the spirit flesh of Jesus Christ) 7 days!
Now, you might ask, what is wrong if the Sabbath preceding the Sunday
Wave Sheaf is outside the Days of Unleavened Bread? Well, remember Brethren
that Jesus Christ in fulfilling the prophecy of the Wave Sheaf was actually
resurrected on the Sabbath late in the afternoon and was received of the Father
Sunday morning. In other words the Sabbath preceding the Sunday Wave Sheaf
pictures the resurrection of Jesus Christ and should not be outside the Days of
Unleavened Bread. If on the other hand (in this recent DUB 2005) the Sabbath on
the 7th DUB would be chosen, the “morrow” after or Sunday Wave Sheaf
would also be outside the Days of Unleavened Bread! And I think that would even
be off beat.
Brethren, the Days of Unleavened Bread pictures removing sin from our
lives. How do we remove sin from our lives? By simply NOT transgressing the
laws of God. In other words, keeping and obeying the laws of God is exactly the
SAME as not sinning. This means instead of saying the DUB pictures throwing
away sin you could say DUB pictures eating the Spirit of Jesus Christ. In other
words, Brethren, you can look at the DUB as 7 days eating the spirit or life of
Jesus Christ. This is the simple reason why the resurrected LIFE of Christ on a
Sabbath before the Sunday Wave Sheaf should not fall outside the Days of
Unleavened Bread.
Otherwise it would fall on the Passover as it did in the recent Feast.
Now the Passover pictures the human life of Jesus Christ
and its purpose is ONLY to pay for our sins and RECONCILE us to God. It takes
the spirit life of Jesus Christ pictured in the Days of Unleavened Bread
to SAVE us. Being reconciled, brethren, is different from being saved (Rom.
5:10). Passover is different from Days of Unleavened Bread. This is the reason
why the resurrected life of Jesus Christ should not fall on a Passover as it
was pictured in this last Passover and DUB.
Now the first DUB in the Promise Land in Gilgal was not on Sunday
because of the following reasons:
1) The manna disappeared on a Sunday morning and
therefore the preceding day was a weekly
Sabbath. This fact is supported by the knowledge that the manna always
appear in the morning after the dew evaporate or condense (Exo.16:14). We also
know that God send double portion on Friday because there are no manna that
will appear on Sabbath (Exo.16:25). In other words, Brethren, the Israelites
were accustomed not to expect manna on a weekly Sabbath and had to gather twice
manna on Fridays. This means they will only notice the permanent disappearance
of manna on the following morning of Sunday.
Now was that particular Sunday a first DUB? It will
take a long explanation to prove that particular Sunday was not a first DUB. It
was a Sunday Wave Sheaf therefore like what has been said already, it should
not fall on the first DUB.
Was that particular Sunday, a Wave Sheaf? Yes,
because it is not more than 3 days from the Passover (Joshua 5:10). The Wave
Sheaf pictures the resurrected Christ and he said his body replaced the manna
(John 6:51,58). It is just logical then that the Wave Sheaf is a better way of
picturing the resurrected body of Christ than the manna during the old
covenant. And if there is a better day where on the manna should cease to
appear, it must be on a Sunday morning at the exact time the wave sheaf is
waved.
2) In the future I will create a subject index in
this website so that all the topics about Passover discussed in my Information
Letters and Sabbath Letters could easily be accessed for study and review. But
for now please know that the Passover in the Promise Land beginning in Gilgal
was transferred to coincide with the Night To Be Much Observed so that the Days
of Unleavened Bread henceforth will be known as Passover throughout the time
the Israelites possessed their Promise Land until their captivity. This is the
reason, Brethren, why in Deuteronomy 16:1-8 (the book of Deuteronomy being a
recapitulation of the books of the covenant) you will never read Days of
Unleavened Bread but Passover. When therefore Deut. 16:6 states “thou shalt
sacrifice the Passover… at the SEASON you came out of
Egypt” it means on the Night To Be Much Observed. So Brethren instead of
picturing the resurrected life of Jesus
Christ, the Days of Unleavened Bread during the Old Covenant pictured the human life of Jesus Christ. Of course the human life of Jesus Christ, the Passover Lamb of the Jews, paid
for our sins. But that is not enough. We need the resurrected life of Jesus Christ pictured in the Days of Unleavened
Bread during the new covenant to be saved.
With the foregoing background, Brethren, we ask
again “was the first DUB in Gilgal on a Sunday?” As just explained above, the
first DUB is also the Passover. Now, was that Passover on a Sunday or on a
weekly Sabbath? The answer, Brethren, is becoming obvious. The eating of the
old corn was on the morrow after the
Passover (Joshua 5:11). Depending on the meaning of “morrow” It could be on the
morning (Lev. 7:15) of the Passover or
on the next day (Lev. 7:16, 17)
after the Passover – which is the evening part of Sunday already. Why “evening
part of Sunday?” Because whether they ate old corn on the morning part of
Passover or the next day after Passover, at night, Joshua 5:12 “And the manna
ceased on the morrow after they had
eaten of the old corn of the land” would be Sunday morning.
Brethren, since
Passover was also the first DUB at that time and the day preceding the Sunday
Wave Sheaf must be a weekly Sabbath, it becomes obvious that the first DUB in
Gilgal was a weekly Sabbath, not Sunday. Here, as it should always be, the
weekly Sabbath preceding and the Sunday Wave Sheaf were both inside the Days of Unleavened Bread.
This should be the case because the resurrection of Jesus Christ on a Sabbath
and his consequent received of the Father on Sunday morning should fall within
the Days of Unleavened Bread, which pictures the spirit life of Jesus Christ.
In conclusion Brethren, please review my Sabbath
Letter 2 & 19 to understand the Night To Be Much Remembered pictures the
Holy Spirit of God the Father we received at baptism; and the Holy Spirit of
Jesus Christ added to us pictured by the rest of the Days of Unleavened Bread.
Of course Brethren, as The Wave Sheaf pictures
Jesus Christ as the firstfruit, the Pentecost pictures converted Christians as
the firstfruitS. Jesus Christ became the firstfruit by virtue of being born
again through the power of the Holy Spirit. We converted Christians became
firstfruitS by virtue of being begotten and later born again through the power
of the Holy Spirit.
Until next time.
.
Sincerely In Christ Name,
FRANKLIN A. GONZALES