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Christian Biblical Church of God
Post Office Box 1442
Hollister, California 95024-1442
(831)-637-1875
Fred R. Coulter, Minister
June 14, 2005
Dear Brethren,
Since the first of the year I have traveled monthly
to various parts of the United States visiting with the
brethren, preaching sermons and conducting Bible studies
on the Sabbath and holy days, as well as having special
studies on other days of the week when I was traveling.
This past Sabbath, June 4, I traveled to Valdosta,
Georgia. I met in the very fine civic center with 38
brethren. We had morning and afternoon services with a
meal between. It was great to meet with everyone.
Then on Sunday, June 5, I flew to Manchester, New
Hampshire. I roomed at the Highlander Inn and also met
with 36 brethren there. Not only did we have morning and
afternoon Bible studies with a meal between services,
but we also had enough food leftover for a second meal.
In addition, we had a third Bible study, finally
finishing around 6 PM. Flight schedules and weather
delays necessitated late hours, and by the time we
finished the third session on June 5, I was really
tired. However, I was able to get a good night’s sleep
before heading out from Manchester on Monday at noon.
At both locations we studied the prophecy of the
great image of Daniel 2. This was the beginning of a
short series on Daniel, going through all the essential
prophecies of Daniel in order to understand the Book of
Revelation. Actually, we have already completed a
Revelation series from sermons and studies I did in past
years. However, because of the recent surge in TV shows
on “Revelation” as well as different movies and videos
about the end times, people have a high interest in this
topic, and it is an appropriate time to do these series.
At the present time, we have 31 tapes on Revelation.
However, we had nothing on Daniel in the archives,
though I know that I had given sermons covering some of
the prophecies. It appears that by the time we finish
with the Daniel series and other updates, we will
probably have 35 + tapes.
It is essential to have the new series on Daniel along
with the series on Revelation because Daniel gives the
first part of God’s prophecies concerning the end times
and the return of Jesus Christ, and Revelation gives
“the rest of the story.” In fact, as we find in Daniel
2, God revealed to Daniel the starting point of this
prophecy with the Babylonian Empire and King
Nebuchadnezzar. The prophecy ends with the return of
Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of
God.
King Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream: When King
Nebuchadnezzar asked that the dream, as well as the
interpretation of it, be told to him, his chief
counselors and top advisors could not do it, claiming
that what the king wanted was impossible: “The Chaldeans
answered before the king, and said, There is not a
man upon the earth that can show the king’s matter:
therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked
such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.
And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and
there is none other that can show it before the king,
except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh”
(Dan. 2:10-11).
After God revealed the dream and interpretation of it
to Daniel and his three companions, he was brought
before the king. Daniel made it absolutely clear to the
king that it was God and God alone who had revealed the
dream and the interpretation of it: “The king answered
and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art
thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have
seen, and the interpretation thereof? Daniel answered in
the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the
king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers,
the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king;
but there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and
maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in
the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy
head upon thy bed, are these; as for thee, O king, thy
thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should
come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets
maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. But as
for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom
that I have more than any living, but for their sakes
that shall make known the interpretation to the king,
and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart”
(verses 26-30).
After Daniel told the king what his dream was, he
told him the interpretation of it that God had given to
him: “Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of
heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength,
and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell,
the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath
he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over
them all. Thou art this head of gold. And after
thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to
thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which
shall bear rule over all the earth. And
the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron:
forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all
things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it
break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the
feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron,
the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it
of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest
the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the
feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom
shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas
thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle
themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not
cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with
clay. And in the days of these kings [the final
kings pictured by the ten toes] shall the God of
heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be
destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other
people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all
these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch
as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the
mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the
iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold;
the great God hath made known to the king what shall
come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and
the interpretation thereof sure” (Dan 2:37-45).
Extra-biblical historical records can verify the dates
of these four kingdoms:
-
Babylonian/Chaldean Empire – 625-538 BC
-
Persian Empire – 558-330 BC
-
Greece –Alexander the great and four divisions
began in 333 BC
-
Roman Empire – beginning 31 BC with ten phases
until the end and the establishment of the
Kingdom of God.
In connection with this series, I have updated the
two Charts of Revelation and the two sermons that go
with them. We will send these new tapes on Revelation #1
and #2 to you along with the updated chart after the
chart is finished and printed. We will also be updating
the chart on the Book of Daniel. It was not until I gave
the first study on Daniel during the trip to Valdosta
and Manchester that I realized that much of the
understanding we have had of the book of Daniel goes
back to a much earlier time—at least 1960. The chart
that we have came from WCG, and it was taken from the
SDA’s. While some of the information on this chart is
still valid, it is evident that much of it is outdated.
When we finish this series, it will be the most complete
series on Daniel and Revelation that we have ever put
together.
We will put these new series on the Website, together
with the book of Revelation from the New Testament and
the book of Daniel from the KJV along with the charts,
sermons and studies. Anyone will be able to download
these to a computer. In addition, we will have all the
sermons and studies available in both “Wave” and “MP3”
formats.
Pentecost:
By the time you receive this letter, we will already
have finished observing the feast of Pentecost. The
harvest of the firstfruits began with Jesus Christ. He
was resurrected from the dead as the weekly Sabbath was
ending, during the Feast of Unleavened in 30 AD. This
makes Jesus Christ the firstborn from the dead. Then, on
the morning of the first day of the weeks, Jesus
ascended to the Father to be accepted as the sacrifice
for the sins of the world. From that point, including
the day that Jesus ascended to the Father, we are to
count 50 days to Pentecost, which pictures the first
resurrection—the rest of the firstfruits unto God (Jas.
1:18).
The ceremony that God commanded the children of
Israel concerning the wave sheaf-offering day actually
foretold the resurrection of Jesus on the weekly Sabbath
and His ascension to God the Father on the morrow after
the Sabbath. Everett Fox’s literal translation of
Leviticus 23 gives a much clearer picture than the KJV
does of the actual ceremonies that the priest conducted
at the temple on the wave sheaf offering day and fifty
days later on Pentecost. When you read it you will more
clearly understand the symbolism of these rituals and
how they are actually prophesies of these events: “Speak
to the Children of Israel and say to them: When you
enter the land that I am giving you, and you harvest its
harvest, you are to bring the premier sheaf [the
special temple dedicated sheaf picturing the resurrected
Christ] of your harvest to the priest. He is to
elevate the sheaf before the presence of YHWH for
acceptance for you; on the morrow of [after] the Sabbath
the priest is to
elevate it [a type of Jesus’ ascension to the Father
on the first day of the weeks] (Lev. 23:10-11 Shocken
Bible, Vol. 1, bracketed comments added). The elevation
of the sheaf is a type of Jesus’ ascension to the Father
on the wave sheaf offering day.
Fox’s translation of how to count to Pentecost is
perhaps the clearest of all because it removes any doubt
whatsoever that the 50th day is on the first day of the
week—a Sunday— and not on the second day of the week, a
Monday. “Now you are to number for yourselves, from the
morrow of the Sabbath [Hebrew meaning includes that
first day in the count], from the day that you bring the
elevated sheaf, seven Sabbaths-of-days, whole (weeks)
are they to be; until the morrow of the seventh Sabbath
you are to number fifty days, then you are to bring-near
a grain-gift of new-crops to YHWH” (verses 15-16).
Notice that Pentecost is to be on “the morrow of
[after] the seventh Sabbath.” The only day that comes
after the seventh Sabbath day is the first day of the
week—a Sunday as it is called today. It is impossible
that Monday could ever be “the morrow of [after] the
seventh Sabbath.” Monday is always the morrow after the
first day of the week, and therefore is the second day
of the week!
God has never reckoned the second day of the week as
the day after the seventh day Sabbath; yet, there are
those who erroneously believe that Pentecost is to be
observed on a Monday. This error goes back fifty years
and is due to the work of an evangelist who changed the
translation of Sabbath(s), Hebrew Shabbat, to
weeks, Hebrew Shavuah. He later confessed to this
when the truth about the correct counting of Pentecost
became known in 1974. He made this translational error
because someone he believed to be an apostle miscounted
and declared that Pentecost was on a Monday. However,
this left the problem of partial weeks, when the
Hebrew clearly states complete weeks—days 1-7. So,
he then decided that not only could “Sabbaths” mean
“weeks” but also partial weeks, which occur all seven
weeks of the count. However, Sabbath, Hebrew Shabbat,
can never mean a week. In spite of the fact that this
truth has been known for over 30 years, there are some
brethren who still observe Pentecost on a Monday,
refusing to acknowledge this error.
There must be seven complete weeks and seven
Sabbaths. Then on the day after the seventh Sabbath is
the feast of Pentecost. The Pentecost new-grain offering
was a special offering that each one was to offer on the
fiftieth day, Pentecost. God commanded this special
new-grain offering to be made with leavened dough and
baked in loaves: “From your settlements you are to bring
bread as an elevation-offering, two (loaves of)
two tenth-measures of flour are they to be,
leavened you are to bake them, as firstfruits to
YHWH … The priest is to elevate them [the animal
sacrifices], together with the bread of the firstfruits
as an elevation-offering before the presence of YHWH …
And you shall make-proclamation on that same day [the
50th day, not the 51st day ] a proclamation of holiness
shall there be for you” (verses 71-21).
The only other offering that God commanded to be
leavened was the peace offering (Lev. 7:13). All others
were to be offered with only unleavened bread. These two
wave loaves or elevation loaves that they offered on
Pentecost were leavened for a special reason.
It is clear that these leavened Pentecost offerings
could not be reckoned to represent sin, as this occurs
during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Therefore, what
does the leaven in these loaves represent?
In the New Testament Jesus revealed another meaning
for leaven: “The kingdom of heaven is compared to leaven
which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour
until all was leavened” (Matt. 13:33). In this parable
we see that leaven is counted as something good, because
it is compared to the kingdom of heaven—a sinless
kingdom.
Whenever leaven is added to dough, it raises the
dough and changes it. When the dough is baked, the
change is permanent—a finished loaf. In the same way, we
might compare the baked leavened loaves of the Pentecost
offering to the saints, who on Pentecost are raised from
the dead and permanently changed to enter into the
Kingdom of God.
Also, on Pentecost leavened loaves were to be brought
out of every household. There were literally thousands
of baked leavened loaves elevated, or waved to the Lord
by the priests. The elevation of the loaves by the
priests perhaps pictures the angels who carry the
resurrected saints up to meet Christ in the air on the
Sea of Glass. These resurrected saints as depicted by
the two loaves are 1) all those who enter into the
Kingdom of God, who were called of God before the first
coming of Christ, and 2) all those who were called of
God from the time of Christ until His second coming. Of
course, these are those who endured and were faithful
unto death.
A Glimpse of the First Resurrection to Eternal Life—the
Firstfruits to God: In writing of the resurrection
to eternal life the apostle Paul compared our bodies to
seeds of grain. The physical body must die, and at the
resurrection it will be changed to an immortal spiritual
body: “Nevertheless, someone will say, ‘How are the dead
raised? And with what body do they come?’ Fool! What you
sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you
sow is not the body that shall be; rather, it is bare
grain—it may be of wheat, or one of the other grains;
and God gives it a body according to His will, and to
each of the seeds its own body.
“Likewise, not all flesh is the same
flesh. Rather, there is one flesh of men, and
another flesh of beasts, and another of fish, and
another of birds. And there are heavenly bodies,
and earthly bodies; but the glory of the heavenly is
different, and the
glory of the earthly is different.
There is one glory of the sun, and another
glory of the moon, and another glory of the
stars; for one star differs from
another star in glory. So also is the
resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it
is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor;
it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is
raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is
raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and
there is a spiritual body; Accordingly, it is
written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul; the
last Adam became an ever-living Spirit.’ However,
the spiritual was not first, but the natural—then
the spiritual. The first man is of the earth—made
of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.
As is the one made of dust, so also are
all
those who are made of dust; and as is the
heavenly one, so also are all those who
are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the
one made of dust, we shall also bear the image of
the heavenly one.
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does
corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a
mystery: we shall not all fall asleep, but we shall
all be changed, in an instant, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must
put on incorruptibility, and this mortal must put on
immortality. Now when this corruptible shall have put on
incorruptibility, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is
written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ O death,
where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?” (I
Cor. 15:35-55.)
This is the glorious future that we have to look
forward to. The first resurrection to eternal life is
our hope! This is why God the Father and Jesus Christ
have called us and given us Their Spirit. This is why we
love and obey God. The apostle John was inspired to
write: “Behold! What glorious love the Father
has given to us, that we should be called the children
of God! For this very reason, the world does not
know us because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are
the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed
what we shall be; but we know that when He is
manifested, we shall be like Him, because we shall see
Him exactly as He is. And everyone who has this hope
in him purifies himself, even as He is pure” (I John
3:1-3).
Once again, brethren, thank you for all your prayers,
love and continued support. May God continually bless
you with His love, grace and blessings in all things.
With love in Christ Jesus,
Fred R. Coulter
FRC
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