To understand this current Pastor's Comments, it would helpful if you would re-read the last one I wrote (3-12-04). It will give you the background needed to understand many of the teachings God will use us in teaching the survivors of this present age inside the millennium.

An Explanation of God's Laws ---

In these present writings we have begun looking at some of the statutes and judgments that are often found in the midst of ceremonial laws and ordinances.

Unlike the teaching of the commandments, statues and judgments that were to be restored and taught in the end-time (Malachi 4:4-5), the ceremonial laws and ordinances that connected with the sacrificial system are no longer needed due to the fact they were types that pointed to that which was to be fulfilled at the coming of Jesus Christ.

However we should also know that though the ceremonial and sacrificial laws are not now needed they will be re-instituted for a time after Jesus Christ returns to this earth and establishes His Government and reign on this earth (please read Ezekiel 40-48; Zechariah 14:20-21).

Possibly the sacrificial system will not begin inside the millennium until God's new Temple is built. I am planning on writing more about this later on when I write about the construction of this beautiful and gorgeous new Temple in that new world which will then become THE WONDER of all wonders!

Definition of Statutes and Judgments ---  

To aid us in understanding of the Statutes and Judgments of God I will define them:

A Statute is an expansion of God's 10 Commandments, such as the Holy Days and Tithing.

A Judgment is a decision based on those same 10 Commandments. Judgments are also authorized by God in the New Testament by the apostles as the need arises (Matthew 16:19-19; 18:18).

God gave the 10 Commandments Himself (Exodus 20:1). And though the other laws also came from God, he allowed Moses to make them known to Israel.

An Overview ---

In my last Pastor's Comments (3-12-04), I began writing about some of the little known, and possibly even less taught, statutes found in the writings of Moses in Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 22.

In these two chapters we find laws that were designed by God to make known the diversity, purity, and distinctions with both humankind, animals, the planting of seeds, and in reality in all of His creation.
To fit in with the context of what I am now writing, I am including a portion of what I wrote last time and had already covered.

Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 22 --- 

Though these two chapters are dealing with the physical, they have far-reaching implications that reach into the spiritual realm. There is tremendous meaning to be found here and in related Scriptures as I am finding.

What is found here, and elsewhere, reveals the answers to many of the problems in life. From Holy Scripture we should learn that only God's way works! Intensive prayer, study, and meditation is needed to uncover much of the spiritual meaning contained therein. Solomon expressed this quite well when he wrote the search for wisdom and understanding is much like one searching for precious treasures (Proverbs 2:1-9).

As we focus our study here on these two chapters, dealing with physical laws, we will also be considering the spiritual implications of related Scriptures.

We should also remember the principle of duality found in Scripture as well as knowing that the physical is a type of the Spiritual, just as the apostle Paul wrote to the Church:

"For since the creation of the world HIS INVISIBLE ATTRIBUTES ARE CLEARLY SEEN 'BEING UNDERSTOOD' by the things (pattern) that are made, even His eternal powers and Godhead, so they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20; Psalm 19:1-6).

Beginning Our Study ---

Let us now begin our study of these little known and less practiced laws found here in these two chapters. Statutes that we will be teaching others in the millennium. These laws are very important and meaningful to God and should be to us as His people.

They teach practical everyday lessons that are designed to instill within us important lessons that we normally should know by just analyzing what we see in the creation (I Corinthians 11:14), often in others, and sometimes in our own selves. It is very sad to often see the end result of disobeying them.

As for the need of being knowledgeable and obeying them in our day and age, consider what God says after having had Moses make them known to Israel:

"Therefore you shall observe ALL My statutes and ALL My Judgments, and PERFORM them" (Leviticus 19:37).

The statutes and judgments that are commanded here were to remain with God's chosen people all through human life. This can easily be seen by moving forward to the end-time in which God would send His prophet, the Elijah to come, to restore the laws of God given through His prophet, Moses:

Diversity and Purity of the Creation ---

The laws found here, and related Scriptures found elsewhere, are based on the fact that God has made DISTINCTIONS in the natural world which is wrong for man to obliterate by inter-mixing.

 

Man in his reasoning teaches the opposite of diversity and purity, yet paradoxically will often practice God's laws, perhaps unknowingly, in ways where he feels it is to his advantage.

While focusing on one of these two chapters in a Bible study years ago, Mr. Herbert Armstrong said, "All mixing creates confusion!" And when we see the results of disobeying them we can well realize that God's laws are in place to eliminate the confusion of the blurring of the sexes, and preserve the purity of the races, and animals.

If one will stop and really think about these laws it should become easy to see they just make a lot of sense. God created diversity in this world because He loves and enjoys seeing the differences. Consider the example of the awesome beauty and glory of the many varieties of flowers: each one with its own unique design, with varying colors of awesome beauty, and exquisite fragrances emanating from each one.

With this in mind also consider that God created humankind with the wonderful blessing of eyes that can view these very beautiful flowers as well as all of His creation in full color. He could have created us to see only black and white, but He didn't!

DNA - Uniqueness of Humankind ---

No one cares to see clones or monotony and neither does God! That is why the Almighty God created within the genes of our original parents, Adam and Eve, the unique differences that would be found in the billions, in each and every human being, of their offspring! Notice this in the following Scriptures:

"The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His habitation He looks over all the inhabitants of the earth; He FASHIONS THEIR 'HEARTS' INDIVIDUALLY; . " (Psalm 33:13-15).

The meaning of 'heart' as found in Strong's Concordance (# 3820), and the New Bible Dictionary (page 509), is used widely in Biblical usage for the feelings, the will and even the intellect, likewise for the center of anything, such as the mind, understanding and wisdom. It is the heart that makes as man what he is. The heart comes the nearest of the New Testament terms to mean 'PERSON.'

When we connect the meaning as given here with the above Scripture where God fashions their HEARTS INDIVIDUALLY, we can know it means the DNA found in each and every person, his and her blood, fingerprints, facial features, speech, and everything!

This individual uniqueness will be retained with that same spirit that God preserves after leaving the human at death (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

The Spirit in Man ---

In a taped sermon recently played in the Modesto Church by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong, he said when God blew into the nostrils of Adam the breath of life this was also the spirit in man (Genesis 2:7). This connects with the human brain and thus there is a living and thinking mind. He then said the spirit in man was then passed on to all of Adam's descendants from him.

Please note the duality found here: "As the physical male sperm find its way to, and unites with the nucleus in the ovum, so God's Spirit enters and combines with the human spirit and MIND" (MYSTERY OF THE AGES, Pages 257-268).

Within each spirit of all human beings is the pre-designed DNA that determines the uniqueness of each and every person in every part of his or her very being that comes through the genes.

Please dwell on the excerpts I have taken from other writings of Mr. Armstrong: THE INCREDIBLE HUMAN POTENTIAL, Excerpts from Pages 78 - 88

"This spirit acts among other things, as a COMPUTER, adding to the brain the psychic and intellectual power. ... This 'computer' gives the brain instant recall of whatever portion of millions of bits of knowledge may be needed in the reasoning process.

The spirit is man is a computer that contains within its memory everything about the person, yet God has given each of us a MIND OF HIS OWN.

God has put IN the physical MAN a 'human' spirit. ... this spirit RECORDS every thought, every bit of knowledge received through the five senses and it records whatever character, good or bad, that is developed in human life. ... The SPIRIT in man RECORDS what the brain comes to know, even the attitude, the facets of CHARACTER, not only of the human brain, but also of the whole body. It keeps the imprint even of the fingerprints. ... The spirit that is in every human acts as a MOLD. It PRESERVES the human MEMORY, his CHARACTER, his FORM AND SHAPE. ... The resurrected being will be COMPOSED of SPIRIT, not matter as the human mold was. In the resurrected SPIRIT form he will suddenly come ALIVE. It will seem like the next flash of a second from his loss of CONSCIOUSNESS at time of death. He will have all his memory intact. He will look as he did in human life in form and shape. Even his fingerprints will be the same.

The CHARACTER which he allowed God to build within him will be there. He will be alive FOREVER! And like God the Father by his own will, he will have been made so that he CANNOT sin (I John 3:9)."

Heredity ---

Heredity also comes into play in both human and spirit life. This means man inherits the sum of the qualities and potentialities genetically derived from ancestor to the descendant (children) through the genes.

At the resurrection the faithful Christian will then inherit the sum of the qualities and potentialities of God the Father for each true Christian will have been begotten by Him in human life. He and she will then begin developing within themselves the character and mind of God. Upon faithfully enduring with spiritual growth they will at the end of physical life experience the second birth to Spirit Life in the resurrection upon the return of Jesus Christ to this earth.

With all of this in mind we should be able to see, as we meditate on these two chapters, as to why God gave these statutes that speak of diversity and purity. At the same time from them we would also learn and appreciate the diversity He brought into existence through creation, or so designed within the original kinds, room for the varieties to come into existence from them (Genesis 1).

The Three Major Races ---

This also includes the major three races of humankind who were to come from the eggs and womb of mother Eve (Genesis 4:1-2).

This was God's intent and desire for humankind for we can see the three major races survived the Flood during the time of Noah, and all a part of the human race today.

A QUOTE FROM MR. ARMSTRONG: "Japheth and Ham, both white, had inter-married. Japheth married a yellow woman, and Ham married a black woman. This preserved the strains, yellow and black, through the Flood into the present world through their wives. Both Shem and Noah were white."

After God had finished His creation, which included the varieties that would come into existence from and within the KINDS, "He saw everything He had made, and indeed it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). 

The Scriptures found here in these two chapters, and related Scriptures, make very well known God's intention and desire to preserve the diversity and purity of His creation. At the same time they point to Him as the Master Designer, Creator, and lawgiver.

And in a situation where one has not conformed to these laws one can come to see over time the mistakes that were made that have brought about confusion along with tears and sorrow when one begins to experience the effects of broken laws.

God's laws are designed to be a blessing to all who obey them rather than the curse for disobedience (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28). And as has been said by God's late apostle, and a true statement, that God's laws are inexorable!

They are always in motion like the laws of inertia and gravity bringing blessings to the obedient and curses on those who go contrary to them.

Though the penalty for disobeying them is not always immediate, nevertheless payment will be exacted, unless there is repentance. And sometimes, even then, in some cases, though one does repent, it is too late to undo the penalty.

It was God's intention this purity and diversity remain within the three major races that He made possible through the eggs in mother Eve. God's late apostle wrote about God's intention in the last book he wrote before he died.

No Mixing of the Races in Marriage ---

To understand this area much more in length, I refer the readers to the book, MYSTERY OF THE AGES, Pages 166-174 "Racial Intermarriage Forbidden"

Over and above what we should let nature teach us (I Corinthians 11:14), to make the distinctions very plain, consider the following laws of God that carried on down into the animal kind.

To Be Continued ---

Writing about the expanded understanding we should have by studying these laws is much too large to cover in this and the past writing on these two chapters.

In my next Pastor's Comments (a couple of weeks or so from now), I hope to finish and move on to other things we can expect to do and teach inside the millennium.

Until next time, your friend and brother in Christ,

Don Billingsley

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