Dear Members, Co-workers and Friends,
A highlight of the entire year awaits us… the Autumnal or Fall Holy Days. When this letter reaches you, you are about to observe the Feast of Trumpets, followed in due succession by the Day of Atonement; the Feast of Tabernacles; and the Last Great Day. Together with the two Days of Unleavened Bread and the Day of Pentecost in the spring, God’s people celebrate seven annual Holy Days each year… thereby fulfilling a complete and perfect cycle indicated by the number seven.
Without observing the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath, and the seven annual Holy Days, we cannot understand God’s master plan for us—and for all of humankind. That is part of the reason why an ignorant and deceived humanity believes in the false theory of evolution, and, depending on one’s religion, on an immortal soul which, upon death, goes to heaven, hell, purgatory or Nirvana, or which will be reincarnated and reborn repeatedly in different forms.
The Bible reveals that GOD created man, and that He created the weekly Sabbath with and for man, to be observed by man and to be kept holy. God the Father created everything through His Son, Jesus Christ, who accomplished this task with the power of His Holy Spirit. Christ would say later that HE was the Lord of the Sabbath—the seventh day of the week. However, man soon refused to keep holy what God had made holy, neglecting and rejecting all of God’s commandments.
In due time, Jesus Christ, the God of the Old Testament, freed the nation of Israel from Egyptian captivity, and He spoke powerfully to the people from Mount Zion, revealing to them once again God’s Ten Commandments, which had been in force and effect since the creation of Adam and Eve. They are still valid today, and man is still obligated to keep them. Most people do not keep them, but those who do are sanctified by God. The Sabbath especially is a sign which identifies them to God and the world, and it identifies the true God to them.
With the Ten Commandments, God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, also instituted for Israel—the congregation or church in the wilderness—the seven annual Holy Days. True Christians are spiritual Israelites today, and as members of the Church of God—the body of Christ—they are enjoined to keep the annual Holy Days. They are ALSO signs, which sanctify us and which reveal to us God’s plan for us and for man.
True Christians are called firstfruits in the Bible. Spring was the time of the spring harvest–when the first harvest was reaped. The Holy Days in the spring are focusing on true Christians who are being called out of this world in this day and age. Only very few—the firstfruits—were predestined from the foundation of the world and before time began to be called and chosen now. The Passover, which is not a Holy Day but which is a part of the Spring Festival season, symbolizes our repentance and the forgiveness of our sins, by accepting and believing in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ; and the seven Days of Unleavened Bread, beginning with the very first annual Holy Day and ending with the second annual Holy Day, impress on us the need to continuously strive against and come out of sin. However, this is only possible with the gift of the Holy Spirit—the very POWER emanating from the Father and the Son—which is pictured by the third annual Holy Day, the Day of Pentecost, when the New Testament Church began in 31 A.D.
The autumn was the time for the great fall harvest, which is pictured by God’s four annual Fall Holy Days. They are enlarging God’s master plan to include all of mankind, even though they also convey a special meaning to true Christians. The Feast of Trumpets, God’s fourth annual Holy Day, symbolizes a time of worldwide wars and troubles, culminating in the return of Jesus Christ to make us immortal—becoming God beings and being able to see Christ in all His glory, as He is—and to establish the government of God on this earth, bringing true peace to man.
The Day of Atonement, the fifth annual Holy Day, reminds us that there cannot be true peace and happiness for man as long as Satan is around, who has deceived and blinded the whole world, and so he will be banned and imprisoned for a thousand years (the Millennium), while, at the same time, Christ’s Sacrifice will be made understandable and available to all of mankind; thereby reconciling the world to God so that it can truly be at-one with God.
This then will be followed by the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles—the first Day being the sixth annual Holy Day—symbolizing the fact that all those who will be still alive, having survived the terrible time of the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord, will be called to salvation together with those who will be born during that peaceful millennial time.
The last or seventh annual Holy Day is called the Last Great Day. It pictures at least two important aspects of God’s master plan. God’s purpose for man would not be complete if He were not to remember all those who died, without ever having had an opportunity to embrace God’s Way of Life. They did not go to heaven when they died, nor did they wait for a better life in Purgatory, but they were sleeping the sleep of death, without any consciousness, for hundreds or thousands of years. God will bring them back to life in a Second Resurrection, and He will allot to them a certain time of perhaps one hundred years to qualify for the Kingdom of God and to become immortal members of God’s Family.
The Last Great Day pictures a second important aspect. God is a God of mercy and of justice. He would not be just if He were not to deal with those who had committed the unpardonable sin, thereby permanently rejecting God’s mercy. They will be resurrected in a Third Resurrection to face the verdict of God’s judgment, and they will be thrown into the “Gehenna”-lake of fire, to be burned up and cease to exist forever. This too shows God’s mercy… rather than torturing them for all eternity in an ever-burning hellfire, their miserable and hateful life will simply end.
THIS then is the plan of God for mankind… to enlarge His Kingdom, by bringing millions upon millions of immortal God beings into His Family. As God beings, we will rule with and under God the Father and Jesus Christ forever and ever over everything there is and will be.
THIS is God’s purpose for man… why He created man in the first place—to become EQUAL, in nature, with God the Father and Jesus Christ. God’s Holy Days make God’s plan very clear to us. In all our trials and challenges, because we still live today in a world ruled by Satan the devil, we must never forget WHY we are here and for WHAT we are here. God wants us to be in His Kingdom, to become GOD BEINGS, and He will never leave us nor forsake us. When we go through high waves or hot flames, He is with us. When we stand in front of a mountain, He is there to help us climb it. When we find ourselves in a forsaken desert, He is there to quench our thirst. When we walk through the valley of death, He is there to guide and comfort us.
We are God’s ambassadors for a new and better world; the forerunners; the pioneers; the firstfruits; paving the way for others to follow. Everyone will have his or her opportunity. But for us, TODAY is our ONLY day of salvation. Let us make sure we do not forget that, so that we do not become disqualified.
We are wishing you all a very peaceful and spiritually rewarding Fall Festival season, and may this be your best Feast ever. May the God of peace, mercy and of all comfort be with you all.
Your brother in Christ,
Norbert Link
