Deuteronomy Part 5

Copied from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

January 14, 2018

Scripture Reading:  Deuteronomy 4:4-8

4) “But ye that did cleave unto the LORD your God are alive every one of you this day.

5) Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.

6) Keep therefore and do them; for this is our wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

7) For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?

8) And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?”

Two weeks ago was New Year’s Day. The day before New Year’s Day is a day spent in celebration of the end of the old year and the beginning, or birth, of the new. But for how long has this been the situation? Has it been in existence for over 6000 years that New Year’s Day is on January 1st.

When I was in the eighth grade, I remember it very well; we were assigned to do a written report and in addition to our written report we had to also give a speech in front of our class about a certain topic. My topic had to do with the a few of the different calendars that were in existence in the world. I learned then, that this was a difficult subject for me to understand.

However, the teacher liked my report and had me give it at a special meeting of teachers; but it was just an elementary level report, but I had never thought about it before. I knew then that it was a lot more complicated than I could understand. And it still is.

Later, I learned, thanks to Christian Identity, that biblical ancient Israel had a very different calendar than we have now. Their new year had been, for over 3500 years, in the springtime. This explained some previously difficult scriptures that had to do with different calendars. For example, the day began in the Bible at the setting of the sun and not at one second after Midnight. This cleared up several scriptures right away.

Here is a scripture which tells us that Israel was to celebrate each new year in the spring:

Exodus 12:1-3:

1) “And the LORD spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,

2) This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

3) Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:”

Israel’s new year was switched from the fall to the spring during the Passover while they were slaves in Egypt. Why do we, since we are their ancestors, celebrate another day and season as the new year? Why do we celebrate the new year in the middle of the cold winter, just less than a couple of weeks after the winter solstice? Makes more sense, when you stop and think about it, when things begin to start to grow and bloom, not when everything is in a “dead” state.

Daniel 7:23-25:

23) “Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.

24) And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.

25) And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”

The Bible informs its readers that the fourth beast, the Roman Empire, and its leader, one of the Caesars and later the Roman Catholic Church with its Pope, will think to change times and the law. Well, did they?

In 45 B.C., New Year’s Day was celebrated on January 1st for the first time in history as the Julian calendar took effect. Soon after becoming Roman dictator, Julius Caesar decided that the traditional Roman calendar was in dire need of reform. Introduced around the seventh century B.C., the Roman calendar attempted to follow the lunar (moon) cycle but frequently fell out of phase with the seasons and had to be corrected. In addition, the pontifices, the Roman body charged with overseeing the calendar, often abused its authority by adding days to extend political terms or interfere with elections.

In designing his new calendar, Caesar enlisted the aid of Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, who advised him to do away with the lunar cycle entirely and follow the solar year, as did the Egyptians.

The year was calculated to be 365 and 1/4 days, and Caesar added 67 days to 45 B.C., making 46 B.C. begin on January 1, rather than in March. He also decreed that every four years a day be added to February, thus theoretically keeping his calendar from falling out of step. Shortly before his assassination in 44 B.C., he added the month Julius (July) after himself. Later, the month Augustus (August) was named after his Julius’ successor.

Celebration of New Year’s Day in January fell out of practice during the Middle Ages, and even those who strictly adhered to the Julian calendar did not observe the New Year exactly on January 1. The reason for the latter was that Caesar and Sosigenes failed to calculate the correct value for the solar year as 365.242199 days, not 365.25 days. Thus, an 11-minute-a-year error added seven days by the year 1000, and 10 days by the mid-15th century.

The Roman Church became aware of this problem, and in the 1570s Pope Gregory XIII commissioned Jesuit astronomer Christopher Clavius to come up with a new calendar. In 1582, the Gregorian calendar was implemented, omitting 10 days for that year and establishing the new rule that only one of every four centennial years should be a leap year. Since then, people around the world have gathered en masse on January 1st to celebrate the precise arrival of the New Year.

European Catholic countries immediately accepted the Gregorian calendar, but Protestant and Eastern Orthodox lands resisted the change. Protestants so hated the Catholics that they refused to change to their new calendar. So, this meant that some countries like Italy accepted the changed in 1582, while Britain, including its colony, the united States accepted it in 1752, and Russia in 1918. They continued to use the Julian calendar for 170 years after all the Catholic countries had already made the change.

What problems did the use of two different calendars at the same time cause among the countries that were using them? For example, what happened when the united States changed from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Well, do you know what is the correct date of the birthday of George Washington, the first president of the Constitutional united States? It depends on which calendar, the Julian or the Gregorian you are using.

The Answer:

1. February 11, 1731, (Julian Calendar) or
2. February 22, 1732 (Gregorian Calendar).

Great Britain, along with its colony of America, were following the Julian calendar when George Washington was born. By that calendar, the date was February 11, 1731. But when George was 20 years old, the united States adopted the Gregorian calendar. The Roman Catholic Church had decided that this 12-day discrepancy was unacceptable because Easter was becoming unhitched from its association with spring.

Remember, it took the Protestant countries about 170 years to finally switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. They didn’t want to follow the antichrist’s devised new calendar. But the calendar they were following was a pagan calendar too, and it had a major flaw. So, how did they make the switch? They did it in two steps:

1. They first moved New Year’s Day from March 25 to January 1st, which advanced the calendar one year.
2. They cut 11 days out of the year to sync up with the countries already on the Gregorian calendar. Thus, Wednesday, September 2, 1752, was followed immediately by Thursday, September 14, 1752.

Because of this switch in calendars, Washington’s birthday was retroactively bumped up to 1732 to stay consistent with his age, and he celebrated his 21st birthday on February 22, 1753!

Way back when, the Romans had a god named Janus. He was the god of doors and gates and had two faces — one looking forward and one looking back. Julius Caesar thought it would be appropriate for January, Janus’ namesake month, to be the doorway to a new year. And when he created the Julian calendar, he made January 1st the first day of the year (this also put the calendar year in line with the consular year, as new consuls also took office that day).

In the Middle Ages a few smart people sorted out that the Julian leap year was poorly calibrated such that it actually added a day every 128 years, and by the 16th century things were completely out of whack. The equinoxes were coming too early and some holidays, like Easter, fell in the wrong season. To fix things the Vatican created a new calendar, the Gregorian Calendar, which in 1582 officially moved the starting day up to January 1st and reconfigured things in general to impose a sense of order.

However, by the late 16th century England did not recognize the authority of the Pope or of his newfangled calendar. Both England and its colonies kept to the old calendar, despite the confusion — though many people used both, for the sake of being understood. For example, some would date documents with the dates from both calendars in an attempt to clear things up.

I have since learned of Israel’s calendar, for we are not using anything close to how it was in ancient Israel’s time. We are using the wrong calendar, one that was set up first by the pagan Roman Caesar and now a Roman Catholic Antichristian Pope, which is totally incorrect. It is impossible to implement the feast days, work days, sabbath days of Israel in the Julian or Gregorian calendar.

“Israel’s Calendar and the True Sabbath”, written by Curtis Clair Ewing and Charles Wesley Ewing gives what I believe is very close to the true Israel calendar. It ends all arguments over what day the Sabbath should be kept—Saturday or Sunday being the two most popular choices.

It shows that Israel did not name its days of the week by the names that we call them now: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday—all named after false gods. They numbered the days of the month: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.; and the months had names for them: Nisan, or Abib, or Ivar, etc.

Quoting from Ewing’s pamphlet, it says:

“The New International Encyclopedia, Volume 4, Page 325, Edi. 1943 says:

‘Israel retained a thirty day month, twelve months to a year, but instead of adding five days at the end of the year they added three days at the end of the sixth month and two days at the end of the twelfth month. The governing principle was that extra days should be added only when and where needed, as will be shown later. Seven supplementary days, or one week, were added every twenty-eight years to provide for the fraction of a day.’”

In addition, there was a two-day sabbath, a 48-hour sabbath every Pentecost. That would change the day we keep the sabbath every year on the Julian or Gregorian calendar. We are not under our calendar, but the calendar of the antichrist; with Christ(’s)-mas(s) and Easter as the two main false holidays built into that system.

We are in a great mess. The calendar of ancient Israel is no longer used. We are using the calendar of a pagan ruler and an antichristian pope. The calendars hid from the true covenant people their history and God’s mighty acts on their behalf.

Now, back to our study in Deuteronomy. What did Moses mean when he said: “But ye that did cleave unto the LORD your God are alive…” Who was he talking to? He was referring to what had happened about 40 years previously at Beth-peor--the ones that were there, who were old enough to be eye-witnesses when God slew 24,000 of their fellow Israelites for the major sin of race-mixing. These were the ones that Moses referred to as those that cleaved unto the LORD your God.

Moses then asked Israel a very important question: What makes a nation great? We have in America, a president whose chief slogan during his presidential campaign was: “Make America Great Again.” How does Trump’s way of making America Great Again agree with Moses’ way to make a nation great, as we saw in our opening scripture. I believe they greatly contrast each other.

Did president Trump say that he wanted to go back under God’s statutes and judgements? Did he want to make the following things against the law:

• Abortion (murder of the unborn)
• Same-sex marriages (marriage which was incapable of producing any offspring?)
• Miscegenation (race mixing)
• Free love
• Income taxes
• Property taxes
• Usury bank loans to their brother
• Pornography
• Drug abuses
• Vaccinations
• Estate taxes
• Immigration of foreign individuals
• Pluralistic religions
• Heresies
• Homosexuality
• Transvestites
• Woman’s place in society
• Etc.

No, that is not what Trump meant and what he is not going to do. But making all the above topics against the law would be a good start. What was the answer that Moses gave to his people as to what makes a great nation. Contrast this with what president Trump meant. Moses said that a great nation would:

1. Have the wisdom and understanding through the laws of God
2. Have a nearness to God through consecration to His word and will
3. Experience miraculous answers to prayer
4. Have the possession of God’s righteous statutes and judgments
5. Be obedient to the laws of God
6. Have an acceptance of God’s word as it is without change and additions
7. Have a hatred of idolatry
8. Have a sound and biblical educational, economical and civil program
9. Have an absolute faith in the providence of God and trust in Him against all enemies
10. Have to recognize God as the Creator and sovereign of all things

From these verses in Deuteronomy, how can there be a separation of religion and politics? If the laws of God say that aborticide is wrong, then what does it matter what your view of aborticide is? Do you please God or man? We don’t have a separation of religion and politics in the United States, we have a union of Talmudism and government.

Israel was to be called “great” from the nations that were around her. These nations would say that Israel had a unique way of doing things that was the envy of the world. This would make Israel to be “privileged” above all other races.

When King Solomon was on the throne, the Queen of Sheba paid him a visit. And she said the following:

1 Kings 10:6-9:

6) “And she (Queen of Sheba) said to the king (Solomon), It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.

7) Howbeit, I believed not the words until I came, and mine eyes had seen it; and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.

8) Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, who stand continually before thee, and who hear thy wisdom.

9) Blessed be the LORD thy God, who delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel. Because the LORD loved Israel forever, therefore made He thee king, to execute justice and righteousness.”

The Queen was quite impressed by all the wisdom that she found in the land of Israel, just like Moses told his people would happen if they kept the laws and statutes of their God. The Queen said that Israel was blessed by the LORD their God and a very privileged nation. And did you notice what the Queen said in verse 9? Who did she say loved Israel? Not just love temporarily but permanently. It was their husband. It was their former king. It was their kinsman. It was their LORD God.

This previous week we also heard that Oprah Winfrey is considering running for president of the United States in 2020. It could be Winfrey against Trump. If that happens, then how far have we fallen? We would have a:

• A racial foreigner (a non-Israelite)
• A woman
• A strong feminist
• An unmarried women who has lived with her lover, a man, Steadman, for decades
• An antichristian running for the highest office in the land in direct violation of Deuteronomy 17:15b

Deuteronomy 17:15b:  “…thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.”

And her opponent is almost just as bad to the true Christian. A true Christian can’t vote for either candidate. The current president is very pro-Jewish. We need someone who would be like what Queen of Sheba described--whom our God would set in the White House. We need a person who would put true Christianity back in our government.

America needs the same as what happened to ancient Israel. They were not invited to join with the Canaanites. In other words, they were not told to live among them: go to their schools, be in business with them, be part of their government, etc. They were told to annihilate all of them. And after they were gone, to live in their homes and farm their land. They were to be a separate people. America needs this too. Who will make America a separate nation again…could it be our Savior’s return?

Deuteronomy 4:9-14:

9) “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest thy depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy son’s sons:

10) Specially the day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said unto me, Gather Me the people together, and I will make them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.

11) And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness.

12) And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.

13) And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone.

14) And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgements, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.”

It was the duty of every parent in Israel to teach and instill within the hearts of their children the wisdom and knowledge of God. How else could a child know of the might and power of their God. How else could a child know that God made a covenant with them and that they had a responsibility to keep the sacred covenant.

Moses was told to gather all the people of Israel. Where were they to be gathered? Mt. Sinai. Israel was gathered there that they may learn to fear the LORD their God. Israel saw with their own eyes the manifestation of their God and king.

The mountain was on fire, there was smoke, clouds, and a thick darkness and then they heard the voice of God coming out of the fire. What a sight! Have you ever seen such a sight as this? What would you have done if you were at this strategic event? What was the thick darkness like to be in it? Up to six million Israelites hearing the voice of their God. Name one other race of people who have ever been a part of such a spectacle.

Deuteronomy 4:15-22:

15) “Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves: for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:

16) Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the multitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

17) The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,

18) The likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:

19) And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

20) But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto Him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.

21) Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance:

22) But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: but ye shall go over, and possess that good land.

The seventh reason given above about the reasons for a great nation that Moses gave to Israel was they would have a hatred of idolatry. They were forbidden to make any image of male or female, any animal or fish, any planetary object, anything that could be made that they would go and worship it. In today’s world, it would also include sports, music (American idol), business, politics, etc. that a person would worship. God identifies Himself as being the one who took Israel out of Egypt to be His people of inheritance.

Deuteronomy 4:23-24:

23) “Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of anything, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee.

24) For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.”

Moses warns the Israel people not to forget the covenant that the LORD their God made with them. This is the basis of our people. This is what makes our people special. This is what gives our people the inheritance of God. This is what should separate us from all other races. Don’t forget the covenant and make graven images, for our God is a jealous God.

And what have our people done…exactly what they were warned not to do. They have forgot the covenant, in fact, most of them believe it was made with a different racial people, and they have made different images that they now worship.

Deuteronomy 4:25-31:

25) “When thou shalt beget children, and children’s children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of anything, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke him to anger:

26) I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

27) And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.

28) And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

29) But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

30) When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;

31) (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) He will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of the fathers which He sware unto them.”

Moses gave this prophetic view to the Israel people. Israel began being disobedient soon after Joshua and the elders who outlived him died. It was soon thereafter, that they requested a king like all the other nations. They soon rejected God as their king. They soon worshiped idols. They soon began practicing integration. They soon worshiped Baal. They soon forgot the God who had made a covenant with their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They soon became like all the other races of the world.

But Israel is not like all the other races of the world. There is a difference between them and the others. There will always be a difference. What is the difference?

Israel, even when they are in deep tribulation, has a way out. If they would just turn to the LORD their God and be obedient to His voice. That is what our enemies will try to keep hidden from the Israelites’ eyes. They will try and blind them with sports, music and entertainment so that they never will turn to Him. But they will never keep everyone’s eyes blind to the fact that they are God’s people who are recipients of His inheritance.

For our God is merciful. He will not forsake us. He will not utterly destroy us. Why? Because He will not forget the covenant of the fathers which He sware unto them.

Genesis 15:12, 17:

12) “And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

17) And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

What was meant by the “smoking furnace” or a “burning lamp”? It the East it was a custom to light a torch when making a covenant or in celebration of a marriage to symbolize the fires of destruction if the agreement should be broken. The smoking furnace and a burning lamp represented the LORD God who walked between the slain animals while Abram was in a deep sleep.

What other person ever had such a thing happen to him? It is special blessing to be part of this covenant seed. For it is the “blood of the covenant” that is the method of bringing back the covenant seed from its sin.

To be continued.

Blessed be the LORD God of Israel.