When is the first day of the year
Therefore,
to all who profess to believe in Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of God, is
the 1st January the first day of a new year to you? Please take into
consideration the following:
1. 1. Jesus Christ is the Lord God of
the Old Testament by whom all things were created and He is the same yesterday,
today and forever.
2. 2. In the control of this world are
two literal kingdoms, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness.
3. 3. If we are a true believer, the
Father has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the
light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the
kingdom of the Son of His love.
Let
us all therefore with open minds consider the above mentioned scriptures and be
honest with ourselves and affirm whether we are following the principles of the
kingdom of light or that of the kingdom of darkness.
• “In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was
made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men”…” And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-4, 14).
• He (Jesus Christ) is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were
created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were
created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all
things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the
preeminence” (Colossians 1:15-18).
• “For even if there are so-called
gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords),
yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for
Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom
we live” (1 Corinthians 8:5-6).
• “Therefore God also has highly
exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and
of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Remember, this name was given
to Jesus Christ eight (8) days after His birth when He was circumcised
(Philippians 2:9-11; Luke 2:21).
• “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
Now,
if we all believe and truly understand all what is mentioned above concerning
Jesus Christ, and truly believe that He is the head of the church, and that in
all things He may have the preeminence, the superiority above all others, why
then do we give others the preeminence over Him?
The
majority of those who claimed to believe in Jesus Christ, unfortunately, do not
regard Him as being Lord, for the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This month
shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to
you” (Exodus 12:2).
So
when is the first month of the year according to the Lord, who created the
heavens, the earth, the seas and all that are in them? The first month of the
year according to the Almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth is the month
on which the Lord’s Passover falls.
For
thus says the Lord; “On the tenth of this month every man shall take for
himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a
household…Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may
take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the
fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation
of Israel shall kill it at twilight” (Exodus 12:3, 5, 6).
Now
this ordinance which the Lord gave to the children of Israel is an everlasting
one, for thus says the Lord; “So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you
shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall
keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance…And you shall observe this thing
as an ordinance for you and your sons forever” (Exodus 12:14; 24).
Now
please bear in mind that, what the children of Israel were observing was only
the copy and shadow of the reality, but today, we have the reality, Jesus
Christ, who gave Himself a ransom for all on the exact date of the Passover
which is on the fourteenth (14th) day of the first month of the year, which
corresponds to fourteen days beginning with the first new moon in Spring, and
normally falls between the middle of March or early April in the Roman or
Gregorian calendar.
The
sad and unfortunate thing is that, the majority of those professing to believe
in Jesus Christ consider these things to be trivial and insignificant, but
according to Jesus Christ, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the
things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
And
what has eluded the eyes of the many who profess to be believers, but seeing
absolutely nothing wrong in giving the preeminence, the honor and the glory to
another Deity is the fact that they have not truly perceived the profoundness
and magnitude of what is taking place behind the scene.
The
irony of truth and the facts of the matter is that, there are only two masters,
we can either love one and hate the other, or be loyal to one and despise the
other. There are only two kingdoms and we can either be a citizen of the
kingdom of light, or be a citizen of the kingdom of darkness. There is either
the truth which is Jesus Christ or the lie which is Satan; one is either a
slave of righteousness or a slave of sin, one can either live in accordance to
the Spirit or live in accordance to the flesh.
The
only middle ground is when God in His loving kindness allows us to choose our
leader, healer etc and receive the consequences of our choice. As the Lord said to Samuel saying, "Heed the voice of
the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but
they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.” And this by the way is called the lesser of two evils. (1 Samuel 8:7).
So
then, I beg to ask the question, where did we get the idea that the 1st.
day of January is the beginning of a new year? And to make matters worse it
begins at midnight!
When
the origin of the word December which precedes the month of January from Latin,
denotes ‘ten’ and was originally the tenth month of the Roman year, and
therefore, the first month of the year would be around March. In addition to
this, how can one begin a new day at midnight? How can something new originate
from something that has no source!
Darkness
has no source, it is the absence of light and therefore, a new day cannot originate
from something that has no source. The
root cause of this dilemma of vain worship is the quest for Satan the father of
lies and prince of darkness, to dominate over light and truth which represents
the kingdom of God. It is Satan’s quest to be worshiped just as God is
worshiped. So what seems to the majority of professing believers as trivial and
insignificant is more profound and significant than they realized.
The
irony of truth is, the above mentioned changes were established by the fourth
beast which is the Roman Empire, to whom Satan has given his power, his throne
and great authority. Therefore, when we reject the basic principles established
by the kingdom of light and adopt the principles established by the kingdom of
darkness, we are giving Satan the preeminence over our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ.
By
giving the customs and traditions of men established by beast the preeminence
over the principles established by the Lord, whether knowingly or unknowingly,
we are automatically worshiping the dragon who gave his power, his throne and
great authority to the beast, because ignorance of the law is no excuse.
(Revelation 13:4).
Therefore,
the Lord’s admonition to His people is, “Come out of her, my people, lest you
share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have
reached to heaven and God has remembered her iniquities” (Revelation 18:4).
The
question is will we all take heed, the choice is ours.
Copyright
© 2016 by Lucius Joseph
All
rights reserved
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