Feast of Booths 2008 (Oct 14-21)

Returning to the old paths: A pilgrimage festival to reconnect with nature and ourselves.

Celebrate a general thanksgiving for the bounty of nature in the year that had passed in beautiful glory of God’s creation.

Location

Leo Carrillo State Park (Park Website) (Brochure (pdf)

The park has 1.5 miles of beach that has tide pools, coastal caves and reefs for exploring and hiking trails. Giant sycamores shade the main campgrounds.

Directions

The park is located 28 miles northwest of Santa Monica on the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1.) (See Map)

Fees

Price: $20 per day for camp site. Meals are an extra $25 per day.

Registration deadline is September 31, 2008

Supplies

What you’ll need: Copy of The Hidden Years for workshop study. Bring your tents and camping equipment.

Additional Information

If you have any questions, contact our staff for details.

Truth is the cry of all, but the game of few. ~ Bishop Berkeley ~

Rating Personal Prophecies of:

Seven Eras
Four Horsemen
The Beast
Mark of the Beast
666
Sealed 144,000
False Prophet
Two Witnesses
Babylon
Scarlet Woman

God does not spoon-feed His people.  He knew that giving answers ahead of time would not foster the adult development He wishes to see in us.  But He does give us the ENTIRE Bible from our perspective of 6,000 years of human history to be able to conclude what we should be doing NOW.

I do not want to be guilty of giving answers to others without an adult struggle by them.  I do not want to step in and play the answer man where God Himself has remained purposely silent.  But I am willing to point others who are searching for TRUTH in the RIGHT direction, helping them conclude for THEMSELVES the TRUTH.

We spend all our time looking for some concept of Truth, but Truth is what is left when we drop all concepts.  ~ David Merzel ~

Should you be thinking that you can always get a last minute “ticket” for this trip, you can just forget that nonsense!  “Summer is nigh…”

(Mouseover each compass to view photo snapshots.)

[[Insert photo collage]]

Additional photos will be featured periodically.

Recorded in the Bible are the well-known stories of the Noachian Deluge and the Tower of Babel. They were examples of man’s one world order with one socio-economic system and language. Instead of these world orders being a help to further man’s growth to his real human potential, they became a hindrance, becoming the vehicle for man’s sinful ways to spread rapidly. Evil thrived and flourished in this cohesive social unit. So, God intervened, destroying the world in Noah’s day and dispersing mankind at Babel.

Today, at the ending of the 20th century and the beginning of the new millennium, we are coming together AGAIN as one. And it is technology that has made this possible. With the aid of computers and the internet we can instantaneously translate one language into another and have a “one world” language. Furthermore, a world banking system and economy is mankind’s attempt for another one world order man’s way. But, this time, what we are doing is far worse than ever before and far more damaging. We need to look at why OUR world order is so against God. Only then will we be able to understand why God hates our technological world.

To adequately do that we need to understand the purpose and wisdom of God’s laws. Man has always deemed them to be God’s arbitrary way to keep him in bondage. It’s time to take another look at the Old Testament and God’s original commands at creation to discern the real intent for God’s physical laws. As we will see, technology thwarts man’s ability to learn the many lessons God wanted him to learn and the way He wanted him to learn them.

The Purpose of the Old Testament

Did God waste His time writing the Old Testament? Was His purpose only to have us keep the Sabbath, Holy Days, and a few important laws (dietary for unclean meats, financial for tithing) in this modernized, “civilized,” urbanized, technological world? Does the Old Testament have lasting value in the obsolete WAY OF LIFE it portrays? Did not God train up the child in the manner He thought best? Or was He just biding His time until 20th century man came along to change things for the better? Was God hampered, unable to provide His child with the latest innovations, the newest devices?

For the first 4000 years God dealt physically with Israel. Thus, Old Testament Israel, the child, the pre-adolescent, had direct knowledge of the best way to GROW UP. That knowledge related to PHYSICAL affairs! With the Old Testament God gave first the knowledge of His PHYSICAL plan to His children Israel. As Israel was in the beginning a YOUNG, immature child, He started–with the PHYSICAL WAY OF LIFE–to teach him what to do, how to live, and why to obey.

Thus, God dealt with the physical life of His young child–the whole physical welfare. And now He required that Israel respond to His directives by performing, according to certain rules and regulations, PHYSICAL ACTIONS, physical behaviors first which were to pave the way for the later spiritual way. God rooted His Old Testament Church firmly in the physical and expected it to rise from there to go BEYOND the physical medium or else it would rot there. God wanted the outer to lead to an inner change as a father does when he is dealing with his children. At first, he can expect the child to obey because the baby has no choice. The child should be serving his father physically in every way. If the child is rebellious to the physical laws, how can he be receptive to the spiritual ones? If he is difficult to train physically, how can he be easy spiritually? If he is having to be forced to do correct physical actions, how can he be dealt with in the invisible realm? So God used the Old Testament to form PATTERNS in the mind of the child. He worked from the OUTSIDE to the INSIDE! That is the way God designed His plan; it was not faulty. It was the foundation on which He would later build the New Testament.

For thirty years of His life Jesus lived the Old Testament way of life, even while introducing the New Testament, showing man the way to at-one-ment with the Father which had been lost through sin. It was years after His death that the Catholic Church began preaching a bogus, phony New Testament, changing the teachings of the Gospels. The true doctrines were almost immediately suppressed (and only partially resurrected in varying degrees in history) for almost two thousand years; however, it took much, much longer–centuries–for the Old Testament lifestyle to completely disappear.

In this 20th century Mr. Herbert Armstrong taught for fifty years the real message of Jesus and His doctrines, which, for the most part, had been lost. But while he taught it, he lived the modern western way. Originally, at the beginning of the Philadelphian Era, the Church had its roots in the farming people of the Willamette Valley in Oregon. But, as the work grew, the emphasis remained almost exclusively on doctrines, while the right lifestyle was all but ignored. Even the agricultural program of the Church was eventually abandoned. We had accepted the doctrines in our heads but we were still living the modern way of life. As a result, we were doctrinally correct in our minds only, but our bodies were not living the truth of God.

Because Mr. Armstrong only restored doctrinal truth, not body truth, the Church did not go where it should have gone nor did it grow up. It was like a stillborn baby, having the form of a baby, but was dead on delivery. All truth grows and expands. For more than fifty years the Church has been stagnant because all Mr. Armstrong’s work was to change minds, while our bodies lived in the same false system. That’s why the doctrines don’t really stick and why we’re so obsessed with them. Keeping the doctrines in our heads without the Old Testament way of life in our bodies makes us SPLIT. So, we have a split-conversion with doctrinal, mental understanding but no necessary conversion in our bodies. We have never progressed beyond doctrine because we have not involved the whole person. Body changes were necessary to be WHOLE, moving forward and engaging the emotions, thereby assisting us to become a wholly, fully integrated human adult on our way to spiritual maturity through the New Testament.

God instituted the physical laws first because WE needed it that way so WE could grow. After He had formed the pattern in our body, then our minds, He had hoped to elevate the whole man to a higher spiritual plane which was demonstrated in the life of Christ. Even God could not create AGAPE through mere words, doctrines, and dictates. He had to show us physically, in the flesh, through the person of Jesus. If we can’t do the basic physical obedience in EVERY area, then how can we go higher to the spiritual? Under Herbert Armstrong we ran with parts of the Old Testament and parts of the New Testament, ignoring the ENTIRETY of both. First and foremost, love of God must be grounded in obedience to His physical laws through a way of life.

Although Herbert Armstrong restored the knowledge of the doctrines, he did not restore the lifestyle that God instituted. And today, THIS WAY OF LIFE IS THE BIGGEST HINDRANCE TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD, NOT DOCTRINE!

God’s Original Design at Creation

God placed Adam and Eve in a physical paradise called the Garden of Eden. It was perfect and good and had everything for their physical needs. God gave the original command to Adam to dress and keep the Garden and to replenish the earth with offspring. After the Fall, God pointed them in the right direction with physically corrective punishments. Although Adam was to still tend the Garden, it was now to be by the sweat of his brow.

Pitting man against nature and its menacing elements was the only way to ensure that man could work his way back to Paradise by coming directly under God. There would now be pressure with insects, with weather, and the uncertainty. Nature would now be bearing down on him and would be the way God could break the man. It would be through nature that God was going to teach man obedience–not by talking, writing, or doctrines. As man, connected to nature, would be more likely to obey because now God would either send rain as a blessing for obedience or withhold it as a punishment. When man is in touch with nature man learns obedience–or dies! God intended the physical to be a teacher leading to THE TEACHER. We have not–as God wanted–ruled over what He created; we have, instead, sought to overrule His creation and, thus, God Himself. What He had pronounced as “good” we say it’s not good enough; we believe we can find a better way.

Technology: A Revolt Against God’s Plan

Far from being our new Savior, technology only saves people from the consequences of their wrong ways and physical sins, but only for the time being. Miracles are supposed to come from God; but now we get miracles from our fake Savior science and technology. We have become more reckless and stupid, knowing that, if there is an accident, our medical Messiah will put “Humpty Dumpty” back together again. To say that technology harms you, causing cancer from pollutants, while TV encourages violence is self-evident. Technology is destroying us as it promises to save us. It is one of those things in the Bible that God hates. And, somewhere along the road, He will destroy it.

Advanced civilization–that’s what we have called our plan to change God’s plan. But it is really rebellion, just one revolution after another, each taking us further away from the way God intended us to live. We can’t stop this craving to make our existence easier, freer, greater. God wants us to sweat out our lives. Because we have disobeyed, life was to take its toll on us, extracting the necessary payment of pain. Sweat pain was sweet pain; it would have taught us how to live. But we would not have it. Science and technology have rescued us (supposedly) by creating inventions which made labor unnecessary. That, however, is just a shell game, for work is not saved, that is, not eliminated; it is only transferred. Physical exertion gets moved around to some other area. As someone once said, we become slaves to the machines, working for them in order to keep them running. But man was commanded to toil and sweat from working the soil. (In New Zealand on my homestead, I felt the weight on my shoulders. It was enough to send my mind into shock.)

And if man reached manly maturity, being able to provide food by the sweat of his brow, this would be a prelude to facing the ultimate inadequacy, namely, that despite his powers he was, after all, just man. After attaining the harmony of his body and mind working together as one in a united effort, what would remain for him to come to terms with would be his place in a world not under his control. He–the whole man–would be due to meet God.

Man was to find his human “worthiness” (but faulty, nonetheless) to discover his “animal” value! PRODUCTION was to be achieved (for the man, food; for the female, offspring) and it was to be of a quality to ensure success on the human plane.

AFTER!–AFTER being successfully productive, man was to realize that his worthiness was not–and could never be–anything of and by itself. While working as if it all depended on him–meaning, thereby, he had become valuable as a human being in himself–as a person to be reaching his potential–it was for him to see then that it all depended on God. Even if he were a Job he had not true value at all on his own. It was to be obvious that, as a creation, man’s worth belonged to God as to the source.

If a person believed God–really believed in the real God–he would discover his own unworthiness. He would know in his heart that as a hammer he doesn’t deserve credit for building, nor the hoe for planting. He, being only the tool made to be used by God, doesn’t get the recognition for “his” work. On being productive, man was only giving God, like the investor, his money’s worth, at the very least, with “interest,” because God expected the tool to be put to profitable use. It was in the INCREASE of the original value (1, 3, 5 talents given) that man was to receive God’s praise “Well done!”

For over fifty years Mr. Herbert Armstrong preached about the coming new world order. God is not against man being in a one world order, for His Kingdom on earth will be exactly that–one language, one socio-economic system, one lifestyle, one religion–but all are governed by His physical and spiritual laws. Anything else is a rebellion against God and will be wiped out, as man’s history has shown.

Statement of Purpose

Much more could be said about the evils of technology, from its health hazards to its ability to thwart man’s true development. So, one may ask: Why does God’s work today use technology?

Our purpose for using technology is as a means for a worldwide WARNING to bring others to an awareness of its inherent evil. We plan to take advantage of technology for only a short time, using technology to destroy technology, until nature has begun to be restored to its original state. That work is beginning now by God’s people choosing to make the decision to rid technology from their lives. To wait until one is forced when Jesus returns is to have waited too long, losing the opportunity to show faith.

Our chance to prove that we want God’s total way in our lives personally means to choose NOW, as an adult, desiring with our hearts, and demonstrating that truth in our bodies, so God’s will may be done in our lives today. The road will be hard and the beginning steps small. But together we can make the gigantic leaps needed to prepare ourselves and to prepare the way for the soon-coming Kingdom of God on earth. It’s time.

Notes 1991

Ready to discover the unexplored paths of life,
to commit to journey’s end … a pioneer

Willing to relocate anywhere, to face
hardships in a new land … a pilgrim

Able to produce skilled work, to create
unique masterpieces … a craftsman

Disciplined to obey authority, to serve
in His Majesty’s service … a soldier

On fire for one’s family, dedicated
to one’s community … a missionary

Highly motivated, resourceful,
responsive, open-minded … a student

Seeking redemption … a sinner

Written by Jules Dervaes 1998

So blinded were they by the light of truth that they cowered for year after year in the darkness, hoping that the light would go away. Only when safe opportunities presented themselves and they found it worth their while, did many come out to of the woodwork. Then, they did not begin to help the flock so much as they helped themselves to the flock, to the ripe plum, which was their monies.

These who are still feasting on the scattered, bewildered sheep do not realize that Mr. Tkach’s apostasy was God’s end-time test to discover who under him were the true servants and who were the hirelings. All the ministers listed here flunked as God’s servants and, unless they repent, they will to the end of their days be haunted by this, their dirty little secret.

How good and how pleasant for brethren to dwell
Together in unity, so David did tell
Like beautiful music or a breathtaking view
Like most precious ointment, like fresh morning dew
That descended on the mountains of Zion long before
God commanded a blessing of life, forever more
How good and how pleasant for brethren to be
Dwelling safely together in sweet harmony

Now Jesus was praying with fervent desire
That all who believed might be one
With voices united together we stand
At peace like the Father and Son

How good and how pleasant for brethren to dwell
Together in unity, so David did tell
Like beautiful music or a breathtaking view
Like most precious ointment, like fresh morning dew

One body, one spirit, one Lord and one faith
One God and one Father of all
One baptism into the Family of God
One hope, even as we are called

How good and how pleasant for brethren to dwell
Together in unity, so David did tell
Like beautiful music or a breathtaking view
Like most precious ointment, like fresh morning dew
That descended on the mountains of Zion long before
God commanded a blessing of life, forever more
How good and how pleasant for brethren to be
Dwelling safely together in sweet harmony
Dwelling safely together in sweet harmony

Today, as dwellers in DISUNITY, we DISHONOR
Herbert W. Armstrong, his life and his vision.

Here are some questions that need answers now. How could a formerly powerful, previously unified church, which once did a great worldwide work, today disintegrate into provincial, “spin off” churches? The history of the Last Era shows that, at one time, Christ DID have a lot of unified help in ONE church capable of doing a worldwide work; but, where is it NOW? Does unity really matter? If unified, then does size matter? Is unity PRE- or POST- millennium? Upon Christ’s return which one of those competing churches will HE chose as His OWN? Will Christ have spent 2000 years working with His vineyard, only upon His return to find it parceled out into subdivided, small plots? Is there anything wrong with dissenting groups forming their own church? So, what is really wrong with all these split “true” church organizations doing a “good” work of spreading the Gospel? What great work can a multiple of small splinter groups do, cordoning off their own “neck of the woods”? Can a split be as strong as ONE group? We each believe that God is on OUR side; but dare we ask God lately if we are on HIS side?

No one believes that we are sinning, breaking God’s laws, because we still are keeping the Sabbath, Holy Days, etc. We believe that God won’t condemn anyone who loves Him. Besides, all the splinter churches think they are basically preaching the same thing. The new emphasis has now become that it is our personal relationship with God that counts–”It is between me and God,” and God’s spirit is available to all. And just like the mistake we made before, when Joseph Tkach Sr. was changing Mr. Herbert Armstrong’s doctrines, we are now still waiting for God to handle things. “It is not OUR job,” we think. Only this time, we are waiting for God to bring us all back together sometime in the future, meaning that Christ will fix the problem of disunity. Erroneous rationalizations allow all the split churches to go on believing that God is approving of their actions, because, if they knew they were going against God, they would not do it. They each trick themselves into thinking that what they are doing is OK because Christ will come soon and fix this; so they go about doing the only thing they know how, thus repeating the same old mistakes. They are just the Worldwide Church of God continued.

It is important to acknowledge the primary message Christ brought to His people the first time. Note that in the parable of the vineyard (Luke 20:9-18) there is only ONE vineyard to tend! Christ also brought to Good News of a coming Kingdom of God. Did Christ say that the Kingdom was inside you, only between Him and you, a relationship merely “one on one” with God? No. Christ preached the Kingdom of God–a real PHYSICAL place, here on earth–which His followers wanted to set up immediately as they expected it there and then. If we think of the Kingdom in physical terms, like forming a team, starting a business, or a nation, we then can ask how does a physical work of that nature get accomplished? First, and obviously, you would need lots of helping hands–many people–and a physical place for them to operate.

If you ask any of the splits what kind of great work they are prepared to do in the immediate future–tomorrow!–or spell out in concrete terms what they see ahead, how would they answer? Would they see a little more magazines in doctors’ offices, a few more sermon tapes sent out, a new summer camp site, etc? What is the real, PHYSICAL future of the PCG, LCG, UCG, et al?

We need to acquire some business sense from the corporate world. Businesses today are looking down the road into the future and seeing the necessary changes and challenges ahead, approaching fast around the corner. For example, the individual companies of Sprint, AT&T, Media One, World Com, etc., see the technological advancements coming and know that the “Box,” a future visionary equipment, is just on the horizon. But, realistically, they also know that they can’t go it alone to stay ahead. That would spell bankruptcy and doom because they each know that they don’t have the resources, expertise, or finances to adjust to the making of “the Box.”

So, what is their only solution? These companies merge with other businesses, joining forces and pooling their efforts to make this “Box” a reality. They don’t just sit, wait, and watch, content to be announcing that the “Box” is coming, because they know that if they hesitate and not prepare themselves, they will be left behind in the dust. The corporate world knows, what the splinter church organizations are too proud to admit, that they have to be bigger to accomplish a more important work. They know instinctively what to do to maintain the edge, stay innovative, and not fall by the wayside. Thus, they put us to shame.

Today, businesses are looking for partners to face the future as they perceive it. Instead of using their energy against one another, they join forces. Any business, nation, or team that is going to accomplish a goal needs to be united. The business world sees the “Box” of the future; God’s people should see the Second Coming. The church(es) should have ONE vision of the future since the Second Coming is just around the corner, requiring a far greater work than any that face earthly businesses today.

If you look at recent world history, even the Russians joined the United States, its ideological rival, to beat Hitler and Germany. They joined forces and became united in purpose because they saw a greater cause which would benefit them both. Another
example of this can be seen in the movie BRAVEHEART. It was only after the Scottish clans joined together (rather than fighting each other) that they could accomplish great victories against England, their oppressor. We, today, could learn vital lessons from many such examples. It is easy to see that the success of any cause, any nation, any organization, or any team which has accomplished greatness is against divisions and splits. A small split organization can’t have enough resources for a superior worldwide work.

So, why, then, are the WCG daughter-churches doing exactly the opposite for success? We wait and wait some more; we continue to split and split some more. Are we really anti-success, having no ONE vision of our future? Does this make any sense, especially now, at this critical time?

Right now we need to come together for ONE cooperative work, preparing everyone for the coming of Christ. We need to “merge,” so, together, we can do the work that must be done now and be done quickly. Now is a critical time in history BEFORE Christ comes back. We are NOT doing the work that is required of us, that has to be done, because the truth is we do not believe there is a PHYSICAL WORK that needs to be done!!! Instead, Christ’s vineyard is continually splitting into smaller pieces. Ask yourself why would Christ come back to an insignificant and ineffective church(es)? We should be trying to restore the vineyard back to its original state. Why are we just doing the opposite? Are we finding too much comfort and ease in our watch-and-pray attitude? Can just passively watching the latest news events solve this critical problem? What do YOU honestly think? This is indicative of NO VISION. “Where there is no vision the people perish” Prov. 29:18.

Are we just waiting around to let Christ fix this problem? We think we can’t do anything about it anyway, yet shouldn’t we be held responsible for our own actions? We are allowing this situation to go on.

What plans or purpose do these split organizations have? They don’t have a strategic plan when one is desperately needed at this time. No one small group is capable of doing a worldwide work successfully. We must get rid of pride to truly unite to accomplish a great work and improve our chances for success! The work ahead is a physical work to establish a physical kingdom here on earth. Without this cooperative effort we have absolutely no chance!

What is the “sin” in the split-churches today? Why can’t they just “be”? The sin is in choosing man’s way of complacency, selfishness, greed, and pride. It’s the sin of abandoning the ONE group in the first place instead of standing up. It’s the sin of failing to retain our commitment to stay with the original one, being faithful. There was another way to solve the problem in the WCG; and splitting up into many wasn’t the solution. Furthermore, the sin is the lack of love, of hope, of faith, and not being ONE with Christ, by doing His physical work. Just ask yourself: What is God’s goal? Is Christ in the many? Isn’t His goal for everyone to be united together in the Kingdom? We believe that Christ should set up the Kingdom first and, then, we’ll be united. But, that is NOT faith and without faith it is impossible to please God. We, God’s people, are supposed to UNITED, in faith, BEFORE Christ returns, doing His work, preparing the way! We should, at this time, take Mr. Armstrong’s advice and work and act as if it ALL depends on US and pray and trust as if it all depends on God.

Lastly, do we members, remember Zion? Do YOU remember what was? What we once had? Now that we are here in Babylon, do we sing Zion’s song? Or have we found a new, comfortable life? Is the only difference that we now fellowship in a smaller group? Obviously, we are not hurting or suffering. We feel that we are not missing anything. We each have OUR magazines, OUR radio broadcasts, OUR summer camps and OUR Feast sites. There is no need to go back to Jerusalem (it’s in ruins anyway!). We should remember Bible history: When the call came to ancient Judah to return to Jerusalem to do a great, but difficult work, not many took up the call to return and REBUILD their original home. Some even refused, having chosen to stay in Babylon instead of facing the uncertain future and the hard work needed to repair and rebuild Jerusalem back to where it once was. The ones that choose to stay had gone too far…

Have YOU wept for Jerusalem when you remembered her? Where are our strong, emotional ties? Only the few who cared to remember, and had courage, faith, and humility returned to Jerusalem. Will history repeat itself? The call is NOW!!! WHO WILL DO THIS WORK?

Notes 1998