21. TEN COMMANDMENTS
The Ten Commandments, as revealed by God, codified by Moses, and ratified and magnified by Christ, are the perfect expression of God’s love. They are the foundation of all biblical teaching, showing man how to express love toward God and fellowman, and are consequently the focal point of Christian life.

Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5, Matthew 5:17–19
Romans 13:10, 1 Corinthians 7:19
Revelation 12:17, 22:14

22. DESTINY OF MAN
Man’s awesome destiny is revealed in the very first chapter of Genesis. Unlike the animals, man was made in the image and after the likeness of God. God created all creatures to reproduce after their kind, but when He made man He began His plan of reproducing Himself after His kind. But in this initial phase of God’s plan, man was made from red mud, not from spirit, but with the potential of building the right character so that he could eventually be changed at the resurrection into spirit as a son of God, just as God’s Son Jesus Christ has been changed back to spirit to live eternally in the family of God.

Genesis 1:26–28, John 17:1–5, 1 Corinthians 15:50–54
1 Thessalonians 4:13–17, Romans 8:18–23
I Corinthians 15:12–23

23. SABBATH
The seventh-day Sabbath is to be taught and kept holy in accordance with the biblical instruction. Instituted at creation, reaffirmed to Israel as a part of the covenant at Sinai, and taught by Jesus Christ, who is the Messenger of the New Covenant, the observance of the Sabbath is basic to a Christian’s relationship with God.

Genesis 2:2–3, Exodus 16, 20:8–11, 31:12–17
Mark 2:27–28, Luke 4:16

24. ANNUAL HOLY DAYS
The annual holy days were ordained by God, kept by the ancient Israelites, and continued by the early New Testament Christians. These seven annual “appointed feasts” picture God’s plan of salvation for man.

Leviticus 23, Zechariah 14:16, John 7:8–10
Acts 2:1, 12:3, 20:6, 16, 27:9, 1 Corinthians 5:8, 16:8

25. HEBREW CALENDAR
The Church of God uses the Hebrew calendar to establish God’s holy days. The book, The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, by Arthur Spier, lists all the holy days of the Jewish calendar from 1899 to 2100 A.D., and thoroughly explains all the rules the Church has consistently used for these many years. The New Testament affirms that the Jews were entrusted with the “oracles of God.” We believe that those oracles included not only the Old Testament Scriptures, but the maintenance of the calendar given by God, with its rules and regulations. This calendar is designed to deal with the lunar-solar nature of the heavens and God’s holy days, and has been in existence since early Old Testament times. It seems logical that calculations developed as a reliable standard to be used when the new moon could not be observed. A special committee of the Sanhedrin, with its president as chairman, had the mandate to regulate and balance the solar with the lunar years. This calendar council calculated the beginning of the seasons on the basis of astronomical figures, which had been handed down as a tradition of old. In the fourth century, when oppression and persecution threatened the continued existence of the Sanhedrin, the patriarch Hillel II took an extraordinary step to preserve the unity of Israel by making public the system of calendar calculation. Hillel II formally sanctified all months in advance, and intercalated all future leap years until such time as a new, recognized Sanhedrin would be established.

Romans 3:1–2