All things created by God are attracted to each other by a force. This force is called “gravity.” There exists an attractive force between people and any two objects—for example, between a pencil and an eraser on the desk and between a book and a computer—even though we cannot feel the force because it is so weak. Newton, one of the greatest scientists, discovered the “law of gravitation”; according to the law of gravitation, the force of gravity between two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Newton understood just a little bit of the principles made by God, but God already revealed those principles of physics when He created all things. If a man discovers only one of the principles made by God, he becomes a great scientist. Our God revealed all those scientific principles in the universe millions and billions of years ago. How great our God is!

As the distance between two objects decreases, the force of attraction between them increases. Likewise, as the distance between God and us decreases, we will experience more spiritual power of the Holy Spirit working in us. Through the providence of God the Creator, let us remind ourselves again of why God has given us the Passover, and always stay with God as the people of Zion.


Come near to God

The force of gravity surely exists even though we humans cannot see or feel it. Since there is gravity, the earth rotates around the sun and the moon at a regular rate, and we can also stand on the ground because the earth’s gravity pulls us down.

The gravitational force between two objects becomes stronger as they are brought closer together, and it becomes weaker as they get farther apart. It is the same in the spiritual world. According to the law of gravitation, people are to be attracted to the one whom they are closer to—to God if they are closer to God and to Satan if they are closer to Satan. Satan tries to lead us to hell by drawing us to himself, but God wants to lead us, His children, to the eternal kingdom of heaven. That is why God cannot let us remain far away from Him. So, the Bible teaches us to draw near to God.

Ps 73:28 But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.

Ps 73:27 Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

The Bible says that those who are close to God will be blessed, but that those who are far from God will perish. We must draw near to God. Drawing near to God means communicating with God and being attracted to the invisible strong power of the Holy Spirit. The closer we are to God, the stronger our spiritual power becomes, so that we can resist Satan absolutely no matter what temptation he puts in front of us.

To pull people to his side, Satan makes the world more wicked and lustful and causes confusion in their sense of values. Satan blocks our way to God, and continuously sets temptations before us to draw us closer to him. God said about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “When you eat of it you will surely die.” However, Satan tempted human beings to think that it was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom.

If people obey God’s words, they can come close to God, drawn into God’s gravitational force. However, when they listen to Satan’s words, they become far away from God, so they cannot help but be drawn to Satan. So, God has given us His law, and Satan has changed God’s set times and laws and has devised his own laws that break the order of the universe.

God wants to be with us always, to the very end of the age (Mt 28:20). We, too, should draw near to God. In order to be close to God, we need to keep God’s word close to us. Our Father has also told us to read the Bible frequently if we want to see God often. By studying God’s word every day, we should try to find out what God’s will is and which way we have to go.

Isa 58:1-2 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.”

Zep 3:1-4 Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled! She obeys no one, she accepts no correction. She does not trust in the LORD, she does not draw near to her God. Her officials are roaring lions, her rulers are evening wolves, who leave nothing for the morning. Her prophets are arrogant; they are treacherous men. Her priests profane the sanctuary and do violence to the law.

The Bible states that the city which does not draw near to God is the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled. God teaches us that an individual or an organization that does not obey God’s instruction or accept correction from God and does not draw near to God is spiritually rebellious and defiled.

If we draw near to God, we can feel the power of God strongly, but if we stay away from God, it weakens the power of the Holy Spirit within us, so we cannot feel God or realize God’s word. When we come close to God, we are able to obey everything God has taught us.


Be closer to God as the kingdom of heaven is drawing near

In the case of Ruth who set a good example of filial piety, she never left her mother-in-law, Naomi. “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your God will be my God”—this was her firm resolution (Ru 1:16-17). She followed her mother in-law and served her very devotedly, so that she was blessed by God and received the honor of having her name recorded in the genealogy of Israel, even though she was a foreign Moabite woman.

This kind of honor and blessing is given to us if we always draw near to God and follow Him. God’s people who are redeemed from the earth follow God wherever He goes; they never turn away from God (Rev 14:4).

Mk 1:15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”

As Jesus said, we need to draw closer to God because the kingdom of God is near. What if we stay away from God, while God comes close to us? The distance between God and us will not be shortened. The closer we come to God, the stronger the force of attraction between God and us becomes.

Jas 4:5-10 . . . Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded . . . Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

The Bible tells us to resist the devil and to come near to God. Obeying God’s words and instructions and following God wherever He leads us—this is the way to stay close to God. As the kingdom of God is near, we should repent and draw closer to God through the gospel day by day in our life of faith.


The Passover, a covenant that enables us to be closest to God

In order for us to keep close to God, how much distance should be between God and us? The distance between two objects is an important factor that determines the force of gravity. So, when we are closest to God, we can receive the power of the Holy Spirit to the fullest extent. God has taught us how to draw closest to Him.

Jn 6:53-57 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.”

When God came to this earth, He said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” If God remains in us and we remain in Him, the distance between God and us becomes zero, so we can maximize our spiritual strength. Being closest to God is the way to reach the highest point of spiritual gravity. Let us find out what covenant God has chosen to reveal this principle.

Mt 26:17-19, 26-28 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” He replied, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’ ” So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover . . . While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Jesus told His disciples to prepare the Passover, and at the Passover Supper He let them eat bread and drink wine, saying, “This [bread] is my body . . . This [wine] is my blood . . .” After clarifying the meaning of the Passover bread and wine, Jesus personally set an example of celebrating the Passover and taught us to keep it; when we have Christ’s holy body and precious blood in us, God remains in us and we remain in Him. The truth that enables us to be closest to God is the Passover—the law of the new covenant.

Lk 22:7-15 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” . . . They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover. When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I sufer.”

Jesus eagerly desired to eat this Passover. It was because He wanted His loving children to come closest to God so that they would receive eternal life and have the strongest spiritual power.

The devil our enemy tries to pull us into hell. So, he uses all kinds of tricks and schemes to abolish the Passover. The Church of Rome, which aligned herself with the Roman government and became secularized, held three meetings to discuss the abolition of the Passover from the mid-second century to the fourth century. When the first council was held, there was a strong opposition. After a few decades, the second council was convened, and there was still a strong opposition. At the Council of Nicaea held in 325 A.D., however, the Passover was finally abolished by the authority of the Roman emperor, and the council decided in favor of celebrating the resurrection on the first Sunday after the full moon. From that time until now, the Passover has not been observed in any of the churches around the world, old and new.


Put on the full armor of God

However, God wanted to have the closest relationship with us. So, God established a great feast called the Passover, and has restored it in these last days. The Passover contains this promise: By inheriting the flesh and blood of God, we remain in God, and God in us. So, the Passover is the truth that brings us closest to God. When we keep the Passover, we can experience the maximum power of the Holy Spirit and God is closest to us, walking right beside us.

Eph 6:10-20 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests . . .

In order to win the battle against the spiritual forces of evil and to stand confidently before the throne of God as “those who overcome” on that day, we need to be strong in God’s mighty power. So, the Bible tells us to put on the full armor of God. If we put on the full armor, the armor is very close to our body. Our spiritual appearance will be like that when we are nearest to God through the Passover, the truth of the new covenant.

The Bible tells us to take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, so that we can stand firm against Satan. We must not forget God’s word even for a moment but keep it in our hearts all the time. The devil will try to tempt us, God’s children, by every means possible, in order to ultimately draw us to his side. Satan uses people’s weaknesses as his tools to tempt them—those who are attached to worldly wealth with material things, those who have a strong desire for worldly power with authority in this world, those who are more likely to become attracted to people of the other gender with those people, those who have much desire for learning with that kind of thing.

Isa 59:1-2 Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

Our iniquities have separated us from our God. This means that our iniquities have distanced us from our God. Satan tries to separate us from God by tempting us to sin. Let us find out how sin attacks us—through what it infiltrates our hearts.

1 Jn 3:2-4 . . . Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.

Satan has been devising crafty schemes to change God’s set times and laws and to tempt us to commit lawlessness, so that he can draw us away from God. He stirs up circumstances to prevent us from keeping the Sabbath and the Passover and to ultimately separate us from God. When we view things in the light of God’s commandments, we can see that so many people today, who claim to believe in God, have been alienated from God.

God is closest to us through the Passover of the new covenant and walks with us through it, and saves those who follow Him wherever He leads them. Those who keep God’s commandments belong to God, and those who turn away from God’s commandments belong to the devil (1 Jn 2:3-6; 5:19).

The feast of God shortens the distance between God and us. The closer we draw to God, the stronger we can feel the power of the Holy Spirit working in us. However, Satan always puts so many obstacles in our life to prevent us from being close to God. We must not give in to any of Satan’s temptations but draw nearer to God. God has become one with us, so that we may not fall away from Him. It is the Passover of the new covenant that God has given us to hold our hands and to be with us always by shortening the distance between God and us. Let us not forget this gracious feast, and lead all our family, relatives, friends, neighbors and all other acquaintances into salvation, so that we can go back to heaven together hand in hand.