Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:
Another full week in the Five Cities region of California.
Many emails, literature issues, and issues in various countries to try to deal with.
We had a delay in getting the October-December edition of the Bible News Prophecy magazine translated into Kiswahili, but did receive it this past Sunday. So, working to get it into a magazine format was one of the literature projects I was personally involved with.
Canadian Registration
Five weeks after we sent in the application to register the Continuing Church of God in Canada as a charity, we received a letter back from Revenue Canada that says that they will eventually look at the application. And while we had hoped to receive formal approval, at least it was not rejected from the start as incomplete. We will see how long this process will take. The purpose of this registration is to give income tax deductibility related to donations given by Canadians.
We currently have such equivalent registration in the USA via the State of California and New Zealand. We also have a type of registration we have applied for in Kenya.
Radio
Because of the Feast of Tabernacles and my schedule, I was not able to be a radio guest in October.
At this instant, I am scheduled to be on the radio next Tuesday, November 4, 2014 at 1505 EDT/1205 PDT. The program is called the ‘Nutri-Medical Report’ and prophetic and biblical matters are expected to be discussed. This is broadcast over the Genesis Communications Network, which reaches millions. The host said he is also an ABC affiliate and the show is broadcast on the DISH Network in Europe. He has stated that DISH network in Europe has something like 1100 radio channels and covers Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, including Russia. There are even listeners in Perth, Australia.
Being a radio guest allows us to reach a lot of people at virtually no cost. Radio complements our presence on the internet and often radio programs will link back to our articles and videos, as this particular one sometimes does. This allows us to reach people we otherwise would not be able to reach.
CCOG Has a New Internet Radio Presence!
There is some fantastic news to report.
Some of those over in New Zealand have been working to get the Bible News Prophecy channel videos broadcast over the radio. This has now officially begun as I make this post. So, that is giving us some radio impact for October. Here is a link: online radio station http://biblenewsprophecy.caster.fm/
This channel has a direct stream link (it can be streamed to the popular Tune-In where people can listen to all types of radio stations and elsewhere, it also has a mobile app), 21 podcasts recordings (records our broadcasts and people can listen to it when the Radio is off air), also gives a the mobile url radio player. More details are expected to be provided in a future letter.
I plan to announce this new radio presence at COGwriter.com and elsewhere next month.
Sermons
It took a tremendous amount of time to put together the paper that became the basis for this week’s sermon. While that may not be obvious from the delivery of the sermon, it took a long time to put this together.
The sermon that I expect to give next Sabbath has also taken a lot of time to start to put together. While it is intended to be a stand alone sermon, it is also one part of what could be considered to be a two part sermon.
Sermonettes
We had more views of our sermons and sermonettes than usual this month. Part of the reason is that those, whether with us or more distant, who did not attend a regular Feast of Tabernacles site watched more sermon and sermonette videos.
The other reason seems to be that, once again, we are benefiting from the promotions by others. A sermonette video that I did last month, titled Project Prophecy: Economic Collapse Starting in 2015?, for example, has already had well over 7000 views. This seems to be because the subject (“Project Prophecy”) is something that someone else is paying for a lot of internet advertising for, and we are benefiting from that spending.
The final phase of the work will be done by God’s Spirit (Zechariah 4:6), but it likely will involve promotion by various media sources. Sometimes, we see a foretaste of that now.
World News Events
The USA had some unsettling events. A rocket NASA attempted to launch exploded, while a Russian rocket launched successfully (see NASA rocket explodes, followed by proper launch of Russian rocket). America’s pride is always negatively impacted by space disasters (cf. Leviticus 26:18-19), and this is another one. The good news is that there were no reported injuries from the rocket explosion.
The Attorney General of the US announced that 32 states now have accepted some form of homosexual marriage (see Marriage in USA: 32 states defiled, 18 remaining?). The Bible warns that homosexuality defiles a land (Leviticus 18:22-29), and this is happening to the USA and other lands in the world, especially the Anglo-Saxon descended ones in the past couple of years.
There remain issues with Ebola around the world. In the USA, the Associated Press reported that the health care system in the USA is not prepared for a massive outbreak (see AP: USA Health Care System NOT Prepared for Ebola; Jeb Bush calls Barack Obama’s handling incompetent). The USA is subject to pestilences and will be hit with at least one overwhelming one in the future (cf. Matthew 24:4-8).
Egypt is having problems with the terrorist group Hamas. So much so, Egypt wants to build a wall like Israel to try to contain Hamas (see Egypt considering building a wall to keep out Hamas).
Tensions have risen in the Middle East after a Palestinian was killed by Israeli authorities. Sweden today announced that it will recognize Palestine as an independent state, in opposition to the view of Israel (see Sweden recognizes Palestine as State; Abbas says Israeli actions are a ‘declaration of war’). At some point, Israel will lose enough international support that it will agree to some type of peace deal in the region (see also The ‘Peace Deal’ of Daniel 9:27).
Ukraine had an election and voted for politicians interested in being part of the European Union (see Western Ukraine votes to move towards European Union; shelling outside of Donetsk). This has displeased Russia and parts of eastern Ukraine. Prior to that election, Russia’s President Putin complained about the West’s hypocrisy and stated that a bear (meaning Russia) does not give up what it gets (meaning Crimea) (see Russia’s Putin slams West for hypocrisy related to Crimea and states a bear does not give up what it has).
Next week, an election is scheduled for eastern Ukraine, where parts of that region may well vote to separate from Ukraine and try to become part of Russia. The West, while recognizing the vote in the rest of Ukraine to become more western, has already declared it will not accept the vote of those in the east if they choose to leave Ukraine and/or become part of Russia. The Bible shows that the European power will expand to the south and east (Daniel 8:9-12), but it also shows that the “kings of the Medes” will get together and one day go against the end time European daughter of Babylon (Jeremiah 51:11-33). News events in the past week are supportive of both prophecies.
Suggested Sabbath Service
Here is our suggested format for Sabbath services this week:
- 2-3 hymns (our songbook, The Bible Hymnal, contains the materials from the 1974 Bible Hymnal from the old WCG with new covers, plus ten additional hymns; there is also some Choral Accompaniment online).
- Opening prayer.
- Sermonette, which for most who receive this emailed-letter will be a recorded one: Six Financial Steps Leading to 666? A some related written items include: Could Apple Pay be a step towards 666? and Sweden becoming cashless? A prelude to 666? and Europe eliminating remaining ‘bank secrecy’ as it gets closer to Revelation 13:16-18. Other sermonettes are also available at the Bible News Prophecy channel.
- Announcements (if any; though for many it will be this letter) and one hymn.
- Sermon, which for most who receive this emailed-letter will be a recorded one. The one suggested for this week is: Mystery of Civilization and How it Will End. There is a related written article titled: The Mystery of Civilization. Other sermons are also available at the ContinuingCOG channel.
- Final hymn.
- Closing prayer.
Note: If you have a slow internet connection, you can watch these by starting the video, then below it (and towards the right) look for an outline of a gear–if you click on that, it will allow the YouTube video to be played with lower video quality, but at least it will not stop often–you can select a quality as low as 144p.
If your internet connection is still too slow (as my home one is) and/or you prefer audio messages to audio-visuals ones, go to the YouTube link for the message, click on SHOW MORE related to the description. You will then see something that says, “Download MP3.” Below that is a link to an MP3 file. Most computers (and even some cellular telephones) will allow MP3 files to be downloaded and played. This is an option we have made available (but we are also looking into ways to improve that as well)–and, of course, we have written article options that we list each week.
Concluding Comments
The Apostle Paul wrote:
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:11-16)
Three points to mention related to that: 1) the true Church should help be able to identify true and false doctrine 2) Christians are to grow up in all things (so have a lot to learn in many areas), and 3) teaching the truth in love is what the Church should be about.
Sincerely,
Bob Thiel, Pastor and Overseer
Continuing Church of God