Letter to the Brethren: December 18, 2025

Posted on Posted in Letters to the Brethren

Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings from the Five Cities region of California.

We faced some malware slowing on the websites again and are looking at ways to reduce the effectiveness of these types of attacks.

On other matters, we have been slowly updating our literature to switch to our new printer, and finished three books for that so far this month.

Online Services from Texas, Canada, Northern Ireland, and New Zealand

ONLINE CHURCH SERVICES

Last week, I mentioned that we have four online group services.

But then I messed up when I recopied something. Specifically, I listed the wrong times for the service hosted by Jaison Curtis, plus had incomplete information for the South Pacific.

Here are the times for zones in the UK, USA, and Canada for the services hosted by Jaison Curtis:

5 pm UK GMT

9 am Pacific

10 am Mountain

11 am Central

12 pm Eastern

My apologies for that error.

And at risk of repeat, Dawn Parr and Chad Brantone host a service each Sabbath at 10:00 am Central Time in the USA using TEAMS. Here are times in zones in the USA and Canada when this begins:

8 am PT

9 am MT

10 am CT

11am ET

12 pm AT

Here, again, are times in zones in the USA and Canada for the one hosted by Nadija Lafontaine, which uses ZOOM, but is related to the one hosted by Dawn Parr and Chad Brantone:

12 pm PT

1 pm MT

2 pm CT

3 pm ET

4 pm AT

The online services in the South Pacific are hosted by Richie White, Shirley Gestro, and John Shackleton. They mainly serve brethren in Australia and New Zealand–though people in other lands may also participate. Here are the times:
Australia and New Zealand
11:30am NZT (Daylight Savings) / 8:30am Queensland, Australia
10:30am NZT (Non-Daylight Savings) / 8:30am Queensland, Australia
Australian service facilitated by John Shackleton, with Ritchie facilitating when necessary.

New Zealand Service
1:30pm NZT (All year round).
NZ service facilitated by Ritchie.

If you wish to join any of those online services, please send me an email: cogwriter@aol.com

Bible News Prophecy Magazine

Although we are still being affected by Amazon Kindle’s bad decision to stop carrying or producing our literature, one small benefit looks to be more timely printing by our new supplier.

Therefore, the latest magazine from the Continuing Church of God is now available–and was already shipped to subscribers around the world.

In this issue:

2 From the Editor: 26 Things to Watch in 2026 Yes, there are many things to watch out for
of prophetic interest.

5 Meditation and the Hebrew Scriptures: What does the Old Testament teach about
meditation?

14 Is the Church Responsible? This is a 61-year-old article by the late Selmer L Hegvold asking
who is responsible for your spiritual growth.

16 Study the Bible Course, Lesson 26b: The New Testament teaches baptism is needed for
Christians — but what about for infants?

28 Continuing Church of God Radio Log Listen to the Bible News Prophecy radio broadcast
around the world.

29 Questions and Answers: Since true Christians are not militaristic, how can one be a Christian
soldier?

Back Cover: Internet and Radio This shows where written as well as audio-visual messages from the Continuing Church of God can be found.

It is also online. Here is a link: Bible News Prophecy magazine: January – March 2026.

Year-End Income Tax Matters–Repeat Announcement

(Public Domain Images)

We are getting close to the end of the Roman calendar year. Those who live in the United States, in order to have their contributions eligible for tax deduction for calendar year 2025, need to send electronic or regular mail donations no later than December 31, 2025. For those who physically mail donations, they legally must be postmarked by December 31, 2025 to be eligible for deductibility for 2025.

All contributions received via US mail for residents of the United States are to be processed for the tax year based upon the postmarked date on the envelopes.

For contributions received via PayPal, we use the date that PayPal gives us.

The PayPal donation link for the USA is at: https://www.ccog.org/donations/

In Canada the rules may be slightly different for mailed and other contributions, so if you want the tax deduction for calendar year 2025, they likely also need to be made before the end of the calendar year to the CCOG office in Canada.

(In New Zealand, they use a March 31st date to end their tax year.)

Suggested Sabbath Services

Here is a suggested Sabbath day service for our scattered brethren and other interested people for the Last Great Day Sabbath service:

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. Some people have found that if their internet connections are not fast enough, that they can simply listen to the messages that are found at the Bible News Prophecy online radio channel.

IN CASE YOU DO NOT RECEIVE A ‘LETTER TO THE BRETHREN’ FOR ANY WEEK, REMEMBER THAT THERE ARE MANY SERMON MESSAGES ON THE ContinuingCOG channel AND MANY SERMONETTE MESSAGES ON THE Bible News Prophecy channel. There are also some messages at the CCOGAfrica channel. There are also messages in the Spanish language at the CDLIDDSermones channel.

World News Items

Terror hit Bondi Beach in Australia and Rhode Island in the USA (see Jews murdered in Australia at Hanukkah festival). There is a lot of anti-semitism in the world as Jews were the target in Australia (see ZH: Hanukkah Security Ramped Up Across West; ‘First they came for the Socialists … Then they came for the Jews’)–the Rhode Island terrorist may have had anti-semitic motives, but that is not officially clear yet. There were also a couple of attempted terror attacks in Europe that were thwarted (one in Germany and one in Poland). The Bible warns that there will “be terror within” (Deuteronomy 32:25), and these acts of terror appear to have been from residents of the affected countries. More terrorism is coming.

In what could be called ‘666’ news, more are seeing signs of Orwellian steps being taken by governments (see BI: ‘Has Orwell’s 1984 Become Reality?’). Australia took another step towards communication control as its new ‘age verification’ rules are now in effect (Australia’s ‘age verification,’ another step towards governmental surveillance of the internet? EU plan for 2026). And Canada and the European Union are looking at coordinating digital identification (see European Union and Canada coordinating digital identification scheme?). The ‘666’ prophecy of Revelation 13:15-18 includes surveillance to a scale that modern technology is able to assist, and willing governments are taking steps that will ease the implementation of those controls.

Germany is looking to increase its military spending, at the same time that more are concerned that US President Donald Trump would like to break up the European Union (which wants to expand and not break up, see Germany increasing military spending–does Donald Trump want to break up the European Union?). The Trump Administration’s new National Security Strategy is pointing to changes in the NATO alliance. There is now legislation proposed to pull the USA out of NATO (see Proposal for USA to leave NATO after Europe told it should take much of it over in 2027). The recommended sermonette for this Sabbath is related to that: USA to leave NATO?

Whether or not the USA chooses to leave NATO, the USA is looking at giving the Europeans even more control over NATO in Europe–that is likely to be a decision that the USA will regret, consistent with biblical prophecies such as Daniel 11:39 and Isaiah 10:5-11.

Concluding Comments

Jesus said the following:

37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

45 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. 47 Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. 48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, 51 and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:37-51)

Brethren, we should always be ready.

We should not wait and delay changes that we need to make in our spiritual life.

Believe Jesus!

Sincerely,

Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer