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Letter to the Brethren: April 26, 2018

Letter to the Brethren: April 26, 2018

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Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings again from Grover Beach, California.

We hope and pray that you all have been having a spiritually profitable week.

We have been dealing with matters related to Matthew 24:14, Galatians 6:10, and Matthew 28:19-20 around the world.

Malawi

Radson Mulozowa sent the following from Malawi:

Greetings Pastor Bob.
Thanks for the magazines which will help the work and the visit of pastor Evans .the attached is the picture’s for today’s leaders meeting.  I will give you more reports.
Best Regards,
Radson Mulozowa

Evangelist Evans Ochieng sent the following report from Malawi:

Pastor Dr Bob
Greetings from Malawi.
I arrived Malawi safe and the trip was good. the weather was good.
On Friday I had leaders meeting . The meeting was very good. I met with all leaders from Malawi and Mozambique, I touched major issues concerning the work in Continuing Church of God and about the congregational leadership, satanic deception and his ministry, counterfeit Christians and the shepherding of God’s people.
The brethren were very keen to understand every topic and good notes were taken.
On Sabbath we kept Sabbath in Migowi. I wanted to hear from the leaders what they are teaching so I gave one of them to give sermon late. I want to tell you that the work in Malawi moving on well.
Today I visited 3 congregations in Malawi Namely. Ngunda with 24 members, Funuzi with 95 members and Namangale with 18 members. I want also to inform you that Hosea is back in CCOG. We discussed with him yesterday night for more that 2 hours. He said that nowhere he can get the truth which is in CCOG {Continuing Church of God}
The problem I find here pastor is that, these people are rich in truth but very poor. I visited 3 homes when I was going round. I found no chair, no mattress, and very little food. When we reach in these homes, the chair that they could give me to sit on, is the mat which they sleep on. I will send you the pictures. It was very sad and painful. But I was very happy in one way that they are rich in faith.
I will go to Mozambique tomorrow early in the morning to visit all the congregations there, And I will give you the report when I am back in Malawi. I am here till Wednesday … I want visit every congregation.
Evans

There is tremendous poverty in Malawi and it is one of the world’s poorest nations. We sent funds to aid the brethren there twice this month (cf. Galatians 6:10; James 2:15-18).

Feast of Tabernacles Reminder

The Feast of Tabernacles (including the Last Great Day) will be here relatively soon: starting the evening of September 23rd until sunset October 1st in 2018.

As mentioned last week, the USA sites are Alexandria, Virginia and Wichita, Kansas.

We now have signed agreements for both of the two Feast of Tabernacles’ sites in the USA for 2018.

They are the Marriott Courtyard Alexandria Old Town/Southwest, located at 2700 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, VA  22314-4553, (703) 329-2323 and the Wichita Public Library, Evergreen Branch, 2601 N Arkansas, Wichita, Kansas.

Marriott Courtyard Alexandria Old Town/Southwest

Wichita Evergreen Library

Since the USA sites are ‘finalized,’ please email me to tell me which of those sites you plan to attend. Some of you have already done so, but others have not yet.

Please try to let me know as soon as you can.

My email remains cogwriter@aol.com

Information on our Fall festival sites around the world is in the article: Feast of Tabernacles’ Sites for 2018.

World News Items

The specter of 90% of the population of the USA being nearly wiped out by an attack involving electromagnetic pulse (EMP) bombs (see Dr. Pry says in one-year emp power knock-out: ‘we could lose up to 90% of our population to starvation, disease and societal collapse’) was in the news. While I do NOT believe that an EMP-attack per se could do that, an EMP attack could weaken the USA to make it more vulnerable to takeover. We even have a video on that: Electrical End of the USA?

The European Union and Mexico are trying to finalize a trade deal to send a message to the USA (see EU and Mexico making a trade deal, partially to send Donald Trump a message). The Bible shows that a European-Babylonian power will dominate international trade for a time (cf. Revelation 18).

You may not know it because of little Western media coverage of it, but various nations are looking at becoming more involved with the Russian-dominated Eurasian Economic Union (see Eurasian Economic Union has issues, but outside nations are expressing interest). While this EAEU organization is not prophesied to be the dominant economic force during the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21-22), a Russian-led/involved force is prophesied to be involved in the destruction of end-time Mystery Babylon (cf. Jeremiah 50:41-42; Daniel 11:44-45).

One of the nations making a deal with the EAEU is Iran. Iran and Israel have both been threatening each other (see Iran and Israel threaten each other: Iran also warns the USA). While Iran will likely one day be ‘neutralized’ (cf. Jeremiah 49:34-38) and Syria’s capital destroyed (Isaiah 17:1), the Bible shows that God will remove the protection of Judah and Jerusalem will suffer great damage from a power that looks like an Iranian-Syrian force (Isaiah 22:8-9).

Last Thursday, the State of California Assembly approved Ab 2943 Unlawful business practices: sexual orientation change efforts, which makes it illegal to provide much help people who do not wish to remain homosexuals. It is not yet a law in California, and some believe that this may ban the sale of some biblically-related books.

German Pushing of Crosses

The following was in the news this week:

25 April 2018

German state orders crosses mounted in government buildings

Bavaria’s state premier, Markus Söder, has ordered that crosses be hung up in all state buildings in the southern German state. He called the move an “avowal of Bavarian identity.”

Bavaria’s freshly-sworn-in state premier has stamped a Christian identity on the state’s public buildings as one of his first acts in office.

Markus Söder, of the Christian Social Union (CSU), conservative sister-party to Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), on Tuesday announced that a cross would be hung in every public building from June 1. …

Söder went on to claim that the directive was not a violation of constitutional rules about religious neutrality, because it was a symbol of “Bavarian identity,” rather than religion. Bavaria remains a majority Christian state, and one of the most Catholic regions in the country. In 2016, 50.5 percent of the population were categorized as Roman Catholic, and another 18.8 percent as Protestant. http://www.dw.com/en/german-state-orders-crosses-mounted-in-government-buildings/a-43519541

The German Premier is stating that a cross is both a religious and state object. And indeed, that is the case. We will see if the German courts, etc. will allow this. They might.

As many of you are aware, I have long suspected that a cross is likely to be a symbol to be used by the Beast and Antichrist. Putting crosses in state buildings could be setting that up.

Now notice something about the past from The Catholic Encyclopedia (bolding mine):

They honoured not the Cross, but only the book of the Gospel…They were Iconoclasts, rejecting all pictures… The whole ecclesiastical hierarchy is bad, as also all Sacraments and ritual. They had a special aversion to monks…Since Gibbon the Paulicians have often been described as a survival of early and pure Christianity, godly folk who clung to the Gospel, rejecting later superstitions, who were grossly calumniated by their opponents…

…the Cathari also renounced priestly vestments, altars, and crosses as idolatrous. They called the cross the mark of the beast, and declared it had no more virtue than a ribbon for binding the hair. (Fortescue, Adrian. Paulicians. The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 23 May 2010 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11583b.htm>)

So, groups that traced their history to original early Christianity (see also Continuing History of the Church of God) did not use crosses and further claimed that the cross was a mark of the beast.

Crosses are often involved with idolatry (and I am NOT referring to those on some countries national identification cards or first-aid supply kits). Crosses may well be a mark of the beast or related to the image of the beast (cf. Revelation 13:15-17).

As mentioned earlier this year, an ecumenical cross is being promoted for ‘unity’ by various Greco-Romans (watch Beware of the ‘Ecumenical Cross’).

Suggested Sabbath Service

Here is a suggested Sabbath service for this week:

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 ContinuingCOGchannel AND MANY SERMONETTE MESSAGES ON THE Bible News Prophecy channel. There are also some messages at the CCOGAfrica channel.

Concluding Comments

The Book of Habakkuk starts off with the following:

1 The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.

2 O Lord, how long shall I cry,
And You will not hear?
Even cry out to You, “Violence!”
And You will not save.
3 Why do You show me iniquity,
And cause me to see trouble?
For plundering and violence are before me;
There is strife, and contention arises.
4 Therefore the law is powerless,
And justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

5 “Look among the nations and watch —
Be utterly astounded!
For I will work a work in your days
Which you would not believe, though it were told you.  (Habakkuk 1:1-5)

Brethren, yes, we see evil all around us. We are not to be discouraged and give up.

And a work is being done in our time, though many do not believe it:

40 Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you:

41 ‘Behold, you despisers,
Marvel and perish!
For I work a work in your days,
A work which you will by no means believe,
Though one were to declare it to you.’ (Acts 13:40-41)

The literature we are putting together, including various updates to articles and the production of magazines, is part of our preparation for the ‘short work’ of Romans 9:28.

Believe and support God’s end time Philadelphian work. A work that is being done now.

Sincerely,

Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer