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Letter to the Brethren: March 19, 2026

Letter to the Brethren: March 19, 2026

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Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings to you all around the world from our office in the Five Cities region of California.

Feast of Tabernacles in North America

We may have an agreement for a Feast of Tabernacles site in the USA in 2026.

If it goes through, that site would be in Branson, Missouri. Perhaps even at the facility our family stayed at for the Feast of Tabernacles in 1998.

We had two potential festival site agreements in Lexington, Kentucky that did not work out, as well as one in Santa Fe, New Mexico that also did not work out. We pray that if it is God’s will, the site in Branson will work out.

In Canada, we are looking at a site in Ontario.

Church services for the Feast in 2026 are to begin the evening of September 25th and run (including the Last Great Day) until sunset October 3rd.

Remember to be saving festival tithe (often called second tithe) so that you will be able to properly obey God and keep the Feast of Tabernacles at one of our sites this year.

Information on the festival sites is expected to be updated in the following article: Feast of Tabernacles’ Sites for 2026.

Refugee Camp

Augustin Nduwintungane sent the following:

CCOG Dzaleka

Greetings from Dzaleka Refugee Camp.

This is just to report that Dzaleka cogregation is well and are continuing the work of this end phase.

Thank you so much for your prayers and God bless you all.

The Dzaleka Refugee Camp is a place where refugees from Burundi, Rwanda, and the Congo are allowed to live in Malawi. Augustin Nduwintungane is in contact with Moise Nshimiyimana of Rwanda who assists with church services.

Ordinations in Kenya

Evangelist Evans Ochieng sent the following:

Pastor Dr Bob,

Greetings from Kenya.

I’ve been having a lot of work as I was preparing for my trip to Malawi.

Sorry for delaying with the report of ordination.

The ordination was well conducted.  It was a very wonderful,  enjoyable and courageous experience ordination.  Everybody got their certificate except we forgot to print it out the certificate of obed.  But we promised him that he will get.

People were so many and were very happy with the ordination.  It was colorful and people were very happy with their deacons and elders.

The work is growing highly in Kenya.  It needs more laborers.

Evans.

1-Johnson Maore musa who has stayed in CCOG for 5 years

2- Samson Oditi masabe who also has been in the church for long.

     The elders … are :-

Zablon Ogembo manyage

Cosmas Nyaguto Nyakagwa

David keraro omogo …

Wyclef obote and Frederick ochieng.

Jesus said:

35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:35-38)

Please remember to pray for more laborers for the harvest.

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

The war with Iran continues to dominate the news. There are concerns not only about rising oil prices, but that the conflict could result in terrible drinking water shortages in the region as well as food shortages because of disruptions in fertilizer availability (see Might water shortages, instead of oil, about to become more important to Iran and others in the Middle East? What about fertilizer?). There will be many “unintended consequences” of this war against Iran (see also The Guardian on possible ‘unintended consequences’ of Donald Trump’s Iranian attack).

US President Donald Trump has offended European leaders related to this conflict as some Arabs praise the European Union (see Trump threatens NATO over Iran; Arabs praise the European Union).

Iran’s new Supreme Leader Motjaba Khamenei wants revenge against at least Israel for the killing of his father (see Iran’s Supreme Leader rejects calls for a ceasefire and wants revenge–does he plan to try to conquer Jerusalem?).

Israel has since killed more Iranian leaders, while Iran has retaliated with various missile strikes (see Israel reports assassination of Iran’s intelligence chief–Jeremiah 49? Iran launches missiles in revenge for assassination of its security chief).

We in the Continuing Church of God (CCOG) do not believe that Iran will be the final King of the South of Bible prophecy (cf. Daniel 11:40-43).  Because of that, I have long asserted that Iran may somehow get “neutralized” before this final king rises up. Since no later than April of 2007, I have warned that:

I believe that Iran will be somewhat neutralized at some point in time as I differ from PCG on Iran and the king of the South. (COG News: Emphasizing News of Interest to those Once in the Worldwide Church of God. April 7, 2007. https://cogwriter.com/1103news.htm)

And I have repeatedly written that since that Iran cannot be the final King of the South that it looked like it would be neutralized (see Thiel. B. Iran Slams Russia. COGwriter, May 26, 2010). Notice also:

Expect Iran to be involved in more terrorism. But also expect that Iran will be at least neutralized. … Iran is mainly east of Jerusalem … Iran might be a king of the East, but it is not the King of the South.(Thiel B. PCG: Will America and Iran Go to War? COGwriter, July 4, 2019)

Iran has been labeled as the leading sponsor of state terrorism as it has been involved in much through various proxies, etc. And now, the USA, Israel, and the Gulf States have all called for Iran’s neutralization (see Iran’s head of security killed and Gulf States call for US to permanently neutralize Iran).

Neutralization does not mean that Iran will be eliminated. But basically we in the CCOG believe that Iran will not be in a strong enough military position to become the King of the South of biblical prophecies such as Daniel 11:40-43. However, Iran may at least partially support such an Islamic leader to a degree.

While passages like Jeremiah 49:34-35 (and Ezekiel 32:24-25) are consistent with Iran being neutralized in our age, there is a duality in some prophetic passages and some of the other verses in Jeremiah chapter 49 look to be for the distant future.

In other international news, the Trump Administration has been showing interest in changing matters in Cuba. Getting most of Cuba’s oil cut off is affecting that island nation as well (see Trump Administration impacting Cuba, some European groups send aid). While the USA may get things changed in Cuba, ultimately, based on end time prophecies, it looks like Cuba, along with the bulk of the Latin American and Caribbean nations, will end up supporting the coming European Beast power consistent with prophecies such as Ezekiel 27:12-24 and Revelation 18:3,12-13.

Concluding Comments

Some Protestants think the current conflict in Iran is related to Ezekiel 37 and 38 (see Motjaba Khamenei, the Imam Mahdi, and Ezekiel 38), it is not. The fulfillment of those chapters in Ezekiel are over 1,000 years away. And for those who wonder why now is not the time, consider the following from Ezekiel 38:

8 After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely. 9 You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.”

10 ‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: 11 You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’ —  12 to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land. 13 Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’”‘

Israel has its walls and “iron dome” and military weaponry. Notice that it is against a ‘peaceful people’ in unarmed villages that the prince of Rosh is going against. This cannot happen until AFTER the return of Jesus. Furthermore, there simply is not a plan to take a lot of gold and silver out of Israel right now by the power of the far north, nor does the current nation of Israel have enough of it to likely justify an attack for that purpose (unless perhaps some hidden gold/silver mines or remaining treasure of David).

Notice the following:

Israel holds no gold reserves at all, according to a Bank of Israel spokesman. (Kopf S. Jerusalem of Gold. Jerusalem Post, February 16, 2011. http://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/Israel/Jerusalem-of-Gold viewed 07/21/14)

  • Israel Gold Reserves was reported at 0.000 USD mn in Feb 2019
  • This stayed constant from the previous number of 0.000 USD mn for Jan 2019

(https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/israel/gold-reserves viewed 07/02/24)

According to Index Mundi, the nation of Israel was not amongst the top 48 producers of silver in the world, so its supply of this would also seem to be limited–it also confirmed that Israel does not have gold reserves (though there is some gold and silver in coins, etc. in Israel). Israel in the early 21st century is NOT the target of Ezekiel 38.

This week’s recommended sermonette will help you better know the truth about this (watch Motjaba Khamenei, the Imam Mahdi, and Ezekiel 38).

Some Protestants have pointed to the current conflict as related to Jeremiah 49 (see Israel reports assassination of Iran’s intelligence chief–Jeremiah 49? Iran launches missiles in revenge for assassination of its security chief). Now we may be seeing the near term fulfillment of Jeremiah 49:34-35 which is consistent with Iran being somewhat neutralized. However, the portion about its “king and princes” being destroyed as discussed in Jeremiah 49:38, while consistent with some of what we have seen, looks not to have its final fulfillment until far in the future.

That said, we in the Continuing Church of God are not Protestant (see also the free eBook: Hope of Salvation: How the Continuing Church of God Differs from Protestantism).

Now, although we not see everything clearly (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:12), so sometimes need to make adjustments, because we rely more on scripture than Protestants actually do, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place” (2 Peter 1:19, KJV).

We will also continue to “Watch” events as Jesus commanded (Mark 13:37).

Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer